Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

November 9, 2008

Boston Plans Tougher Regulations on Tobacco

Boston Public Health Commission is proposing some of the nation’s strictest smoking regulations; banning the sale of cigarettes at drugstores and on college campuses, and shutting down the city’s 10 cigar and hookah bars by 2013.

The commission said, the goal is to discourage young people from buying tobacco products, to keep a harmful product out of stores that promote health, and to protect employees who are exposed to secondhand smoke.

The Board of Health will vote on the regulations on Nov. 13. If approved they will take effect within 60 days.

“Should tobacco be treated as any other consumer good? No,” said Barbara Ferrer, director of the Board of Health. “We do not sell guns everywhere, we do not sell alcohol everywhere and we do not need to be selling tobacco everywhere. They are all dangerous products, and they all require regulation.”

November 8, 2008

Colorado Diocese Settles $4M Sex Abuse Case

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The Catholic Diocese and the Marianist religious order have agreed to pay $4 million to settle the claims of 23 men who said they were sexually abused when they attended a Catholic high school in Pueblo.

The agreement involved alleged abuse at Roncalli High School between 1966 and 1971.

Lawsuits were filed on behalf of the former students who allege a former Brother lured them at the school and asked them to participate in an experiment about trust. He then placed a cloth soaked in ether, a compound used for anesthesia, over their mouths, then sexually abused them as they lay helpless.

November 7, 2008

EMC Sex Bias Case Denied Class Action

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A federal appeals court denied former employees of EMC Corp. class-action status in their complaint against the company claiming sexual discrimination.

This means that the plaintiffs will have to pursue their complaints on an individual basis. The two plaintiffs had each worked in EMC’s Chicago-area sales force from 1999 to 2003. They filed their suit in 2004 after they had lost their jobs.

The plaintiffs and 15 other former salesmen and women have described company-paid visits to strip clubs, demeaning sexual remarks or retaliation against women who complained about the atmosphere. Three women have said male managers sometimes unfairly removed women from accounts they developed and replaced them with men.

Read the complaint here:Download file

November 6, 2008

Court Upholds Damages in Sushi Food Poisoning Case

by Dr. Shezad Malik

An appeals court upheld a $3.2 million award to a woman who said she suffered permanent nerve damage after eating sushi.

The woman was awarded the judgment from a jury more than two years ago but a judge overturned the award. In the decision the 4th District Court of Appeal reversed.

November 5, 2008

A&M Settles Bonfire Law Suit

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Texas A&M University has agreed to pay $2.1 million to settle a lawsuit resulting from the 1999 bonfire collapse that killed 12 people and injured 27.

The families of four students who died and three who were hurt had sued the university, school officials and construction contractors hired to help build the 59-foot-high stack of logs.

The settlement agreement, filed in state District Court in Brazos County, resolves all remaining claims against current and former A&M employees. Claims against the contractors are pending, and the university is a third-party defendant in those matters.

November 4, 2008

Dell Sued For Wrongful Termination

by Dr. Shezad Malik

According to a new lawsuit filed by four former human-resources managers recent layoffs at Dell unfairly targeted women and workers over age 40, and the company discriminates against women in pay and promotions,
The four former HR executives at Dell are seeking US$500 million in a class-action lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The four women alleged that the company and its “old boy network” discriminated against women in pay, job placement, promotions and layoffs.

Dell in May 2007 announced plans to lay off about 8,800 workers, about 10 percent of its workforce. Those layoffs unfairly targeted women and older workers, and more than 80 percent of Dell’s upper management is now male, the lawsuit claims.

November 3, 2008

Florida Supreme Court OKs Anthrax Law Suit

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The Florida Supreme Court issued a ruling will help the widow of an anthrax victim claim that the government was ultimately responsible for her husband’s death.

The widow’s husband was a photo editor who was exposed to anthrax when it was mailed to the Boca Raton office of American Media Inc., in 2001. He was the first of five people who died and 17 others got sick in a series of similar attacks.

The Court ruled that the defendants had a duty under Florida law to protect the public against the unauthorized release of lethal materials. The law suit also alleges the government and Battelle Memorial Institute, a private laboratory in Columbus, Ohio, were the source of the anthrax.

The ruling on the defendants’ duty under Florida law was requested by a federal appeals court considering a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

November 2, 2008

Exxon Sued For Groundwater Contamination

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The world’s largest company Exxon Corp promised the residents of a Baltimore County neighborhood that the company would “pay money damages to the people who were harmed” by a 26,000-gallon gasoline leak that contaminated the groundwater beneath their homes two years ago.

This is a trial in which 309 plaintiffs claimed that the oil giant was careless in looking after its facilities and the responsible party There are real damages in this case. Some plaintiffs have suffered emotional distress and some plaintiffs have suffered loss in property values.

November 2, 2008

Amputee Awaits Supreme Court Decision

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Diana Levine has a big fight coming up. In a drawing made by her daughter, based on Greek mythology there is an illustration of Diana the Huntress, her bow string drawn taut, an arrow ready to fly.

But the arm pulling at the bowstring was amputated below the elbow — just like Levine’s — and the target was labeled the “Wyeth monster.”

Levine blames Wyeth for a botched injection of the Wyeth-made drug Phenergan that led doctors to amputate her right arm in 2000.

Levine was awaiting a hearing Monday before the U.S. Supreme Court, where Wyeth is appealing a $6.7 million verdict in her favor.

The outcome of Levine’s case could have huge ramifications for drug makers and consumers. The court is expected to decide whether people can sue under state law — or are pre-empted from doing so — for harm caused by a drug approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

Levine said the drug makers “are using my case … to get through this doctrine that will say that if it is FDA-approved, then we are not accountable, because FDA said it’s OK. … Mr. Pharmaceutical Company is not responsible and is not liable and doesn’t have to help the person who just lost her arm, or her life.”

Read the earlier post

November 1, 2008

Default Judgment: Fraternity Must Pay $16.2 million in Hazing Death

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A default judgment was granted to the parents of a freshman pledge who fell to his death two years ago after authorities said he was subjected to hazing. A state district judge has ordered the national and University of Texas chapters of a fraternity to pay $16.2 million.

The Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity must pay each of the parents $2.5 million for mental anguish and nearly $81,000 for funeral expenses, as well as additional damages, according to the default judgment.

The order was issued after the national and local SAE chapters failed to respond to a lawsuit filed in September. State law allows the chapters to seek a new trial, which could be granted if the representatives explain why they did not respond to the suit and can defend allegations against them.