Federal regulators in 2007 asked Toyota Motor Corp. to consider installing software to prevent sudden acceleration in its vehicles after receiving complaints that vehicles could race out of control, company documents show. Yet the automaker began installing the safety feature, known as brake override, only this January after a widely…
A Seattle couple have sued Toyota in federal court, demanding that the company either take back the vehicle they just bought or reimburse them for its loss in value since the automaker’s sudden-acceleration troubles became news. The lawsuit alleges that the issues plaguing Toyota violate the state’s Consumer Protection Act…
The Texas Supreme Court threw out a $15.8 million verdict, ruling unanimously that lawyers improperly introduced evidence that a gravel truck driver involved in a 2002 accident that killed four members of a Wise County family was an illegal immigrant. By repeatedly mentioning the truck driver’s immigration status, lawyers for…
The Texas Supreme Court said that a San Antonio woman could not sue her doctor over a surgical sponge left inside her body because she waited too long to file suit even though she could not have discovered the problem any sooner. The court ruled 9-0 that the patient, Emmalene…
In a further blow to the antivaccine movement, three judges ruled Friday in three separate cases that thimerosal, a preservative containing mercury, does not cause autism. The three rulings are the second step in the Omnibus Autism Proceeding begun in 2002 in the United States Court of Federal Claims. The…
Tatum and Charlene Hernandez built their dream house in Mandeville in 2006, but their home has been their nightmare ever since they realized last year that it’s filled with problem drywall from China. The air-conditioning and other appliances keep failing. Charlene Hernandez, a labor and delivery nurse at Oschner, gets…
Toyota owners claiming that massive safety recalls are causing the value of their vehicles to plummet have filed at least 89 class-action lawsuits that could cost the Japanese auto giant $3 billion or more, according to an Associated Press review of cases, legal precedent and interviews with experts. Those estimates…
An Oregon girl whose truck-driver father accidentally ran her over with his big rig has won $24.3 million in damages from the Portland company that a Sacramento judge found legally responsible for her injuries. In a court-trial decision returned Dec. 14, Judge David W. Abbott said the firm that hired…
The city of Los Angeles paid $7 million to settle a lawsuit brought by a volunteer for the Los Angeles Triathlon, who was left a paraplegic by an accident during the event in 2007, according to his attorney. Steve Albala, who was 60 at the time of the accident, was…
The family of a bicyclist killed last year in a collision with a truck in Baltimore has filed a $5 million wrongful-death lawsuit against the driver and his employer. On Aug. 4, John R. “Jack” Yates, 67, was riding his bike behind a truck when he became caught in the…