Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

May 7, 2009

Jury Awards More Than $2 M in Illinois Asbestos Case

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.

May 6, 2009

TMB May 2009 Board Rules Changes

by Dr. Shezad Malik

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.

May 6, 2009

$3.3 M Awarded to Woman Sickened by Mold

by Dr. Shezad Malik

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.

May 5, 2009

Wyeth Supreme Court Loss Restarts Drug Lawsuits

by Dr. Shezad Malik

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.

May 4, 2009

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.

by Dr. Shezad Malik

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.

May 3, 2009

Family of Seattle Cyclist Killed by Dump Truck Settles Lawsuit

by Dr. Shezad Malik

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.

May 2, 2009

$14M Awarded in California Drowning Lawsuit

by Dr. Shezad Malik

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.

May 1, 2009

Families Sue Over Fatal MD Bay Bridge Crash

by Dr. Shezad Malik

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.

April 30, 2009

Accutane Injury Results in $10.5 Million Judgment

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A woman who said she developed ulcerative colitis from taking Accutane was awarded $10.5 million by a New Jersey jury. It was the third of 425 lawsuits alleging that Accutane caused inflammatory bowel disease in some users to go to trial. All three cases have resulted in multi-million dollar judgments against Hoffman-LaRoche, Inc., the maker of Accutane.

Approved by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in 1982, Accutane has been the subject of controversy for years. In addition to inflammatory bowel disease, the drug has been associated with myriad other serious side effects.

It was known in the late eighties for causing severe birth defects. It has also been known to cause psychiatric problems, and has been linked to 266 cases of suicide in the United States.

In addition to inflammatory bowel disease, Accutane has also been associated with problems of the liver, kidneys, central nervous system, and pancreas, as well as the cardiovascular, musculoskeletal and auto-immune systems.

April 30, 2009

Shell Settles Texas Air Pollution Claims

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The oil company Royal Dutch Shell said Thursday that it had reached a $5.8 million settlement over claims of air pollution at its Deer Park refinery near Houston.

The proposed settlement would require Shell to reduce emissions from air pollutants from its plant by 80 percent within three years, upgrade chemical units and reduce gas flaring.

The agreement is subject to review by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department. It must also be approved by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, where the complaint was filed.