Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

A federal judge in Atlanta is permitting dozens of product liability suits against Home Depot and the makers of a tile grout cleaner to proceed to trial on negligence claims, but he has stripped away other claims that sought damages for violating federal consumer product safety laws.

Ten of those suits, filed by an Atlanta attorney on behalf of Home Depot customers who were hospitalized after using Tile Perfect Stand 'N Seal Spray-On Grout Cleaner, are among approximately 50 suits that have settled, according to a Home Depot attorney. The settlements are confidential, said Frank A. Ilardi of Houck, Ilardi & Regas, who shared lead counsel duties with Texas attorney William J. Maiberger Jr. until Ilardi negotiated the settlements.

Continue reading "Home Depot Product Liability Suits Advances" »

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Posted In: Personal Injury , Product Liability , Toxic Injury

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Nicholas Anderson should be a multimillionaire.

Instead, he is penniless - and in need of medical treatment he can't afford.

On Dec. 23, 2004, Anderson was driving home when a tire caught on a six-inch lip on the roadside and he lost control of his car. The car crashed into a guardrail, which impaled the vehicle, severing Anderson's left leg and nearly severing his left arm. He was 18.

He sued Camden County, and last year a jury awarded him $31 million, finding that the county-maintained road was dangerous because of the drop in elevation between the road and shoulder, and because of the guardrail's design.

"I'm in pain every day," Anderson said.

Continue reading "N.J. Crash Victim Caught in County-Insurer Lawsuits" »

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Posted In: Car Accidents , Paralysis and Amputations , Personal Injury

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A Broward Circuit Court judge has ordered an insurance company to pay a paralyzed truck driver $14.6 million because of a 2007 accident.

Derry Brown Jr. of Pahokee was hauling a load of sugar in an 18-wheeler when a driver ran a stop sign, cutting him off on May 31, 2007. Brown, 64, swerved out of the way, and his truck overturned on State Road 80, just east of Lion Country Safari in Palm Beach County.

The accident cost Brown the use of his arms and legs and left him with mounting medical bills. If Brown had not swerved, the other driver would have died, Brown's attorney, Robert Kelley, told the court.

Continue reading "Florida Court Awards Paralyzed Trucker $14.6 M" »

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Posted In: Paralysis and Amputations , Personal Injury , Trucking Accidents

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It was just another work day for Rafael Jimenez, a veteran tree trimmer in his 24th year on the job.

But as he stuffed branches from a Chinese elm tree into a wood chipper, his right hand became entangled in the branches and Jimenez found himself being jerked toward the steel knives.

The machine, which devours a 20-inch branch in a second, consumed nearly his entire body.

His wife and four children filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court alleging that the manufacturer of the machine, Michigan-based Morbark, knew for years that its safety features were insufficient and had done nothing to prevent injuries and deaths like Jimenez's.

Continue reading "Family of Tree Trimmer Killed by Wood Chipper Sues Manufacturer" »

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Posted In: Personal Injury , Product Liability , Wrongful Death

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In what could be the opening salvo in a new wave of lawsuits against the Scottsdale-based maker of Zicam, lawyers filed a lawsuit on behalf of 117 people who claim they have suffered loss of smell after using the popular nasal spray.

Among those suing Scottsdale-based Matrixx Initiatives Inc. include one dozen Phoenix-area residents as well as the chef of an upscale Las Vegas-area restaurant who no longer can smell or taste food.

Matrixx officials said they had not seen the lawsuit filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, but a spokesman said the company believes that its nasal products are safe and do not cause loss of smell.

Continue reading "Zicam Lawsuit Filed" »

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Posted In: Personal Injury , Product Liability , Toxic Injury

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For patients with prostate cancer, it is a common surgical procedure: a doctor implants dozens of radioactive seeds to attack the disease. But when Dr. Gary D. Kao treated one patient at the veterans’ hospital in Philadelphia, his aim was more than a little off.

Most of the seeds, 40 in all, landed in the patient’s healthy bladder, not the prostate.

It was a serious mistake, and under federal rules, regulators investigated. But Dr. Kao, with their consent, made his mistake all but disappear.

He simply rewrote his surgical plan to match the number of seeds in the prostate, investigators said.

Continue reading "Rogue Cancer Unit at Philadelphia V.A. Hospital " »

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Posted In: Medical Malpractice , Personal Injury , Toxic Injury

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A class action lawsuit filed in Los Angeles accuses recalled Hydroxycut weight-loss products of causing deadly liver damage and other severe complications.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of anyone who consumed the now-banned supplements, claims the company failed to warn users of the risks of injury.

The Hydroxycut products were recalled May 1 after being linked to dozens of cases of liver damage, jaundice, and other related injuries. In one case, a 19-year-old Hydroxycut user died in 2007 after developing liver failure, but the death was not reported to the Food and Drug Administration until last March, according to the complaint.

Continue reading "Hydroxycut Weight-loss Products Sued" »

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A lawsuit was filed in Allegheny County Court by the mother of a 28-year-old woman who died after a utility pole struck by a tractor-trailer fell on her head.

Filed by Gloria Grate on behalf of her daughter, Marquetta Grate, the lawsuit names as defendants the city of Pittsburgh, Levin Furniture, Christopher Caudill and Penske Trucking.

According to attorney Michael Rosenzweig, who filed the complaint, Marquetta Grate was waiting for a bus on May 15 after dropping off her 3-year-old daughter at an East Liberty pre-school.

Continue reading "Suit Filed Over Death of Woman Struck by Utility Pole " »

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An electrician from Grant City, injured when he fell through a hole in a fueling pier at the St. George Ferry Terminal almost six years ago, has settled his civil lawsuit for $1 million.

Russell Menicucci suffered back and neck injuries in the Dec. 2, 2003, accident, said his lawyer, Andrew John Calcagno. Those injuries have prevented him from returning to work, the attorney said.

Continue reading "$1M Settles Lawsuit by Laborer Hurt at Staten Island Ferry" »

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An Indiana jury has awarded $5 million to a Mooresville woman still experiencing ill effects from a misdiagnosis nearly a decade ago at Methodist Hospital.

Roxxanna Smith, then 18, arrived at the emergency room in July 2000 with a ruptured diaphragm after playing softball. But through a series of miscommunications about what was shown by X-rays, her lawyers said, doctors instead diagnosed a urinary tract infection and muscle strain -- and sent Smith home.

Continue reading "Jury Awards Woman $5M Over Wrong Diagnosis" »

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The Environmental Protection Agency declared its first-ever "public health emergency," saying the federal government will funnel $6 million to provide medical care for people sickened by asbestos from a mine in northwest Montana.

The declaration applies to the towns of Libby and Troy, where for decades workers dug for vermiculite, a mineral used in insulation. They were unknowingly poisoning themselves: The vermiculite was contaminated with a toxic form of asbestos, which workers carried home on their clothes.

Continue reading "EPA to Pay Medical Bills for People Sickened by Asbestos From Montana Mine" »

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The wrongful death civil trial over a 2005 fatal brawl in a McDonald's parking lot hit a stumbling block when the judge dismissed the jury picked to hear the case.

Attorneys agreed on a six-member jury, but since then lawyers on the plaintiff's side uncovered facts about three of the jurors, including old arrests the jurors did not list on their questionnaires.

Continue reading "Judge Dismisses Jury in Wrongful Death Lawsuit From McDonald's Brawl" »

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While investigators scour the Atlantic for clues to the cause of the crash of Air France Flight 447, lawyers in Brazil, France and the U.S. are taking steps to determine the proper forum for any lawsuits.

Sophie Bottai, whose client was the first granted victim status in a French criminal probe, said the nation’s courts should review any claims as many passengers were French as were the airline and the airplane, an Airbus SAS A330-200.

“The plane is French, the carrier is French,” said Bottai, representing a 38-year-old Frenchman’s family, who she said wishes to remain anonymous. “The jurisdiction is French.”

Debate over jurisdiction issues may get even more heated with families making the ultimate decision based on where they can receive the most compensation. In addition to where the claims are filed, the amount of any award depends on the victim’s age, family status and work situation, according to lawyers specializing in aviation disasters.

Continue reading "Air France Crash Spurs Debate Over Lawsuit Locations " »

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The family of a retired Navy sailor who died of cancer triggered by asbestos fibers he inhaled on the job decades ago has won $1.2 million in its lawsuit against a ship-parts manufacturer.

Gerald Gray died in April after suffering from mesothelioma. His death, at age 75, came five weeks before the trial was to begin against John Crane Inc., an Illinois maker of gaskets and other parts used on ships Gray repaired.

The Newport News Circuit Court jury ruled against five manufacturers for a total of $4 million, assigning a percentage of blame to each. John Crane fought the case, and was apportioned 30 percent, or $1.2 million.

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Posted In: Personal Injury , Wrongful Death

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Federal drug regulators warned consumers to stop using Zicam, a popular homeopathic cold remedy, because it could damage or destroy their sense of smell.

The Food and Drug Administration received 130 reports from consumers and doctors of people losing their sense of smell after using one of the Zicam nasal products, which include Zicam Cold Remedy and Zicam Cold Remedy Swabs. The reports date to 1999, when Matrixx Initiatives of Scottsdale, Ariz., first introduced the products.

In 2006, Matrixx paid $12 million to settle 340 lawsuits from Zicam users who claimed that the product destroyed their sense of smell, a condition known as anosmia. Hundreds more such suits have since been filed.

Continue reading "F.D.A. Warns Against Use of Popular Cold Remedy " »

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A Darlington County SC jury returned a verdict of $9 million after finding Progress Energy responsible in the wrongful death of 21-year-old Allen Toney of Hartsville.

According to a press release, the jury awarded Mary Washington, the victim’s mother, $3.5 million in actual damages and $5.5 million in punitive damages. Toney died as the result of being electrocuted by a downed power line.

According to testimony, on May 2, 2003, a storm in the Hartsville area caused a utility pole, owned and maintained by Progress Energy, to fail. The pole, fell at approximately 6:30 p.m., leaving a live power line carrying 13200 volts hanging chest high across the driveway. According to witnesses, at around 9:20 p.m. Toney arrived at the home where he came into contact with the energized power line.

Continue reading "SC Jury Awards $9M Settlement Wrongful Death Case" »

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Posted In: Burns and Electrocutions , Personal Injury , Wrongful Death

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The Louisville Zoo train "started to go really fast" through a tunnel, picked up more speed around a curve, "rocked" at the next turn and finally tipped over at the last curve, according to a passenger in the June 1 derailment.

Bamforth and his wife, Amy, and their 2-year-old son filed a lawsuit in Jefferson Circuit Court against the zoo over the derailment that sent 22 people to the hospital, claiming the zoo was "grossly negligent" in its maintenance and operation of the train.

Continue reading "Family Sues Louisville Zoo Over Train Accident" »

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Ailing Ground Zero worker Daniel Arrigo can finally breathe a little easier.

After a year-long struggle, the state's Workers' Compensation Board ruled in Arrigo's favor for a third time, forcing insurance giant Zurich North America to finally pay up.

The married father of three received a check last week for nearly $20,000 in back payments from Zurich, after the Daily News highlighted his plight last month.

He called himself a poster boy for thousands of sick 9/11 responders caught between the slow-moving state compensation board and insurance firms that skillfully game the system to fight claims.

Continue reading "Victory for Sick Ground Zero Worker" »

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Nearly four years after 23 Bellaire nursing home residents died in a fiery bus while evacuating from Hurricane Rita, their families have reached a settlement awarding them $80 million.

In the chaotic week leading up to Hurricane Rita, Brighton Gardens, a Bellaire nursing home owned by Sunrise Senior Living Services of McLean, Va., quickly ordered buses for its residents and staff so they could evacuate to a sister facility in Dallas. As Rita churned through the Gulf of Mexico on Sept. 23, 2005, nursing home residents and staff boarded two buses provided by Global Limo Inc. of Pharr, Texas.

Continue reading "Texas Hurricane Rita Bus Fire Settlement " »

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Posted In: Burns and Electrocutions , Personal Injury , Wrongful Death

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When Debbie Daniels was scheduled to undergo a hysterectomy in 2003, her doctor suggested he do a "tummy tuck" as well.

But the obstetrician/gynecologist did not tell her that he had never been trained to perform the procedure that gets rid of excess skin and fat.

She also did not know he had been kicked off the staff of another hospital for doing tummy tucks without proper credentials -- or that he did the procedure unlike any other doctor, according to court records.

Two days after Dr. David Lee Grimes cut Daniels open and stitched her back up, her wound burst, leaving a basketball-sized hole in her belly 7 to 8 inches deep, one of her lawyers said. She had to undergo emergency surgery -- the first of many -- and be placed in a medically induced coma for a month.

Continue reading "Woman Who Sued Doctor's Insurer Awarded $3.8 M" »

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Posted In: Medical Malpractice , Medico-Legal News , Personal Injury

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Two trucking companies and their drivers are being sued over a 2008 accident on I-15 in Las Vegas in which two honeymooners outside their stranded vehicle were struck and killed.

Attorneys for the parents of one of the victims, Lisa Lynn Prock-Hills, filed a negligence suit in Clark County District Court against truck driver Stanislaw Masalski of Clearwater, Fla., and his company, Stan Trucking Inc.

Also sued were driver Sam Montalvo Martinez and his employer at the time of the accident, J.B. Hunt Transport Inc. of Lowell, Ark.

The Nevada Highway Patrol said Kevin Edward Hills, 38, and Prock-Hills, 41, were killed on Interstate 15 just south of Silverado Ranch Boulevard on March 13, 2008.

Continue reading "Lawsuit Filed in I-15 Wrongful Death of Stranded Honeymooners" »

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Posted In: Car Accidents , Personal Injury , Traumatic Brain Injury , Trucking Accidents , Wrongful Death

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A Florida mother sued Fort Lauderdale Hospital and a psychiatrist who worked there, saying they overmedicated her teenage son with a cocktail of mental health drugs -- some of which have not been approved for the treatment of children.

The boy, Emilio Villamar, died of a sudden heart attack. He was 16.

Emilio, a swimmer and water polo player, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder by Dr. Sohail Punjwani in March 2002. Within the next year, the teen was given 16 different psychiatric drugs, six of which were still being administered when he died, said Michael S. Freedland, who is representing Emilio's mother, Norma L. Tringali.

Punjwani had also been treating 7-year-old Gabriel Myers, a foster child who had been prescribed several psychiatric drugs before he hanged himself in April. In the wake of Gabriel's death, the Department of Children & Families has launched a wide-ranging investigation into the agency's dispensing of mental health drugs.

Continue reading "Lawsuit Links Psychiatric Drugs to Florida Child's Death" »

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Posted In: Medical Malpractice , Personal Injury , Toxic Injury , Wrongful Death

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A MI jury awarded a woman $2.9 million in a 9-year-old lawsuit against Owosso Memorial Hospital and Shiawassee Radiology Consultants.

An attorney for Sue Apsey, now 65, claimed a bowel leak she suffered during an ovarian cyst removal went undiscovered for 10 days despite imaging studies that were done.

The situation worsened when she was given barium during subsequent x-rays. "It acted like throwing gas on a bonfire," said her attorney, Frank Mafrice.

Continue reading "MI Jury Awards A Woman Nearly $3 M in Lawsuit Against Hospital" »

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A Pennslyvania jury awarded a woman $1.88 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit filed on behalf of her husband, who died of cancer in 2008.

Christine Golden sued urologist Milan J. Smolko, pathologist Lillian Longendorfer and Wayne Memorial Hospital for failing to diagnose her husband's bladder cancer despite several consultations and examinations between Sept. 18, 2002, and January 2004.

Before the verdict was returned last month, however, Dr. Longendorfer and the hospital reached a confidential settlement with Mrs. Golden.

Mrs. Golden's lawyer, said Terrence Golden saw Dr. Smolko multiple times in those 16 months, each time complaining of urinary problems. Dr. Smolko said he had an inflamed and enlarged prostate, but did not investigate further until July 2003. Then, he did a bladder biopsy and sent the information to Dr. Longendorfer, who worked at Wayne Memorial Hospital.

Continue reading "PA Woman Gets $1.88 M in Medical Malpractice Case" »

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A Beaumont Texas man has filed a medical malpractice suit against a local doctor, alleging a needle negligently left inside his body during surgery perforated his bladder.

Ronald Williams claims he underwent surgery performed by Dr. Stuart Scott Kacy of Southeast Texas Surgical Associates on March 12, 2007.

Court papers say that during the procedure, one of the used needles popped off the needle holder into Williams's body.

Ronald Williams and his wife, Erica, filed a medical malpractice suit against Dr. Kacy and Southeast Texas Surgical Associates on May 26 in Jefferson County District Court.

Continue reading "Texas Malpractice Case Alleges Surgeon Left Needle Inside Body" »

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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" »

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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" »

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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" »

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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." »

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Posted In: Car Accidents , Personal Injury , Product Liability , Spinal Cord Injury , Traumatic Brain Injury

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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" »

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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" »

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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" »

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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 " »

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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" »

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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" »

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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" »

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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" »

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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" »

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Posted In: Paralysis and Amputations , Personal Injury , Spinal Cord Injury

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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" »

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Posted In: Personal Injury , Premises Liability , Wrongful Death

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 " »

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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.

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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.

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It has been a year since Lauren Chang collapsed during a cheerleading competition and died, leaving behind her smiling portrait as a grim testament to the dangers of her sport.

That tragedy, as well as another death and a serious injury suffered by cheerleaders in recent years, has placed Massachusetts in a pivotal point in the crusade to make cheerleading safer.

Last fall, the mother of Ashley Burns, a Medford 14-year-old who died in a 2005 cheerleading accident, filed a lawsuit in her death. In addition to seeking damages, Ruth Burns is also asking a judge to force national groups that sanction cheerleading competitions and oversee the sport to adopt more stringent safety rules.

Continue reading "Raising Alarm at Cheerleading's Dangers" »

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Wyeth, the drugmaker being acquired by Pfizer Inc., must face a lawsuit by a woman who claims her breast cancer was caused by the menopause medicine Prempro, a Texas appeals court ruled.

The state appeals court in Houston said that Susan Brockert’s “failure-to-warn” claims aren’t preempted by federal drug-labeling regulations, overturning a district judge’s finding from February 2007. The case was sent back to the lower court for further proceedings.

The appeals panel cited last month’s U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding a $7 million award to a musician who lost her arm after being injected with Wyeth’s Phenergan nausea treatment. The high court said patients can sue drugmakers for failing to provide adequate safety warnings, even when a treatment and its packaging are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

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A Illinois Cook County jury has found in favor of the family of a BMW salesman in its wrongful death suit against a man who took a test drive and crashed the car, killing the salesman.

The jury awarded Roger Czapski's family $13.7 million, concluding that Christopher Maher was liable for Czapski's death Aug. 4, 2004 in South Barrington, Illinois.

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The investigation into the cause of brain tumors near Cameron, Mo., lead to the filing of a lawsuit which accused a tannery of being at fault.

Sludge from Prime Tanning Corp., in St. Joseph contains high levels of hexavalent chromium, a known carcinogen, the lawsuit filed in Clinton County alleged.

For years, farmers in at least four counties in northwest Missouri have gotten the sludge for free to use as an agriculture fertilizer for their crops, according to the lawsuit.

Continue reading "Lawsuit Blaming Tannery for Missouri Brain Cancer" »

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Two Seattle companies involved in erecting a construction crane that collapsed in Bellevue in 2006 have settled with the parents of a man who was killed when the crane crushed him as he sat in his apartment.

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Dozens of plant workers who claim their health was damaged by exposure to a chemical used to give a buttery flavor to microwave popcorn have filed lawsuits in Cincinnati against makers of the flavoring.

At least 43 workers filed lawsuits claiming their lungs were irreversibly damaged by inhaling fumes from the chemical diacetyl, which provides the buttery taste. Some work at a local plant of Cincinnati-based Givaudan Flavors Corp. Many others are from a plant in Marion owned by Omaha, Neb.-based ConAgra Foods.

Givaudan supplies flavorings to food manufacturers, including popcorn makers. ConAgra and other leading makers of microwave popcorn removed the flavoring chemical from their products after it was linked to cases of bronchiolitis obliterans, a rare life-threatening disease often referred to as “popcorn lung.”

Continue reading "Popcorn Lung Lawsuits on the Increase." »

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A man with a disabling brain injury and no money told debt collector lawyers that the time limit for seeking payment had expired and that a suit had been dismissed before. But a North Dakota law firm sued him anyway, trying to collect a credit card debt on behalf of the creditor.

This time Timothy McCollough got mad. He hired a lawyer, got the suit dismissed and then sued the North Dakota law firm for violating debt collection laws.

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People who live near a former nuclear fuel plant will get $52.5 million to settle their 14-year-old lawsuit against Babcock & Wilcox Co.

The settlement, which was approved by a federal judge in Pittsburgh, ends the final claim brought by 365 people who live in the Apollo area, about 35 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

The same group last year got $27.5 million to settle claims against Atlantic Richfield Co. that plant emissions and groundwater pollution caused an unusually high cancer rate, other illnesses and property damage.

The case concerns the former Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp. plant, which was built in 1957 and sold to ARCO in 1967. B&W bought the plant in 1971 and has been cleaning up the site since shutting it down in the 1980s.

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A Manhattan jury awarded $27.5 M to a woman who lost her left leg after a New York City Transit bus ran over her while it was turning a corner two blocks from her apartment in 2005.

The woman, Gloria Aguilar, 45, who had to have her leg amputated and has worn a prosthetic leg ever since, cried when the verdict was announced.

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The state of Minnesota closed a chapter on the Interstate 35W bridge collapse by reaching final settlements with all 179 eligible victims of the disaster in downtown Minneapolis two years ago.

The settlements ranged from $4,500 to each of five survivors to more than $2.2 million for a woman who required extensive therapy for brain damage. Five other settlements were worth over $1 million.

Susan Holden, the attorney who led the court-appointed panel administering the state's $36.6 million compensation fund, said the settlements covered both survivors of the collapse and family members of those killed.

Continue reading "All Minn. Bridge Victims Accept Settlements" »

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Kaiser Permanente has agreed to pay $1 million to settle claims on behalf of five patients alleging that the HMO mishandled its kidney transplant program, endangering lives and causing deaths.

The arbitration claims were filed in 2006, found that Kaiser's Northern California kidney transplant program jeopardized hundreds of patients by forcing them into a new program unprepared to handle an enormous caseload.

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King County has agreed to pay $3.5 million to a Seattle man and his wife after the man suffered a permanent brain injury when he was thrown from his bicycle.

Lawyers for Jeffrey Totten and his wife Danielle Leavell said the county was at fault because it promoted Novelty Hill Road as a bike route but failed to maintain it in a safe condition.

Totten, an endurance athlete, was thrown from his bike when it struck a depression around a survey "monument" in the roadway Sept. 4, 2006. He was 31.

He has been in a hospital, a rehabilitation center and now a group home in Mount Vernon since the accident, which left him in a coma for seven months. The settlement will allow funds for round-the-clock care for the rest of his life, his attorneys said.

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The recall last week of 2 million pounds of pistachios because of concerns about salmonella contamination has been expanded, and federal officials say more recalls of foods containing pistachios are on the horizon.

Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella, the California company that is the nation's second-largest processer of pistachios, originally had recalled all of its pistachios harvested since September.

The recall was expanded this week to cover Setton's entire 2008 crop, except for raw in-shell pistachios. Most pistachios sold in stores are roasted.

Continue reading "FDA: Recall of Pistachio Nuts Ongoing" »

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A soldier formerly based in Casper WV sued three Casper doctors in federal court for medical malpractice that nearly killed him.

Poche and his wife, Cynthia, also wanted Wyoming residents to know they have the right to take action in similar cases, he said. "I survived; the next guy might not."

Poche's attorney, Steven Shapiro, said he partly framed the case with a public perspective. "We told the jury, 'Is this the kind of care you want in the state of Wyoming?'"

Continue reading "Jury Awards Soldier, Government $2M" »

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The 3rd Circuit has ruled that children allegedly injured by vaccines are barred from pursuing any design defect claims because Congress expressly prohibited such suits in an effort to guarantee immunity to manufacturers.

By rejecting the analysis of a recent ruling from the Georgia Supreme Court, the 3rd Circuit's ruling in Bruesewitz v. Wyeth Inc. creates a direct split between the federal courts and a state's highest court on the question of how broadly courts should read the pre-emption clause in the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act.

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A federal judge denied an Army contractor KBR's motion requesting dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the mother of a soldier who was electrocuted in the shower while serving in Iraq.

The lawsuit, filed by Cheryl Harris of Cranberry, accuses Houston-based contractor KBR of failing to maintain the electrical infrastructure in Baghdad. Ms. Harris' son, Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, an Army Ranger and Green Beret, was electrocuted as he showered on Jan. 2, 2008, while stationed there.

KBR attorneys had argued that decisions made by the Army insulated the private military contractor from prosecution.

U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer disagreed.

Continue reading "Lawsuit Against KBR Army Contractor Upheld" »

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Pfizer Inc. resolved all but three of 35,000 claims over its withdrawn diabetes drug Rezulin for a total of about $750 million.

Pfizer, which is acquiring rival Wyeth for almost $64 billion, paid about $500 million to settle Rezulin cases consolidated in federal court in New York, according to court filings. The company also paid as much as $250 million to resolve state-court suits.

Continue reading "Pfizer Settles Rezulin Product Liabilty Cases " »

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A California nut grower and processor issued a nationwide recall of pistachios on Tuesday due to possible salmonella contamination, and authorities said consumers should avoid all pistachio products until more information was available.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said several illnesses had been reported that may be associated with the contaminated pistachios. The FDA said it and the California Department of Public Health were investigating the matter.

The FDA said it first learned of the problem on March 24, when Kraft Foods Inc informed the agency that Back To Nature trail mix was contaminated. Kraft had identified the source of the contamination as Setton.

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A Fulton County jury has awarded $1.8 million in damages to a boy whose penis was severed in a botched circumcision.

The state court jury gave another $500,000 to the boy’s mother in the decision rendered.

The case involves a child,who was born at South Fulton Medical Center in 2004. In a suit filed two years later, his mother contended that the doctor who circumcised him removed too much tissue and that his pediatrician failed to respond when a nurse complained of excessive bleeding.

Continue reading "$2.3M Awarded in Botched Circumcision" »

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A congressional study and a national consumer advocacy group found that the health care industry in 2004 had spent millions of dollars exaggerating the malpractice crisis in Nevada and elsewhere in the country.

But the hard-hitting television campaign of five years ago, helped persuade voters to overwhelmingly approve an industry-backed ballot initiative imposing a $350,000 cap on malpractice damages for pain and suffering. Advocates said the intent of the measure, patterned after 1975 tort law changes enacted in California that imposed a $250,000 cap, was to reduce multimillion-dollar verdicts against doctors, which would lower their insurance premiums and reduce health care costs for the public.

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A now-12-year-old Temecula boy who fell from a fast-food restaurant's play structure and struck his head, causing brain damage, was awarded a $20 million settlement from the franchise's parent company.

The money was awarded to Jacob Buckett and his sister, Isabelle, who was 5 at the time of Jacob's fall at the Temecula restaurant on Aug. 4, 2005.

The structure was inside the restaurant and there was no rubber beneath the bars, just tile, according to Jacob's attorney.
The defendants, the restaurant franchisee, parent company and playground manufacturer, were not named because of the settlement's confidentiality clause but according to the Web site momlogic.com, the restaurant was a Burger King.

Delta Marketing Inc., the installer of the playground, was also sued.

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A federal judge has upheld most of an $8.5 million judgment awarded to a woman who lost use of her arm due to a flesh-eating bacteria misdiagnosed by an Air Force base doctor.

The judge last month granted only part of the U.S. government's request to trim $1.13 million from the damages he assessed last year for Jean Phillips. Frazier lowered damages covering Phillips' past medical expenses by $62,748, settling on an $8.46 million payout.

Frazier had found that Dr. Dan MacAlpine, who was stationed at Scott Air Force Base near Mascoutah, Ill., failed to notice or heed Phillips' rash on her right arm in 2002. MacAlpine, assuming she was an addict looking for prescription drugs, told her to go home and take over-the-counter pain medication.

But the rash turned out to be necrotizing fasciitis - commonly known as flesh-eating bacteria - that Frazier said eventually cost Phillips use of her right arm.

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A Palm Beach County jury has awarded $4 million on behalf of a child suffering from severe mental retardation that the family blamed on a delayed delivery in a West Palm Beach hospital more than 11 years ago.

Stephanie Preshong Brown, of Palm City, was carrying twins in July 1997 when she was admitted to Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Palm Beach for premature contractions. One of the twins, Sydney Preshong Brown, died in utero.

A few weeks later, doctors determined that the other twin, Jordan Preshong Brown, was in distress and decided to deliver by Cesarean section.

The lawsuit contended that problems securing an operating room led to several hours of delay.

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Altria Group Inc.’s Philip Morris USA unit and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. said they won a verdict in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed on behalf of a Florida smoker.

A state court jury in St. Petersburg, Florida, found the two biggest U.S. cigarette makers not liable in the case. The verdict is the first defense win in a so-called “post-Engle” tobacco suit in Florida.

The case is the third of its kind to be tried since the Florida Supreme Court in 2006 ruled that smokers could not sue as a class on behalf of smokers statewide. The court said smokers could sue individually and extended the time for them to do so. Thousands of such cases are pending across Florida.

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A pharmacist at the Yuba City Wal-Mart store mislabeled a pill bottle, resulting in a woman taking twice too much blood pressure medication and nearly dying, according to a $1.2 million lawsuit.

After collapsing on a bus, victim Geraldine Schamanski's heart stopped five times in 24 hours.
Besides Wal-Mart, the pharmacist and Asereth Medical Services are named as defendants. The latter company apparently supplied the pharmacist who mislabeled the bottle.

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A Staten Island man stricken with polio has won a multimillion dollar lawsuit against a drug maker, claiming he contracted polio 30 years ago while changing his daughter's diaper.

Dominick Tenuto was awarded $22.5 million, believed to be one of the highest awards ever on Staten Island.

The lawsuit claims that the oral vaccine Tenuto's daughter received, which contained a live virus, passed through her body and infected Tenuto while he was changing her diaper.

The 61-year-old Tenuto, a former Wall Street executive, sued two years after contracting polio and losing his job.

The drug maker, Lederle Laboratories, plans to appeal.

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City and police officials have agreed to pay a man $75,000 to settle a lawsuit filed after his fiancee was killed and he was seriously injured when a driver fleeing police crashed into his car.

Richard Garman’s settlement, allows the city of Indianapolis to avoid a costly trial without admitting liability in the fatal 1999 crash.

Garman’s case stemmed from a 50-second chase that reached 80 mph on city streets and ended when a fleeing driver struck the then 21-year-old Garman’s car, injuring him and killing his fiancee, J. Elizabeth Foster, 19.

Garman, now 30, sued based on his own injuries, which included broken ribs and collapsed lungs, as well as emotional distress and clinical depression spurred by Foster’s death. Garman’s injuries left him with more than $280,000 in medical bills.

Continue reading "Indiana Police Settle Wrongful Death Suit Over Police Crash" »

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The mother of University of Colorado student Lynn "Gordie" Bailey, who died of acute alcohol poisoning in September 2004 after a fraternity-initiation ritual, has settled her lawsuit with the fraternity on the eve of the trial.

According to the lawyer who represented Leslie Lanahan, Bailey's mother, said a settlement was reached with both the Chi Psi fraternity and the Alpha Psi Delta Corporation of Chi Psi, which owned the fraternity house in Boulder.

Bailey died the morning of Sept. 17, 2004, of acute alcohol poisoning. His blood-alcohol level was 0.328 percent.

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A judge has awarded $45 million in damages to a San Mateo woman who was paralyzed when a wrecking and demolition company's truck ran a red light and hit her car.

Tricia Roth, now 41, a former software developer for Microsoft Corp., suffered a broken neck and spinal injuries in the September 2006 accident, according to her lawyer. Her doctors said she requires full-time attendant care and will never walk again.

The driver, Roman Pantoja, failed to see the light on East Hillsdale Boulevard in San Mateo near Highway 101 and admitted that he was at fault, according to a court hearing.

Superior Court Judge awarded damages against Pantoja and his employer, Division 1 All Service.

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A jury awarded a 21-year-old Florida woman $65 million for her injuries in a 2007 crash. The verdict is considered to be one of the largest by a Polk County jury.

The verdict stemmed from a traffic crash in Zolfo Springs that left Kendra Lymon in a coma and hospitalized for months.

Lymon had been driving her Dodge Neon on Aug. 21, 2007, when a tractor-trailer owned by Bynum Transport, struck her car at State Road 35 and State Road 64, according to the lawsuit naming Bynum and the driver.

The truck's driver, Robert Bohn, a battalion chief for Polk County Fire Services, was working part-time for the trucking company.

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A Miami Beach woman left bedridden and in excruciating pain following spinal surgery in 2003 at Mount Sinai Medical Center was awarded $38 million by a Miami-Dade Circuit Court jury.

The six-person jury deliberated nine hours over two days before finding that neurosurgeon Mario Nanes, Mount Sinai and the hospital's pharmacy management firm caused Amanda Slavin's debilitating injuries.

Mount Sinai settled before the case went to trial, so it is not on the hook to pay any part of the award. The hospital's pharmacy management firm at the time, McKesson Medication Management, vowed to appeal.

Continue reading "Miami Beach Woman Awarded $38 M For Botched Spinal Surgery" »

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The family of a woman mauled by a chimpanzee filed a lawsuit seeking $50 million in damages against the primate's owner, saying she was negligent and reckless for lacking the ability to control "a wild animal with violent propensities."

The suit also alleges that Herold had given the chimp medication that further upset the animal. Herold has made conflicting public statements about whether she gave Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug, to Travis on the day of the attack. The drug had not been prescribed for the animal, police said.

Herold knew the 200-pound chimp, Travis, was agitated when she asked Nash to come to her house on Feb. 16, the lawsuit said. The suit accuses Herold of negligence and recklessness for owning "a wild animal with violent propensities, even though she lacked sufficient skill, strength and/or experience to subdue the chimpanzee when necessary."

Continue reading "Family of Chimp Attack Victim Seeks $50M" »

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