Allen Matkins Team Secures a Complete $15 million Defense Verdict Following a Five-Week Jury Trial

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – October 14, 2022 – Allen Matkins, a full-service real estate and business law firm, announced today that partner Ryan Waggoner, associate Peter Griffin, and senior paralegal Ross Neglia secured a complete defense verdict on behalf of firm client Dansk Investment Group following a five-week jury trial in Santa Barbara. 

Plaintiff Windsor Capital Group (through its CEO and Chairman Patrick Nesbitt) sued Dansk and its related entities on the grounds that Windsor had entered into an oral joint venture agreement with Dansk to buy and redevelop a hotel located in Huntsville, Alabama, and that Dansk then proceeded to buy and redevelop the hotel without Windsor. Windsor sought $15 million in compensatory damages plus punitive damages. Ryan and Peter squared off against a seasoned and highly successful trial attorney, Barry Cappello, after whom UCLA Law School named its trial advocacy program. Following an intense month of trial and two full days of deliberations, the jury returned a complete defense verdict.

Ryan is an accomplished real estate litigator practicing out of the Los Angeles office of Allen Matkins, having been involved in virtually every type of real estate-related dispute, including partnership, financing and landlord-tenant disputes. He has been named a “Litigation Star” by Benchmark Litigation since 2020.

Peter, also a litigator in the firm’s Los Angeles office, focuses on business and real estate litigation such as providing counsel on disputes between partners, shareholders and corporate directors/officers, employers and employees, commercial landlords and tenants, and buyers and sellers of real estate.

Ross is a litigation senior paralegal, also in the firm's Los Angeles office. He has done extensive trial work in federal and state courts and has managed large litigations from inception through appeal.

Allen Matkins represents sophisticated clients in high-profile litigation matters throughout California, with a reputation for trying cases and winning, while delivering unmatched value to its clients. The firm works across a variety of litigation types and industries, with recent matters including estate disputes with billions of dollars in controversy, equity receiverships returning almost 100% of funds to victims of highly-publicized Ponzi schemes, product defect suits tried successfully in international arbitration, high-profile celebrity defamation cases, complex land use and environmental matters, construction defect matters related to California’s most significant office and residential towers, and all manner of real estate litigation.