David A. Haworth is of counsel in the Litigation Department and a member of the Commercial Litigation, Real Estate and Construction Litigation, Consumer Financial Services, Product Liability and Mass Tort, Eminent Domain, and Franchise and Distribution Groups. His practice covers commercial, franchise, real estate, environmental, and intellectual property litigation.
As a commercial litigator, Mr. Haworth has extensive experience with disputes involving contractual breaches, unfair competition, and general commercial issues; construction defects, liens, and sureties; builder performance; redevelopment; business dissolution and shareholder oppression; commercial and residential lending; negligence; employment discrimination; whisteblower and retaliatory discharge; and consumer fraud litigation.
In the franchise litigation area, Mr. Haworth's experience includes franchise fee nonpayment, performance, termination, and sales practice disputes.
His extensive environmental litigation experience includes prosecuting and defending remediation claims under CERCLA, the New Jersey Spill Act, and other statutes and common law. He has prosecuted New Jersey damage fund claims.
Mr. Haworth's intellectual property experience involves trademark litigation, prosecution of trademark applications, and software license infringement litigation.
Representative Matters
- Successfully tried a two-week franchise dispute between a national franchisor and an area franchisee involving fee nonpayment, breach of contract, and shareholder oppression issues
- Obtained summary judgment on behalf of a regional retailer enforcing a real estate acquisition agreement against a third party that claimed to have an option agreement to acquire the same properties
- Represented a group of national corporations implementing a landfill remediation in a success remediation cost recovery lawsuit against a national waste hauler
- Litigates residential, commercial, and industrial construction disputes on behalf of national and regional builders, manufacturers, and insurers on issues involving contractor payment, cost overrun, construction lien, and bond disputes; performance breaches and warranty claims; and condominium, residential, and industrial construction and design defects, among other issues
Pro Bono Experience
Mr. Haworth successfully prosecuted a lawsuit to modify the terms of a trust on behalf of the nonprofit Batsto Citizens Committee, Inc., which works closely with the New Jersey Park Service to promote the restoration of Batsto Village in New Jersey's Wharton State Forest. The court determined that the project for which the trust was originally created had become infeasible and agreed to modify the trust.
Through the Community Health Law Project, Mr. Haworth represented handicapped individuals in accessibility and construction disputes.