What's New At Matz & Rubin
Local Climber Scales The Tallest Peaks
By Sara Callender
Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: April 27, 2006
Steve Matz knows at least one phrase in several languages.
"Lentil, lentil means go slowly, slowly in Peru," said Matz, a West Bloomfield resident. "The only way to get up a mountain is slowly. It's always one step at a time."
It's All About One Step At A Time
By Tom Willard
Daily Tribune Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: November 8, 2005
Accomplished mountaineer shares stories, advice with students
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| DICK HUNT/DAILY TRIBUNE Steven Matz (left), who has climbed Mount Everest and a dozen other mountains around the world, talks with Oak Park High School juniors Exavier Bayles and Rudy Kirk. |
OAK PARK — Steve Matz says his compulsive desire to climb the world's tallest and most treacherous mountains is all his daughter's fault.
It was his daughter, after all, who came home selling magazine subscriptions in a grade-school fund-raiser several years ago. Considering it his paternal duty, Matz bought enough subscriptions to supply a hospital waiting room, including one for an outdoors magazine. In one of the first issues he received, Matz read an article about climbing Mount Rainier, near Seattle, and concluded that the idea of ascending a 14,000-foot stratovolcano sounded totally nuts — and extremely fun.
Deciding to give it a try, he succeeded in reaching the summit, a major feat for someone making his first high-altitude climb. But the experience was so physically grueling that Matz afterward vowed he would never do it again.
Published in The Michigan Trial Reporter, Lexis-Nexis, WestLaw and www.verdicts.com
Settlement: $1,000,000
Caption/Judge: Linda Tait vs Everett Ozbat and Sargent Trucking
Co, Hon. Patrick R. Joslyn
Settlement Date: 11/2003
Mediation Result: None
Plaintiff’s Attorney: Steven J. Matz, Farmington Hills
Defendant’s Attorney: Withheld
Facts: Despite evidence of plaintiff driver’s use of alcohol and a positive drug screening following an auto accident, a trucking company agreed to a $1Million settlement of the plaintiff’s personal injury claim.
Plaintiff Linda Tait was operating her vehicle. Defendant Everett Ozbat was operating a gravel truck on the same road and in the same direction as the plaintiff. The gravel truck was owned by Defendant Sargent Trucking. Plaintiff came to a stop prior to making a left turn and was rear-ended by defendants’ truck. Plaintiff was treated for serious orthopedic injuries in the emergency room, where her blood alcohol content was documented as .028. Also, a toxicology screening was positive to tetrahydocannabinol (THC), the active chemical in cannabis.
Plaintiff, a 52-year old waitress, alleged that defendant filed to stop in an assured clear distance. Plaintiff claimed that she had signaled a left turn and had not stopped short. Plaintiff claimed to have sustained serious impairments of a body function as a direct result of this accident.
Defendants disputed liability and cited plaintiff’s blood alcohol content and positive drug screening as contributing factors to the accident. Defendant driver maintained that plaintiff slammed on her brakes and did not activate her left turn signal, resulting in a sudden emergency. However, two independent witnesses contradicted defendant driver’s statement.
Plaintiff Personal Data: 52-year old single female who worked as a waitress.
Alleged injury: Left malleolus ankle fracture, right calcaneus fracture and retrobulbar hemorrhage of the right eye with permanent partial vision loss. Both fractures required open reductions with internal fixation. Plaintiff claimed that returning to work with her injuries would be very difficult.
Insurance carrier: Northland
Expert Witnesses:
Plaintiff Experts: Jeffrey D. Robinson, M.D., Lawrence Holen,
D.O.
Defendant experts, Bruce Abrams, M.D.
Published in Jury Verdict Research
Settlement: $600,000
Caption: Lotter v Thomspon, Tuscola County Circuit Court
Settlement Date: September 2003
Plaintiff’s Attorney: Steven J. Matz, Farmington Hills
Defendant’s Attorney: Withheld
Facts: A 28-year old male suffered a humerus fracture when the male defendant lost control of the pickup truck in which he was a passenger, owned by the co-defendant and operated by the male defendant, which caused it to flip over on a public roadway. The plaintiff contended that the defendant operated the pickup in a negligent manner, failed to keep a proper lookout, failed to maintain control of the vehicle, and failed to take evasive action to avoid the collision. The defendant denied liability. The defendant’s insurance carrier paid its policy limits of $500,000 and the remaining amount was paid by the plaintiff’s insurance carrier.
Plaintiff medical; Brian C. deBeaubien, M.D., Orthopedic surgeon; J. Tracy Watson, M.D., Orthopedic surgeon at Henry Ford Hospital;
Expert Witnesses:
Plaintiff Experts: Jeffrey D. Robinson, M.D., Lawrence Holen,
D.O.
Defendant experts, Bruce Abrams, M.D.
“Widow Sues in wrong-way death” By Stephanie
Esters
Published in Kalamazoo Gazette, Monday, March 31, 2003
A Western Michigan University fraternity and its national chapter have been sued by the wife of a man who was killed last year by a new initiate of that fraternity who drive the wrong way on Interstate 69 near Marshall.
Karen Hull, the wife of David Jacob Hull, filed the lawsuit in Oakland County Circuit Court late last month against Sigma Chi Fraternity in Evanston, IL, the Zeta Nu Chapter of Sigma Chi Fraternity in Kalamazoo, former WMU student and the new initiate Kevin Matthew Cook and Cook’s father, Ronald Wilson Cook.
Kevin Cook had left a party in Kalamazoo and was driving a 1995
Pontiac south in the northbound lane on I-69 near Marshall around
2:00 a.m. March 14, 2002, when he struck head-on a Ford Windstar
van driven by David Jacob Hull. Hull’s van was spun into
the path of a northbound tractor-semitrailer.
The 52-year old Bloomfield man was killed in the crash. A passenger in his van was injured.
In addition to his wife, Hull, who worked as an accountant, left behind 19- and 15-year old daughters and an 18-year old son, according to Karen Hull’s attorney, Steven J. Matz of Farmington Hills.
Michigan State Police investigators said Cook was drunk at the time of the accident.
A month ago, Cook, 20, was sentenced in Calhoun County Circuit Court to 26 months to 15 years in prison after he pleaded no contest to operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, causing death.
According to the complaint, Cook, who was 19 at the time, was allegedly seen at the Sigma Chi party around 5 p.m. drinking “one or more beers,” and around 10:30 p.m. he was reportedly seen with a 40-ounce beer.
Cook had been initiated into the fraternity in the fall of 2001.
In the complaint, Karen Hull and her attorney allege that the fraternity apparently was negligent in its serving of alcohol to minors and didn’t do enough to prevent an obviously intoxicated Cook from leaving the party - even though it had a policy instructing members to stop intoxicated people from operating motor vehicles.
The last the fraternity brothers stationed at the door could have done was to call the campus police or the state police and alert them to Cook, Matz said.
“He’d lose his license for six months, but he wouldn’t be spending 26 months in jail” and Hull might not have been killed, Matz said.
Mark Anderson, a spokesman for the national chapter and its executive secretary, said last week that he had not seen the lawsuit. Anderson said he was also under the impression that Cook had not been drinking at any fraternity events hosted that evening before the fatal accident.
“I am aware of the situation that occurred,” Anderson said, “and I am aware of the unfortunate incident that occurred that involved Kevin Cook...and involving a van that he hit head-on.”
Anderson said that “immediately” upon learning of
the accident, the WMU chapter assisted local and state police
and university investigators in investigating the incident.
“The guys at the house did try to stop Kevin from leaving
that evening from the party,” going so far as to try to
hem his car in with other vehicles, Anderson said.
“Kevin was able to extricate his car by driving over a pole. So all attempts to stop him from driving were thwarted. So I think the guys tried to stop him from driving.”
Neither Kevin Cook nor his father, named in the complaint because the Pontiac Sunfire was registered to him, could be reached for comment.
The local chapter of Sigma Chi, Zeta Nu Chapter on the WMU campus, is still on probation, according to university spokeswoman Cheryl Roland. That means, in part, that that chapter is prohibited from hosting social functions.
Roland said that she’s heard the national organization has lifted its probation of the chapter, WMU will not start reviewing the chapter’s probation and status until actual proof is in hand.
“It’s an important issue,” Matz said. “It affects every kid that joins a fraternity, and its affects every driver on the road in the state of Michigan. People have to be held accountable” for their actions.
Anderson said he was not sure how often the fraternity, with 20 undergraduate chapters and roughly 130 alumni associations, has been sued in the past.
Steven J. Matz recently returned from South America where he sea-kayaked the width of Chile from the border with Argentina to the Pacific Ocean, down the Rio Yelcho. He then trekked the Inca Trail (49 kilometers in 2 days), culminating in a climb to Machu Picchu.
In the last several years, Mr. Matz has also climbed:
- Mt. Ararat in eastern Turkey, 16,945 feet.
- Mt. Everest in Tibet, North Col, 23,360 feet.
- Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa, 19,340 feet
- Dent Du Géant in Chamonix, France, 13,166 feet
- Half-traverse of the Breithorn, including the Pollux in Zermatt, Switzerland, 13,662 feet
- The Matterhorn, Zermatt, Switzerland, 14,692 feet
- El Pico de Orizaba (Puebla Veracruz), Mexico, 18,406 feet
- Mount Blanc du Tacul, Chamonix, France, 13,937 feet
- La Malinche, Mexico, 14,636 feet
- Mt. Whitney, California, 14,495 feet
- Mt. Rainier, Washington, 14,410 feet
Recently, Mr. Matz presented a lecture for the Michigan Institute of Continuing Legal Education. The topic was Practical Ethics and Ethical Practices.
