Twenty years after the case was first filed, and after sixty one days of trial, the Massachusetts Appeals Court, in the case of Berish v. Bornstein, upheld the plaintiff’s verdict awarding more than $2 million in damages after interest.  In addition, the Appeals Court awarded additional damages not awarded by the trial court, making the new award plus interest exceed $2.3 Million. 

Engel & Schultz took over the case from predecessor counsel after the first trial of the case, in which predecessor counsel had only recovered $420,000.  The $2.3 Million awarded to the homeowners was in addition to the $420,000 they had previously recovered, making the total recovery in the case exceed $2.7 million.  Engel & Schultz successfully argued to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court that there is an implied warranty of habitability which attaches to the new construction of condominiums, and got the case remanded for a new trial.  The trial court found defects in the construction of the windows, the chimney enclosures, the firewalls and the firestops.  

Lead counsel in the case was Engel & Schultz partner Stephen Schultz, who handled the appeals of teh case and who tried the retrial of the case with partner Mark Engel.