Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., the second-biggest U.S. cigarette maker, was told by a Florida jury to pay $30 million to a woman whose husband died of lung cancer after years of smoking, according to a lawyer.

A six-person jury today in state court in Pensacola, Florida, ordered R.J. Reynolds to pay Hilda Martin $25 million in punitive damages to punish the cigarette maker for the death of her husband, Benny Martin, according to the company’s lawyer, Mark Belasic. The jury awarded Martin $5 million in compensation. Belasic said he would appeal.

Continue reading " R.J. Reynolds Must Pay Widow $30 M " »

Harrison County MS, has settled a civil rights lawsuit with a man whose kidneys failed in 2006 after he was left tightly strapped in a restraint chair for about eight hours at the Harrison County jail.

Kasey D. Alves testified against former Sheriff’s Sgt. Ryan Teel in August 2007, when Teel was convicted in a “color of law” case for the fatal beating of inmate Jessie Lee Williams Jr. and a conspiracy to abuse inmates and cover it up.

Alves’ testimony in the criminal case helped corroborate a pattern of abuse at the jail. Terms of the settlement in his suit are confidential.

Continue reading " Witness Settles Lawsuit Over Jail Injuries " »

Some eye doctors are still hoping that some of the lawsuits over a lens cleaner made by Bausch & Lomb will end up in court, so that the events that led to hundreds of fungal infection lawsuits will be aired publicly.

That has not happened. Over the past year, the company has quietly settled nearly 600 lawsuits, with dozens of individual claims still to be resolved. The cost so far is about $250 million.

Continue reading " Bausch & Lomb Settles 600 Fungus Law Suits " »

We reported on Byetta (exenatide) in August 2008, when the FDA issued a MedWatch email alert about six new cases of hemorrhagic pancreatitis and necrotizing pancreatitis that had been reported to FDA since an October 2007 "Dear Doctor" letter about Byetta and acute pancreatitis was sent to doctors in the U.S.

The March 2009 Drug Safety Update newsletter -- from drug regulators in the United Kingdom (UK) -- included this article, "Exenatide (Byetta): risk of severe pancreatitis and renal failure". We get some new information about two types of serious side effects associated with Byetta, pancreatitis and renal, or kidney, impairment.

Continue reading " March 2009 Drug Safety Update Newsletter Raises Emerging Safety Issue Of Kidney-Related Side Effects From Byetta Use " »

An Oakland musician who was made a quadriplegic in a rollover crash four years ago won an $18.3 million verdict against Ford Motor Co. in federal court.

Dax Pierson, 38, suffered severe spinal injuries when a Ford passenger van that the band was traveling in ran off an icy highway in Iowa and rolled over in a ditch on Feb. 24, 2005.

Pierson sued Ford for creating a defective seat-latching mechanism that caused his seat to come loose, resulting in his head hitting the roof of the rolled-over van.

The $18.3 million jury award came after three weeks of trial in the court of U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton. It includes $12.3 million for past and future medical expenses and lost earnings plus $6 million for pain and suffering.

Continue reading " Quadriplegic Musician Wins $18 M Verdict Against Ford Motor Co. " »

Iowa authorities have reached a legal settlement with Shayne Eggen, a mentally ill woman who used her finger to blind herself while she was in prison.

The state paid $141,533 last month to Eggen. The money settles allegations that instead of giving Eggen proper treatment, prison authorities repeatedly locked her in solitary confinement for behaviors caused by schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Advocates for the mentally ill say Eggen's case illustrates how the United States misuses prisons to warehouse people who need psychiatric care. Her family says that when she blinded herself in 2002, she was confined alone at the state women's prison in Mitchellville.

Continue reading " Iowa State Pays Woman Who Blinded Herself in Prison " »

Nearly three of 10 teenage Florida foster children have been prescribed a mental-health drug, and 73 foster kids younger than 6 are taking mind-altering drugs, according to a recent study released in response to the death of a Broward foster child who was taking such medications.

In all, 2,669 children -- or 13 percent of Florida foster children -- are being given powerful psychiatric drugs, said the study, commissioned last month by Department of Children & Families Secretary George Sheldon. The largest group, almost 60 percent, are teens ages 13 to 17.

The 2,669 children represent about one-third more kids than a DCF database had reported as taking mental-health drugs -- meaning electronic state records had significantly underestimated the use of mind-altering drugs.

Child-welfare administrators are investigating the use of mental-health drugs by children in state care in the wake of the April 16 death of Gabriel Myers, a troubled 7-year-old boy who hanged himself in the shower of his Margate foster home.

Continue reading " More Florida Foster Kids Are Given Mental-Health Drugs " »

A Chinese woman who fell out of a moving Disneyland tram and suffered injuries that left her needing 24-hour medical supervision for the rest of her life has reached a settlement in a lawsuit she filed against the Walt Disney Co.

Lawyers for Qi Zhao and Disney reached the agreement, bringing a two-week trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court to an abrupt end.

Details of the accord were not released.

Zhao, 48, filed her suit in 2007, alleging the tram driver was going too fast. She was riding the tram with two sisters and a niece. According to the complaint, one of the sisters fell from the King tram as it moved toward a parking lot.

Reacting to the fall, the other two sisters also fell out. One suffered minor injuries and Zhao hit her head on the pavement, suffering severe traumatic brain injuries and skull fractures and was in a coma for three weeks.

Continue reading " Disney and Tram-Injured Woman Reach Settlement " »

New York City has agreed to pay $2 million to the family of a woman who died last year on the floor of the psychiatric emergency room at Kings County Hospital Center after waiting more than 24 hours to be treated.

A video showed the woman on the floor for more than an hour while workers at the city-run hospital did nothing to help her.

The city’s Health and Hospitals Corporation accepted full responsibility for the death of the woman, Esmin Elizabeth Green, 49, and said it had taken steps to relieve crowding and increase the size of the staff to provide mental health services at the hospital.

Continue reading " New York City to Pay $2 M in Death After Hospital Wait " »

Two class action lawsuits have been filed in the wake of the recall of Hydroxycut, a popular weight-loss supplement that has been linked to liver damage and other life-threatening side effects.

The suits, filed in Canada and Tennessee, accuse Iovate Health Sciences, which manufactures Hydroxycut, of failing to warn of the drug's dangers or take proper precautions to protect its users.

Continue reading " Dangerous Drugs: Hydroxycut Class Actions Filed " »

A Los Angeles judge has ordered automaker Jaguar Land Rover to pay $21.1 million to a Simi Valley man who was paralyzed in 2003 when his Land Rover Discovery sport utility vehicle rolled over several times after a collision on the 118 Freeway.

L.A. County Superior Court Judge Robert H. O'Brien cited two key reasons for his decision: The vehicle's high center of gravity made it susceptible to rolling over, and its roof collapsed too easily, causing Sukhsagar Pannu to suffer a debilitating spinal cord injury.

Continue reading " Land Rover Maker Ordered to Pay $21.1 M in Rollover Case " »

An Arizona woman has filed suit against GoDaddy.com Inc., alleging the Scottsdale company failed to stop a co-worker from sexually harassing her and that it fired her when she complained.

Rachel R. Pearson filed the suit in U.S. District Court for Arizona. She seeks an unspecified amount for back pay, compensation for emotional pain and other losses, and punitive damages.

Go Daddy general counsel Christine Jones denied that Pearson was subjected to sexual harassment or retaliation and said the company intends to vigorously defend itself.

"Go Daddy takes all complaints of employee misconduct seriously. We thoroughly investigated Ms. Pearson's allegations and could not substantiate them," Jones said.

Continue reading " Woman Sues Go Daddy, Claims Harassment And Wrongful Termination " »

A Texas tubing company agreed to pay $175,000 to a former employee it fired less than a month after he complained of racially offensive comments.

The recent agreement settles a lawsuit that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed against Maverick Tube Corp. in 2007 for retaliation, according to the consent decree.

Maverick Tube, which is a supplier of tubes to the energy industry, denies the allegations but entered into the settlement to avoid protracted litigation, according to the agreement.

Karen Gillen Allen, said the allegations were made by a former employee who was dismissed.

Continue reading " Conroe Texas Company Pays $175,000 to Former Employee " »

The late Harris County Constable Glen Cheek regularly referred to women in derogatory and obscene terms, made female employees do his personal shopping, did not properly promote them and fired a female deputy constable for something he would have forgiven a man.

But jurors in the federal sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit filed by Kimberly Owen also heard Harris County attorney Lina Garcia say Owen was fired solely because she was charged with drunken driving. Garcia said Owen raised the gender allegations later because she won’t take responsibility for her own actions.

Opening statements were made in the case before U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore Monday afternoon. Scott Newar, Owen’s lawyer, said this lawsuit against Harris County is about the way woman are treated in law enforcement throughout the county.

Continue reading " Ex-deputy Fights Harris County, Texas in Discrimination Case " »

A Superior Court jury awarded a former truck driver $4 M, concluding that negligence by his orthopedic surgeon caused him mental and physical suffering.

Robert T. Baird Jr., of Providence, filed a medical malpractice suit against Dr. Kenneth J. Morrissey in 2002, alleging the Cranston doctor’s negligence. Morrissey denied the complaints.

The jury awarded Baird $1.5 million for physical pain, $1.5 million for mental suffering, $500,000 for disfigurement and $500,000 for lost wages, according to David Morowitz, Baird’s lawyer.

Baird worked as a truck driver for The Providence Journal from 1981 until he began experiencing extreme pain in his right arm in 1999. He went to Morrissey, who operated to improve his movement and in the process removed a benign tumor.

Continue reading " Providence man Awarded $4 M in Medical Malpractice Case " »

Zachary James died at at a North Philadelphia hospital when his heart stopped beating on April 20, 2006.

The next day, his wife learned that his death may have been preventable, if someone had just looked at his X-rays before he died.

Following a 10-day trial, a jury awarded Rosalyn James, Zachary's widow, $2.185 million in a malpractice suit against St. Joseph's Hospital and two emergency-room physicians.

"I know it would never bring him back," she said. "But now he's at peace because I fought for him."

Continue reading " Unread X-ray leads to $2 M Malpractice Award " »

A Texas court petition seeking answers in a Cameron County teacher's swine flu death accuses a Virginia-based company of having "horrifically unsanitary conditions" at its pig farm in Mexico and wants to discover what role the farm might have played in the outbreak.

The petition was filed in Texas state District Court in Cameron County by Steven Trunnell of Harlingen on behalf of his wife, Judy Dominguez Trunnell, a 33-year-old special education teacher who died May 5 after delivering a healthy baby girl by cesarean section days earlier.

She was the first U.S. citizen to die of swine flu; a toddler from Mexico City died in Houston on April 27.

Continue reading " Texas Widower Seeks to sue Operator of Pig Farm " »

A Denver jury awarded $2 million to a woman who was injured at a Colorado Springs resort while participating in a mock sumo wrestling game with her coworkers.

Katherine Giles was attending her company's retreat at Cheyenne Mountain Resort in September 2005 when the accident happened.

Mock sumo wrestling is sometimes used by companies as a team building exercise. It involves participants wearing enormous padded or inflatable suits and helmets.

Continue reading " Denver Jury Awards Millions In Sumo Wrestling Lawsuit " »

A young Connecticut man who was paralyzed from the chest down in 2002 while pole vaulting at Southern Connecticut State University has won $6.4 million in damages from the Connecticut affiliate of USA Track and Field.

Brandon White, 25, won the civil lawsuit from a six-member New Haven Superior Court jury.

Continue reading " Paralyzed Pole Vaulter Wins Lawsuit " »

GlaxoSmithKline, maker of Avandia, faces more lawsuits alleging that patients suffered from serious Avandia side effects. Among the more severe side effects is the reported link between Avandia and heart attacks. Some critics say the risk of a heart problem is too high, while patients file lawsuits alleging they were harmed by the use of Avandia.

One such lawsuit was filed in Texas, alleging the plaintiff, Frank Casteel, took Avandia for 5 years and then underwent heart bypass surgery. According to the Southeast Texas Record, the suit was filed against Smithkline Beecham Corp., doing business as GlaxoSmithKline. The plaintiff claims that GlaxoSmithKline knew its drug was unreasonably dangerous, knew that patients were not informed about the risks associated with Avandia and still marketed and distributed the drug. Furthermore, the suit alleges that the pharmaceutical maker disclosed positive information about Avandia, but concealed or withheld any negative information about the drug's safety.

Continue reading " Avandia Class Action Lawsuits Continuing " »

The family of an 11-year-old boy killed when a 1,600-pound metal gate fell on him while he played at a Boston, Methuen school will receive a $600,000 settlement from the city.

The city had previously admitted that it was liable for leaving the unsecured iron gate in an area children could access. The settlement is the maximum amount allowed under state law.

Timothy DiLeo was killed and his younger brother injured when the unhinged gate at the Tenney Grammar School fell on them on Labor Day 2007.

Continue reading " Family of Child Killed by Falling Gate Settles Lawsuit " »

A federal jury in Montgomery returned a $5.79 million verdict against Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama and a mid-level manager for sexual harassment, negligence and retaliation.

"The jury awarded double what we were asking for," said Birmingham attorney Alicia Haynes, represented former Hyundai employee Tammy Edwards. "They were upset at the negligence."

The jury, which returned its verdict, awarded $795,000 in compensatory and $5 million in punitive damages against Hyundai. The jury also returned a $10,000 punitive verdict against manager Mike Swindle after a nearly two-week trial before the U.S. District Court.

Continue reading " Jury Rules Against Hyundai for Sexual Harrassment " »

The Texas Medical Board entered an Automatic Suspension Order against Rodney Norman Dotson, M.D., license number D9988, on Monday, May 4, after determining that Dr. Dotson had violated a previous disciplinary order.

The February 8, 2008, Mediated Agreed Order required, among other provisions, that Dr. Dotson take and pass the Special Purpose Examination. The 2008 order also contained a provision that, after a proper hearing, if a Board panel found that Dr. Dotson had violated this term of the 2008 order, his license could be automatically suspended.

Continue reading " Texas Medical Board Suspends License of Rodney Dotson, M.D. " »

Wal-Mart Stores Inc agreed to improve its post-Thanksgiving Day crowd control as a condition of avoiding criminal prosecution in the fatal stampede of frenzied holiday shoppers at a Long Island store.

In a settlement made public with the district attorney of New York's Nassau County and the world's largest retailer also agreed to set up a $400,000 victims' compensation fund, donate $1.5 million to the community and provide 50 jobs annually to high school students in the area.

The deal came as a result of the DA's investigation into the death of a 34-year-old security guard, Jdimytai Damour, who was knocked to the ground and trampled to death in the early morning hours on the Friday after Thanksgiving as shoppers stormed a Wal-Mart.

The retailer did not admit guilt or wrongdoing in its settlement with DA Kathleen Rice. It did agree to have independent safety experts review its crowd management plans for post-Thanksgiving events at all 92 of its New York stores.

A 63-year-old Tyler woman who sued Nissan after she was seriously injured in a 2006 car accident has been awarded $2.19 million by a federal jury.

Rebecca Perdue filed a lawsuit against Nissan Motor Co., LTD, claiming her 1995 Nissan Pathfinder failed to protect her during a Nov. 28, 2006 collision in Tyler. A seven-person Marshall jury in U.S. District Court returned its verdict, finding Nissan was responsible for her injuries.

Continue reading " Texan Awarded $2.19M In Nissan Lawsuit " »

A Tennessee jury has awarded a $12 million medical malpractice judgment against a prominent local doctor after a procedure intended to diagnose bowel problems left a young woman so brain damaged she cannot care for herself.

Attorneys for the plaintiff, 33-year-old Kristen Freeman, said they believe the judgment, is “one of the largest” to ever be awarded in Hamilton County with regard to allegations of improper medical care.

“It is very, very difficult to get a judgment against a doctor,” according to one of the lawyers, an Atlanta personal injury trial lawyer who helped represent Ms. Freeman along with two other attorneys. “People don’t like to find doctors at fault.”

The jury, found that Dr. Michael Goodman, a gastroenterologist, was only 51 percent at fault for the incident that led to Ms. Freeman’s permanent brain damage. So Ms. Freeman is allowed to collect only $6.12 million, according to the jury’s decision.

Continue reading " TN Jury awards $12 M in Malpractice Case " »

Federal drug regulators warned consumers to stop using the popular Hydroxycut line of weight-loss products, citing reports of a death due to liver failure and other instances of serious health problems.

In all, the Food and Drug Administration said it had received 23 reports of significant adverse health effects in people who used Hydroxycut, including one person who required a liver transplant. Other complications included heart problems and a kind of muscle damage that could lead to kidney failure, the agency said.

Continue reading " Hydroxycut Diet Aids Recalled After FDA Warning " »

A Middlesex Superior Court judge has rebuked the city manager of Cambridge, saying his "reprehensible" behavior amounted to a systematic campaign to oust a city employee who had filed a discrimination complaint.

Continue reading " Cambridge MA Assessed $4.5 M in Bias Suit " »

After three days of deliberation, a McLean County jury awarded the family of a deceased Bloomington woman more than $2 million related to her exposure to asbestos.

Juanita Rodarmel contracted mesothelioma after being exposed to asbestos when she laundered the clothing of her first husband, Leslie Corry, a worker at the former Union Asbestos & Rubber Company.

Corry worked at the Bloomington plant, later called UNARCO Industries Inc., during the 1950s.

The jury also awarded $100,000 in punitive damages against Pneumo Abex, LLC and $400,000 against Honeywell International, Inc.

Continue reading " Jury Awards More Than $2 M in Illinois Asbestos Case " »

The following is a summary of the changes effective on May 6, 2009. Click here for the complete board rules.

Chapter 166, Physician Registration, with amendments to §162.2 Continuing Medical Education, would allow members of the Board’s Expert Physician Panel up to 12 hours of formal continuing Medical Education for time actually spent in reviewing standard of care cases and providing a report to the board.

Continue reading " TMB May 2009 Board Rules Changes " »

A Maricopa County Superior Court jury has awarded $3.3 M to a Scottsdale woman who was sickened and permanently disabled by a mold infestation in her apartment building.

Robin Minium was a project manager for American Express and worked out of her upscale apartment near Scottsdale and Bell roads. She had lived there since 2000.

According to court documents, her health deteriorated significantly by 2002, and as she got sicker, she spent more time in her apartment.

Continue reading " $3.3 M Awarded to Woman Sickened by Mold " »

Just two months after the U.S. Supreme Court decided patients can sue drugmakers over injuries from medicines approved by the government, long-stalled lawsuits against GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. are again moving toward trials.

The March 4 decision in a case on Wyeth’s nausea treatment Phenergan broke a logjam of cases in state and federal courts. Federal regulatory approval of a medicine and information about side effects does not shield drugmakers from claims that patients and doctors were not adequately warned, the high court ruled. The decision already affected more than 250 lawsuits involving at least 10 companies that were in limbo before the ruling.

Continue reading " Wyeth Supreme Court Loss Restarts Drug Lawsuits " »

The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for a suit by a New Jersey woman who claims to have suffered mercury poisoning from Chicken of the Sea canned tuna.

The denial of certiorari sets the stage for a federal court trial in Newark, N.J., in a putative class action suit, filed under New Jersey's Product Liability Act, that faults a cannery company with not putting mercury warnings on the label.

The justices without opinion let stand a 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling last September that the claim is not pre-empted by the Food and Drug Administration's "pervasive regulatory scheme." The appeals court said this is a case where state tort law complements federal regulations, which often lack a compensatory apparatus or a process for gathering information about potential claims.

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The family of a 19-year-old man, whose death on a Seattle street in 2007 triggered a community outpouring for better bike-safety measures, has settled a lawsuit against the company that owned the dump truck that crushed him.

The parents of Bryce Lewis, Marc and Laura Paolicelli of Colorado, have agreed to an undisclosed sum of money from Nelson & Sons Construction of Woodinville.

Continue reading " Family of Seattle Cyclist Killed by Dump Truck Settles Lawsuit " »

A Santa Barbara jury has awarded Oded and Anat Gottesman nearly $14 million in compensatory economic and non-economic damages for the loss of their child Yoni, who drowned in a Cathedral Oaks Athletic Club swimming pool in 2005.

The total will undoubtedly climb, however, as punitive damages have not yet been determined. That second phase begins Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. with brief opening statements by both parties followed by testimony. Because punitive damages must still be discussed in court and decided by the jury, the judge kept in place a gag order restricting comments to the media by involved parties.

Continue reading " $14M Awarded in California Drowning Lawsuit " »

The families of three men killed in a 2007 crash on the Bay Bridge are suing a Maryland agency and several drivers over the accident. James Hewitt Ingle and Randall and Jonathan Orff died and five people were injured in May 2007 when a trailer being hauled behind a sport utility vehicle came loose and caused a multiple-vehicle crash.

The Ingle and Orff families are suing the Maryland Transportation Authority, the driver of the SUV, the owner of the trailer and two truck drivers and their employers for $19 million. Attorney Paul Bekman said his clients are suing the state because the authority knew accidents had happened before during two-way traffic on one span of the bridge. Officials have said the two-way traffic wasn't a factor in the accident. The lawsuit was filed in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court.