Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

The family of a child who died in a Winnie the Pooh bassinet has sued the Walt Disney Co., alleging the company allowed sales of the bassinets despite a flawed design that had been linked to another baby's death.

The bassinet had a drop-down side for easy access, but the design created a gap where babies could slide through and hang to death. The child was 6 months old when she was strangled.

Shortly after the child's death, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission directed retailers to stop selling the bassinets, which were manufactured by Simplicity Inc. Disney's consumer products division licensed its Winnie the Pooh name and image to Simplicity.

The suit, filed in California state court in Los Angeles, raises questions about a common practice in the nursery products industry: Are companies that license their names and characters to other manufacturers responsible when those products turn out to be deadly?

Continue reading "Family Sues Disney Over Defective Product Death" »

Posted by Dr. Shezad Malik | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Personal Injury , Product Liability , Wrongful Death

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Merck is considering an appeal after a Texas state appeals court reversed its own prior dismissal of a $7.75 M judgment in a Vioxx personal injury lawsuit against the drugmaker.

A three-judge panel of the Texas 4th Court of Appeals ruled there should be a new trial in the case. The plaintiff, a longtime smoker with a history of heart disease, died of a heart attack in 2001 after taking Vioxx briefly.

The three judges sent the case back to the original trial court, where a jury in 2006 had awarded $32 million to the man's widow. That amount was cut to about $7.75 million under a Texas law limiting damages.

Continue reading "Texas Court Orders New Vioxx Trial " »

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Posted In: Personal Injury , Product Liability

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Medical device maker Medtronic Inc. said it did not encourage the unapproved use of its spinal implant, which a new lawsuit is blaming for the death of a California woman.

The lawsuit, filed by the woman's family in Los Angeles, said her death was caused by use of the Infuse spinal graft in her neck. The device is approved only for use in lower-back surgery and some oral and dental procedures.

The woman's surgery took place in August, a month after the Food and Drug Administration warned that use of Infuse for neck surgeries had led to problems swallowing, breathing and speaking.

Continue reading "Medtronic Lawsuit Over Spinal Implant" »

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Posted In: Medical Malpractice , Personal Injury , Product Liability , Spinal Cord Injury

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One of Philadelphia's bellwether cases in litigation over whether the maker of the drug Paxil failed to warn about an increased risk of suicide from its drug has been dismissed following a Common Pleas Court judge's decision to grant summary judgment on statute of limitations grounds.

Collins v. SmithKline Beecham Corp. d/b/a GlaxoSmithKline survived summary judgment in March when defendant GlaxoSmithKline argued that the doctrine of federal pre-emption precluded the plaintiffs from pursuing their state products liability claim.

While Judge Tereshko, coordinating judge of the Complex Litigation Center, denied summary judgment on the grounds of federal pre-emption in March, Tereshko granted summary judgment on the grounds regarding Pennsylvania's statute of limitations.

The judge's order dismissed all of plaintiffs claims of wrongful death, survival, negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress, strict liability under the Maryland Products Liability Act, fraud, negligent misrepresentation, loss of consortium and punitive damages.

Continue reading "Paxil Test Case Fails Statute of Limitations" »

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Posted In: Product Liability

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Two units of Johnson & Johnson must pay $16.6 million to the family of a Chicago-area woman who died after using a Duragesic pain-patch, a state jury found, dealing the company its fourth defeat in as many trials since 2006.

The woman aged 38, died in February 2004 because the patch she was wearing delivered a fatal dose of the narcotic fentanyl, the device's main ingredient.

The Duragesic-brand patch is made by Alza Corp., a Mountain View, California, company owned by New Brunswick, New Jersey- based Johnson & Johnson, the world's biggest maker of medical devices. The product was distributed by another Johnson & Johnson unit, Janssen Pharmaceutica. The jury deliberated for less than two days.

Continue reading "J&J Units Must Pay $16.6 Million for Fentanyl Death " »

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The Yamaha Rhino, was a hit in the off-road-vehicle market, promising to go "almost anywhere" with an "amazingly high level of comfort and ease." Now, federal safety regulators are investigating the vehicle following reports of some 30 deaths involving it, including those of two young girls last month.

Yamaha faces more than 200 lawsuits in state and federal courts, many alleging the Rhino's design is unsafe. Yamaha has settled some but recently beefed up its defense and says it may start to fight rather than settle.

Yamaha stands behind the design of the Rhino, a two-seat vehicle that looks a little like a cross between a golf cart and all-terrain vehicle. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) said its investigation of the utility terrain vehicle, or UTV, was prompted by the number of accident reports and the lawsuits.

Many injury claims, Yamaha said, result from improper operation, modifications such as removing the protective "roll cage," or failure to use a helmet and seat belt.

Read earlier post.

Continue reading "Consumer Product Safety Commission Investigates Rhino UTV" »

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Wyeth, which set aside more than $21 billion to resolve lawsuits over the fen-phen diet combination, must pay $3 million to a woman who contracted a lung-destroying disease from the drugs.

The New Jersey jurors deliberated about two hours before finding that Wyeth's Pondimin drug was a cause of the woman's primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH). The trial loss was Wyeth's first in four years in a case involving the often-fatal illness.

The ruling comes as the New Jersey-based Wyeth seeks to wrap up more than a decade of litigation over fen-phen, which combined the company's Pondimin and Redux with the generic phentermine. This medication combination was taken by patients as a weight reduction method to suppress their appetites.

Continue reading "Fen-Phen $3M NJ Verdict" »

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Posted In: Product Liability

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A college freshman was killed in a dormitory elevator accident two years ago at Ohio State University.

Ohio State has taken safety measures, such as installing video cameras in all its high-rise elevators this year, in case someone gets trapped and as a way to help identify causes of mechanical malfunctions.

One other student (Morris) was in the elevator when the freshman was crushed between the ceiling of the elevator and the third-floor lobby. The fatally injured student was trying to get off the overloaded elevator when it unexpectedly descended with its doors open.

Continue reading "Elevator Failure Led to Student's Death" »

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Posted In: Product Liability

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Pfizer Inc. said it agreed earlier this week to pay $894 million to settle most Celebrex and Bextra claims.

Pfizer said in a statement that it is taking an after-tax charge of $640 million against profit in the quarter to cover the settlement sum.

Pfizer said it plans to settle most lawsuits involving the painkillers Bextra and Celebrex. The large size of the settlement heightens the pressure to cut costs, because Pfizer's blockbuster cholesterol drug, Lipitor, is losing market share and sales growth of its once-promising antismoking drug, Chantix, has slowed because of safety concerns.

Continue reading "Pfizer to Settle Bextra and Celebrex Lawsuits" »

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WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is planning to rewrite a wide array of federal rules with changes or additions that could block product-safety lawsuits by consumers and states.

The administration has written language aimed at pre-empting product-liability litigation into 50 rules governing everything from motorcycle brakes to pain medicine. This year, lawsuit-protection language has been added to 10 new regulations, including one issued Oct. 8 at the Department of Transportation that limits the number of seatbelts car makers can be forced to install and prohibits suits by injured passengers who did not get to wear one.

Continue reading "New Rules Could Block Product Liability Suits" »

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According to court recordsJohnson & Johnson has spent at least $68.7 million to settle hundreds of lawsuits filed by women who suffered blood clots, heart attacks or strokes after using the company's Ortho Evra birth-control patch.

Majority of users claimed that the patch caused deep-vein thrombosis, (blood clots in the legs), and pulmonary embolisms, (when the blood clots from the legs travel into the lungs). The complaints blamed Ortho Evra for the deaths of 20 women, strokes and heart attacks.

Continue reading "J&J Paid $68 Million to Settle Ortho-Evra Lawsuits" »

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A Vermont woman was awarded more than $6 million when a jury ordered Wyeth, a pharmaceutical company, to pay her for failing to warn her about the risks of one of its drugs.

But this case was appealed all the way to the US Supreme Court and the Court is set to hear arguments this November.

This case concerns “Federal Pre-emption,” a legal doctrine that can prevent plaintiffs from suing in state court when the products that injured them had met federal standards.

Continue reading "Botched IV Injection Leads to Amputation" »

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The FDA earlier this week imposed a ban on 30 drugs made by the Indian pharmaceutical company Ranbaxy Laboratories. Ranbaxy is one of the largest suppliers of generic medicines to the United States.

This ban follows FDA inspections of two of the company's plants in India that were found to have unacceptable manufacturing controls, no programs to prevent cross contamination, a lack of sterile processing operations and incomplete records. This ban covers generic versions of popular cholesterol drugs, antibiotics and allergy medicines.

Continue reading "FDA Bans Ranbaxy generics " »

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Several thousand MacGregor and Mitre folding soccer goals were recalled today, after the death of a toddler.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission said a 20-month-old Texas toddler was strangled when his head and arm became caught up in the net of one of the recalled goals. The agency received one other report of a child's head becoming trapped.

The gaps in the recalled nets are about 20 square inches, which is a dangerous size according to the CPSC. The agency says netting should have gaps less than 17 square inches or greater than 28 square inches, to prevent dangerous entanglement and strangulation.

Continue reading "Texas Toddler Dies" »

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NHTSA are warning owners of 5 million recalled Ford Motor Co. vehicles to go to dealerships to repair a cruise-control switch system that has been linked to engine fires.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently issued a second consumer advisory to owners of certain unrepaired Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles that have not responded to previous recalls.

Continue reading "NHTSA Warns Ford Owners " »

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The FDA in an effort to improve communication with doctors and patients on prescription drug safety, began posting a list of medications under investigation for potential problems.

The list is a compilation naming 20 medications and the potential safety issue for each drug. The listings will be updated for each calendar quarter.

Drugs will be placed on the list based on reports the FDA receives and if FDA safety reviewers determine that a reported problem with a particular drug deserves a closer look, that medication will be on the list.

Read the report.

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MARSHALL TEXAS- California resident Canstanza Raspa claims that her development of breast cancer, resulting surgery and mastectomy are the result of 10 years of hormone replacement therapy.

Raspa filed a product liability suit against hormone replacement manufacturers Wyeth, Pfizer, Pharmacia and Upjohn Inc. on Sept 3, in the Marshall Division of the Eastern District of Texas.

The lawsuit alleges that the defendants are liable for claims of fraudulent concealment, negligence, strict products liability, defective marketing, in adequate warnings, negligent misrepresentations, fraud, and breach of express warranty.

Continue reading "Woman files HRT suit in Marshall Texas" »

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Diabetes patients who use the drug Avandia face an increased risk of serious and potentially fatal injuries of heart attack, stroke, congestive heart failure, bone fractures or death.

Federal lawsuits have been consolidated in an MDL (Multi-District Litigation) in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Avandia is a type 2 diabetes medication which is used to control blood sugar levels. Until 2007, it was one of the best selling medications in the United States, with annual sales in excess of $2 billion.

Continue reading "Avandia Lawsuits" »

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Duragesic brand and generic fentanyl pain patches have been associated with cases of overdose and death. Poor design, inadequate warnings and poor quality controls during the manufacturing process could result in excessive amounts of fentanyl entering the body.

Lawsuits have been filed throughout the United States for users who have died or become comatosed from a fentanyl overdose.

Continue reading "Fentanyl Patch Lawsuits" »

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Mesothelioma is a rare form of lung cancer caused by exposure to asbestos and breathing asbestos fibers. It is a very serious disease, which is often at a very advanced stage when a diagnosis is made. The disease is uniformally fatal. The first asbestos lawsuit was filed in 1929, and with thousands of people being diagnosed with this condition each year.

Mesothelioma is almost always caused by exposure to asbestos either directly or indirectly through family members who worked with the material. A mesothelioma cancer diagnosis can be made years after a family member carried home asbestos dust or fibers on their clothing, shoes, skin or in their hair.

Continue reading "Mesothelioma Lawsuits" »

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A California man, filed a personal injury claim against Yamaha Motor Corporation in California Superior Court. The lawsuit alleged that the Yamaha Rhino side-by-side is a dangerously unstable and defective all terrain vehicle.

In 2006, the 42 years old, was a passenger in a 2006 Yamaha Rhino when it tipped over at a low rate of speed. The man suffered severe crush injuries to his right leg from the roll bar and was left permanently damaged.

Continue reading "Defective Yamaha Rhino Lawsuit" »

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Posted In: Product Liability

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