Three lawsuits filed in Pinellas County over the past couple of weeks show you can sue for just about anything. One of them is a battle over boob jobs.
Plastic surgeon Dr. Erel Laufer filed a suit against his former partner, Dr. Jay Ross, and another colleague, Dr. Jennifer Buck, because he says they owe him a buyout and are stealing his patients.
Laufer and Ross created a plastic surgery partnership, Laufer and Ross, in 1992. They later began doing business as the Palm Harbor Plastic Surgery Center. Buck came on board in 2002.
Laufer left the practice in 2012 after discovering that, according to the complaint filed, Ross and Buck had been bribing the office manager for “special preference in scheduling patients for surgeries.”
Upon his exit from the practice, Laufer alleges the group reached a settlement in which patients would be split and Ross and Buck would buy out Laufer’s stake in the practice. They also allegedly agreed not to speak negatively about each other.
Now Lauffer says those terms haven’t been met. He argues they have stolen his patients, talked negatively about his professional reputation and haven’t bought out his shares in the original practice.
Laufer now runs the Laufer Institute of Plastic Surgery. In 2014 he was sued for permanently disfiguring a women during a breast augmentation by “negligently” cutting off “blood flow to her breast tissue during the surgery.”
Another of Laufer’s patients died in 2010 just a little over a day after her surgery. That patient was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism. Blood clots are a common complication of surgery. According to a Tampa Bay Times article about the incident, there was no record of disciplinary action against the board-certified doctor.
The other two lawsuits center on property disputes. In one, a trust is seeking to have the former owner of its property removed.
A 64-year-old widower named Jerral Slocumb executed a deed in lieu of foreclosure with R.W. “Mac” Grady of the trust in the same name. However, after signing over the deed, Slocumb allegedly entered the home and now won’t leave.
The suit doesn’t say whether or not Slocumb is paying rent or how much money he owed on the house.
Another condo owner is suing a neighbor for allegedly harassing people who are considering renting units in the complex.
Both units are located in the Laurel Oaks condo community in Palm Harbor. The owner filing the suit said a neighbor, John Joseph Walsh, has repeatedly trespassed onto the vacant property while it was being shown and “harassed” the potential tenants.
The suit does not specify how he harassed them or what was said. The owners seek damages for “tortious interference” and trespassing as well as an injunction preventing Walsh from continuing the alleged behaviors.
