[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_4″ last=”no” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” border_position=”all” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ class=”” id=””][fusion_imageframe lightbox=”no” lightbox_image=”” style_type=”none” hover_type=”none” bordercolor=”” bordersize=”0px” borderradius=”0″ stylecolor=”” align=”none” link=”” linktarget=”_self” animation_type=”0″ animation_direction=”down” animation_speed=”0.1″ hide_on_mobile=”no” class=”” id=””] 
[/fusion_imageframe][/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=”3_4″ last=”yes” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” border_position=”all” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ class=”” id=””][fusion_text]By Mark Curriden
(Oct. 19) – Eduardo Rodriguez weighed less than four pounds when he was born. When his older sisters spotted him in the hospital nursery for the first time, they called him Pee Wee and the name stuck.
“No one ever called me anything other than Pee Wee,” he says. “When I was nine, my dad was filling out some official papers and he had to list his children. For me, he wrote down ‘Pee Wee.’ They told my dad that they needed my real name and my dad had to call my mom to remind him what it was.
“I was Pee Wee until I got my first job and the lawyer said he wanted me to use my real name,” says Rodriguez, who is a native of Edinburg and is now a partner at Atlas, Hall & Rodriguez in Brownsville.
While family and friends still call him Pee Wee, corporate executives at Ford Motor Co., Union Pacific, 3M and General Motors have Eduardo Rodriguez on speed dial when they are sued in South Texas.
Deep pocket defendants realize that juries in the Valley are known for their eight, nine and 10-digit verdicts against big businesses. Their only shot at a level playing field is getting Rodriguez to join the defense team.
“This region can be a tough place for a large corporation to defend itself against allegations of defective products and cover up,” he says. “But if you have the facts on your side, you just have to know how to explain it to people here. Juries here seek the truth and want justice. You just need to show them what justice is.”
At age 17, Rodriguez left home for the first time in 1961 for Washington, D.C., where he attended college at George Washington University. He worked part-time for four years in the Capital Building operating the elevator right outside the U.S. House chambers.
“It was an incredible time to be there,” he says. “The Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of President Kennedy, the passage of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act – it all happened while I was there. I was paid $350 a month.”
After college, he attended the University of Texas School of Law, where he graduated in 1968.
Rodriguez’s first trial as the lead lawyer came in 1969, when he represented a worker on a shrimp boat who had been injured on the job. The trial lasted three days and the jury was out for more than four hours.
“I still remember waiting for that jury to come back with a verdict,” he says. “I was so nervous. The thing is, that nervousness returns during every trial, even now.”
The jury awarded Rodriguez’s client $25,000.
In the 45 years that followed, Rodriguez has been involved in some of the biggest products liability lawsuits and class actions. He defended Jeep in the roll over cases. He represented the railroad companies in wrongful death allegations. Ford called Rodriguez to defend the automaker in the Mustang explosion cases and again in the Firestone tires blowout class action cases.
Rodriguez’s favorite courtroom victory involved a tragic car crash in 1992 that took the life of Enrique Tamaz, who was hit by a drunk driver while going through an intersection. His widow sued Ford for $1 million, claiming the door of the car he was driving was defective and caused his death when the car rolled over.
“Ford actually gave us the money to settle the case while the jury was deliberating but we made the decision to go for it and not make the offer to the plaintiff,” he says. “We were very nervous waiting for the jury to come back with a decision.”
After only 45 minutes of deliberating, the jury ruled for Ford on every count.
A few years later, Rodriguez represented a trucking company that was being sued in a wrongful death case in Zepata County. A car slid under the oil tanker and the plaintiff’s lawyer argued the truck was unsafe because it didn’t have safety rails on the side.
“The plaintiff’s lawyer grew up there and he personally knew 40 of the 44 prospective jurors,” he says. “One was his 8th grade teacher. I noticed he never asked the 45th juror if she knew him. Come to find out, she was his sister.”
Despite the hometown advantage for the plaintiff, Rodriguez put up a strong defense and convinced the plaintiff’s lawyer to settle the case for a reasonable amount.
Every once in a while, Rodriguez will tackle a criminal case. In 1998, he agreed to defend Susan Mowbray against charges she murdered her husband in order to get his $1.8 million life insurance payout. Mowbray had been convicted a decade earlier and served nine years in prison, but the conviction had been reversed because the prosecutors had withheld evidence from the defense lawyers.
Rodriguez argued that Mowbray’s husband committed suicide because he faced severe financial troubles at his Cadillac dealership and the Internal Revenue Service was investigating him.
But the key testimony for the defense came from Mowbray’s banker who told jurors that Mowbray pleaded for a loan just days before his death and said he would kill himself if he didn’t get.
The jury found the defendant not guilty.
But Rodriguez says the highlight of his career has been the opportunity to practice law with his sons, Michael and Patrick, who are also lawyers at Atlas Hall.
“There is no bigger thrill than to work on a case with them and see them in action in court,” he says. “I am truly blessed.”[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]