Sierra Pacific Insurance Company sued Callahan & Blaine's client, UCA General Insurance Services, Inc. for breach of contract and fraud. This turned out to be a fatal mistake. UCA countersued for breach of contract and accounting. Daniel J. Callahan represented UCA in a 1998 trial, the Superior Court threw out all of Sierra Pacific's claims against UCA and a jury awarded UCA 2.4 million dollars in damages. Sierra Pacific appealed and in a split decision, the Court of Appeal affirmed UCA's victory throwing out Sierra Pacific's claims against Callahan & Blaine's client, but found out that the trial judge had committed certain errors that entitled Sierra Pacific to a new trial on the amount of damages it must pay UCA.
Callahan & Blaine represented UCA in the new trial before retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Thomas. The result was that Sierra Pacific wished that it had never sued Callahan & Blaine's client nor ever appealed its earlier loss. In the second trial, Callahan & Blaine increased the amount of UCA's original award from 2.4 million dollars to a new verdict in excess of 2.9 million dollars.
