PITTSBURGH- Vicki Kuftic Horne, principal attorney of the Law Office of Vicki Kuftic Horne, assumes the role of President of the Academy of Trial Lawyers of Allegheny County effective January 1, 2017. Ms. Horne was elected to this role by the membership of The Academy of Trial Lawyers’ at its annual meeting this past fall. Membership to the Academy of Trial Lawyers is by invitation only and consists of invited members of the Allegheny County civil jury trial bar equally balanced between attorneys representing all sides of litigation, individuals and business. Attorney Horne has been a practicing plaintiff’s civil trial attorney for more than 30 years. Her boutique law firm focuses on representation of executives and professionals in employment relationships, individual customers who have experienced investment losses and the resolution of small business disputes.
Author: lawoffice94
Pitt Law Victorious at ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law Regional Trial Advocacy Competition
The University of Pittsburgh School of Law was victorious at the ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law Regional Trial Advocacy Competition in Philadelphia, November 19-20, 2016.
Pitt Law fielded two teams at the competition. Team 1 comprised of John Scialaba, Hannah Baldwin, Bryant Andrews-Nino and Jenna Decker, and Team 2 comprised of Victor Kustra, Corey Bauer, Steven Wildberger and John Marty.
Nine teams representing six different law schools competed. In addition to the University of Pittsburgh, teams were fielded by the University of Pennsylvania, Villanova, Rutgers, Temple and SMU. After the first round, Pitt Law’s Team 1 produced the highest team score of the morning. Following the Saturday afternoon competition, both Pitt teams advanced to the Semifinals. Team 2 advanced to the finals and won the competition.
Four advocates from Team 2 will compete in the ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law National Final in New Orleans, Louisiana, January 28-29, 2017.
Team 1 (L to R): Victor Kustra, Steven Wildberger, Vicki Kuftic Horne (coach), John Marty, Corey Bauer
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNII9l9AGiO/embed/?cr=1&v=7Both Teams (L to R): Steven Wildberger, Hannah Baldwin, Jenna Decker, John Marty, John Scialaba, Vicki Kuftic Horne (coach), Corey Bauer, Bryant Andrews-Nino, Victor Kustra
Woman sues Uniontown trucking company
By Herald Standard
Published by the Herald Standard on August 8, 2012
A West Virginia woman sued a Uniontown trucking company Wednesday, alleging that when she reported sexual harassment on the job, she was fired.
The woman alleged that after she complained to her supervisor that a male subordinate at Acme Truck Line, Inc. was harassing her, she was demoted, and ultimately fired.
The trucking company was the lone defendant named in the suit, filed in federal court in Pittsburgh.
In July 2011, the woman who has 36 years in the trucking industry, was hired to work as the company’s business development manager, according to the suit filed by attorney Vicki Kuftic Horne.
Acme hired her from their biggest competitor to help the company grow through the Marcellus shale development in the area. The suit indicated that the woman immediately helped the company grow when she brought business with her because of her experience in the trucking industry.
During the three-month course of her employment, she supervised a man who was not named as a defendant in the suit. The filing alleged that man “used his size and violent personality to intimidate those in the workplace, specifically targeting women.”
The filing alleged the man downloaded a photograph of her and used it as a screensaver on his computer, and refused to remove it when she asked, and also sent her text messages about her appearance, commented on her clothing in person and winked at her.
She alleged the man was living at the office, had a habit of drinking at work and was verbally abusive to staff there.
Judge: UPMC must pay settlement to former secretary
By Daniel Malloy
Pittsburgh Post -Gazette December 6, 2008
An Allegheny County judge set a deadline of today for UPMC to pay a settlement to a former secretary who sued Magee-Womens Hospital for wrongful termination and a violation of the state’s Whistleblower Law.
Plaintiff, and the defendants reached a settlement for an undisclosed amount last month as the trial was beginning. The suit named Magee and the UPMC Health System. But the two sides have been squabbling since then about provisions in the settlement, including UPMC’s demand that the Plaintiff make a statement that she knows of no other legal violations at UPMC besides what she detailed in the lawsuit.
Common Pleas Judge Eugene B. Strassburger wrote in a brief this week that such a statement is “unreasonable because it would cause the plaintiff to lie.”
Judge Strassburger also ordered UPMC to pay the settlement by today, with interest from Nov. 19. Filed in 2005, the lawsuit alleged that hospital officials altered or destroyed patient records in a way the Plaintiff thought was potentially harmful to patient safety.
She alerted her superiors, but instead of fixing the problems, the Plaintiff said, the hospital officials attacked her for blowing the whistle. Eventually she was fired in November 2004 after six years at the hospital.
UPMC said it had fired her for improperly accessing patient records, which she disputed.
“I think that she was vindicated, both through these proceedings and through the results of this settlement,” said attorney, Vicki Kuftic Horne.
In an e-mail, UPMC spokesman Frank Raczkiewicz wrote: “We reached an amicable resolution. We are prepared to fulfill our obligations under the terms to which all of the parties originally agreed.”
As Judge Strassburger ordered, that means the Plaintiff does not have to say she knows of no other crimes – freeing her to testify in other pending civil cases that allege similar misconduct by UPMC.
Janney Montgomery Scott, ex-adviser to pay investors
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Staff Writer
Janney Montgomery Scott and Patricia S. Miller, a former investment adviser for the firm, have been ordered to pay $217,284 in damages to investors by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA. The industry watchdog also ordered them to pay $92,623 in fees to O’Hara attorney Vicki Kuftic Horne, who represented the investors, as well as $10,282 in expert witness fees. The investors accused Ms. Miller of using money invested for their childrens’ education for her own personal use. Ms. Miller was sentenced to six years in prison last year after pleading guilty to wire fraud.
Donna & Goliath
Published in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review December 4, 2008.
Like most big bullies, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center doesn’t know when it’s time to quit. Last month lawyers representing UPMC and former Magee-Womens Hospital secretary Donna Kovacs appeared to have reached a verbal settlement that resolved Ms. Kovacs’ 2004 lawsuit against Magee and parent UPMC. She claimed she was fired for exposing record-keeping problems that compromised patient safety. But on Monday, UPMC was before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Gene Strassburger pushing for provisions to be tacked on to the settlement that, if allowed, would forever punish Kovacs for he whistleblowing.
What UPMC asked for – and which Kovacs’ lawyer (Vicki Kuftic-Horne) strenuously objected to – falls somewhere between disgraceful and outrageous.
The provisions would block or limit Kovacs from testifying in two other pending whistleblower suits against UPMC. They would prevent her from ever suing UPMC again even if she slipped and fell on its property.
And they would not only bar Kovacs from seeking employment at any UPMC facility, they would allow her to be fired if her future employer were taken over by UPMC. Perhaps UPMC would like Kovacs fitted for an electronic ankle bracelet to monitor her whereabouts? Or how about carving a scarlet “W” in her forehead?
We trust Judge Strassburger will have no trouble spotting the bad guy in this fight between Donna and Goliath.
Cause of Magee firing argued
By Walter F. Roche, Jr.
Published by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on November 6, 2008.
Lawyers for Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC and a former secretary painted sharply contrasting portraits of the woman Wednesday, telling an Allegheny County jury she was either a guardian of medical records and safety or someone who deserved to be fired for improperly accessing private medical records.
Donna Kovacs was just doing her job as a secretary when she copied and forwarded medical records to a Magee physician some five years ago, said her attorney, Vicki Kuftic Horne.
She told the jury Kovacs was wrongly fired and defamed when hospital officials sought to blame her for providing the information to the doctor, who also has a pending lawsuit against the Oakland hospital.
The Kovacs case is being heard before Common Pleas Judge Timothy P. O’Reilly and is expected to continue for two weeks.
Stating that the case was about “obligations and courage,” Horne said Kovacs was really fired for her role in bringing allegations of wrongdoing and bad record-keeping at Magee to the attention of state health officials.
Paul Vey, Magee’s lawyer, said Kovacs was first suspended and then fired after two patients independently came forward and accused the secretary of violating their privacy.
In one case, Vey said, a patient had expressly requested that a surgical procedure she had recently undergone be kept confidential. He said a second complaint followed within weeks accusing Kovacs of leaking confidential medical records.
Horne said Kovacs’ job was to process medical records and transmit them to physicians. In a statement later contested by Vey, Horne said the first patient authorized the release of her records to Kenneth McCarty, one of two physicians who have sued Magee on wrongful termination charges.
She said McCarty, who is expected to be called as a witness for Kovacs, had drawn the ire of Magee administrators by raising questions about record-keeping and patient safety. Horne said McCarty and a colleague discovered that pathologists’ electronic signatures had been routinely affixed to records they had never seen.
She said Magee officials suspected Kovacs was supplying information to McCarty and wanted to make her a scapegoat. They fired her as a warning to other employees who might be cooperating with the pathologist’s inquiries, Horne said.
Vey said it was two patient complaints followed by an internal inquiry that led to Kovacs’ dismissal in late 2004.
He said a review of computer files showed that Kovacs had accessed thousands of patient files, in much higher numbers than other members of the secretarial staff. And, he said, despite repeated opportunities, she was unable to provide an explanation.
Vey said the allegations of poor record-keeping and patient safety concerns only surfaced after Kovacs was suspended and fired.
“Magee was way ahead of the curve in protecting the privacy of its patients,” Vey said, adding that he former secretary was not the only worker fired for privacy violations.
Scam victims sue Rose’s family
By Susan K. Schmeichel
Published by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on December 28, 2001.
Several victims of an investment scam that cost them their life savings have filed a civil suit against three children of the man who pleaded guilty to the crime and also against the brokerage house that employed them.
Vicki Kuftic Horne, attorney for 30 of the 51 victims of Robert Rose, said the civil suit against Richard R. Rose, Rodger T. Rose, Kevin Rose and Advantage Capital Corp., was filed Wednesday in Allegheny County Court.
Richard and Rodger Rose are the sons of Robert Rose. Kevin Rose is Richard’s son.
Horne said Thursday that she intends to have the case against Kevin Rose dismissed for lack of evidence but said she intends to include Barbara Rose, a daughter of Robert Rose, as a defendant.
The civil suit alleges that the members of the Rose family – who worked with their father at Rose Associates, his financial investment firm – knew about the scam. The suit also says Advantage Capital is responsible for the actions of the three younger Roses, all of whom were licensed brokers with that firm.
“It’s a scenario where people are handling your money – whether it’s a broker or brokerage firm – they simply have a greater responsibility,” Horne said. “And the mechanisms exist to make sure they abide by their responsibility. [The Roses and Advantage Capital] clearly ignored and seemed to purposely ignore those responsibilities.”
Horne said she will seek damages in the amount the victims invested, plus interest that would have been accrued on those investments – about $8 million – as well as punitive damages for her clients. The exact amount will be determined at the time of trial, she said.
John Eddy, an attorney who represents Richard, Rodger and Barbara Rose, said the lawsuit is baseless.
“There is no merit to this at all, and we thoroughly intend to defend it,” he said.
Eddy said he had known the lawsuit would be filed but saw the document for the first time yesterday afternoon.
Attorneys for Advantage Capital were not available for comment.
In December 2000, Robert Rose pleaded guilty to 235 criminal counts in connection with the scam, which was run out of his Bethel Park woodworking business. On April 17, Common Pleas Judge Lawrence O’Toole sentence Rose to 15 to 30 years in prison on charges related to the investment scam which authorities said spanned 27 years and deprived more than 50 investors of $5 million and the security they wanted for their retirements.
Rose, 67, who had Parkinson’s disease and prostate cancer, died in the State Correctional Institute at Pittsburgh after having served slightly more than a month of his sentence.
Rose’s scam began in 1974 when he represented himself to prospective investors as an attorney, financial adviser and friend, said investigators. Many victims were 70 to 90 years old, and the others were family members or close friends of investors. Individual losses – including savings from pensions, inheritances and life insurance policies – ranged from $11,000 to $807,000, authorities said.
Rose issued uninsured certificates to the investors through Rose Associates Financial Service. He also owned another business, Rose Associates Woodworking.
Rose declared bankruptcy in September 1999 after the criminal charges were filed against him. He claimed assets of $318,491 and liabilities of $5.67 million. The case was settled late last year after Rose’s seven children agreed to pay $1,000 each to the creditors. Other assets, including more than $20,000 from the sale of his house will go toward legal fees and other expenses.
William McQuillan Sr., one of the defendants in the civil suit, said he is optimistic that he and the other victims may finally be able to recover some of their investments.
“It’s going to be pretty hard for them to wiggle out of this,” said McQuillan, who said he invested more than $118,000 with Rose and like the other investors, received worthless Rose Certificates.
Lawsuit claims gender discrimination at SCI-Pittsburgh
By Rich Lord
Published by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on November 28, 2011.
Two former employees of the State Correctional Institution Pittsburgh filed a lawsuit today in federal court accusing the prison’s former leadership of discriminating against women.
Kathleen Troy, 61, of Freedom and Nancy Orr, 55, of Richland, said in their complaint in U.S. District court that former Deputy Superintendent Martin Kovacs undermined their authority and that of other female supervisors at the North Side prison by making false accusations against them and failing to give them needed information. They said former Superintendent Melvin Lockett berated Ms. Orr in front of peers and mocked her hearing problems.
The lawsuit by attorney Vicki Kuftic Horne said they were driven from their jobs and demanded that they be compensated for lost wages, pain and suffering.
Mr. Kovacs and Mr. Lockett are among four top prison administrators who were dismissed in May. Since then, seven SCI-Pittsburgh guards have been indicted on [accusations] that they abused inmates or helped others to abuse inmates.
Judge: UPMC must pay settlement to former secretary
By Daniel Malloy
Published by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on December 6, 2008.
An Allegheny County judge set a deadline of today for UPMC to pay a settlement to a former secretary who sued Magee-Womens Hospital for wrongful termination and a violation of the state’s Whistleblower Law.
Donna Kovacs, of Munhall, and the defendants reached a settlement for an undisclosed amount last month as the trial was beginning. The suit named Magee and the UPMC Health System. But the two sides have been squabbling since then about provisions in the settlement, including UPMC’s demand that Ms. Kovacs make a statement that she knows of no other legal violations at UPMC besides what she detailed in the lawsuit.
Common Pleas Judge Eugene B. Strassburger wrote in a brief this week that such a statement is “unreasonable because it would cause the plaintiff to lie.”
Judge Strassburger also ordered UPMC to pay the settlement by today, with interest from Nov. 19. Filed in 2005, the lawsuit alleged that hospital officials altered or destroyed patient records in a way Ms. Kovacs thought was potentially harmful to patient safety.
She alerted her superiors, but instead of fixing the problems, Ms. Kovacs said, the hospital officials attacked her for blowing the whistle. Eventually she was fired in November 2004 after six years at the hospital.
UPMC said it had fired her for improperly accessing patient records, which she disputed.
“I think that she was vindicated, both through these proceedings and through the results of this settlement,” said Ms. Kovas’ attorney, Vicki Kuftic Horne.
In an e-mail, UPMC spokesman Frank Raczkiewicz wrote: “We reached an amicable resolution. We are prepared to fulfill our obligations under the terms to which all of the parties originally agreed.”
As Judge Strassburger ordered, that means Ms. Kovacs does not have to say she knows of no other crimes – freeing her to testify in other pending civil cases that allege similar misconduct by UPMC.
HORNE DALLER 