Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

June 24, 2010

Officials Begin Testing Kettleman City California Hazardous Waste Landfill.

The AP (6/18) reports officials investigating a string of birth defects in rural Kettleman City, CA, “started taking samples of the air, water and soil” while “grieving parents” testified before state legislators about “infant deaths and birth defects in an impoverished farm town next to the biggest hazardous waste landfill in the West.”

Residents blame “toxic waste dump for the grouping of cleft palates and heart problems,” but Waste Management officials “have said there is no evidence linking the…landfill to the deformities.”

The company received approval to expand the 1,600-acre facility despite opposition from the residents. The expansion is pending results of state and federal environmental investigations.

Read full New York Times story here.

June 23, 2010

GlaxoSmithKline Settles Nearly 200 Paxil Lawsuits.

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The Legal Intelligencer (6/23, Elliott-Engel) reports, “Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to settle almost 200 cases in which plaintiffs allege the use of the antidepressant Paxil caused birth defects.”

GSK “decided to settle Kilker v. SmithKline Beecham Corp. d/b/a GlaxoSmithKline along with another 190 cases, according to an order signed by Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Sandra Mazer Moss last week.” Jamie Sheller, “local plaintiffs liaison counsel for the Paxil pregnancy mass tort program,” estimated “that up to another 100 cases, including cases that have not yet been filed, have settled.”

Read the full story here.

June 23, 2010

Pro Soccer Player Settles Sexual Battery Lawsuit

by Dr. Shezad Malik

American professional soccer player Nate Jaqua has settled a sexual battery lawsuit with a female University of Oregon soccer player.

The lawsuit, filed by Leigh Quinlan last summer, claimed that Jaqua “subjected her to a brutal, forcible sexual assault” outside a bar on the Oregon campus in 2007.

Quinlan had said that her distress over the alleged assault caused her to leave the university after two years with its women’s soccer team. The terms of the settlement were not released. Joshua Mayers, Seattle Times 06/16/2010
Read Article: Seattle Times

June 22, 2010

Employment Discrimination Suit Settled In Fresno

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The city of Fresno, Calif., has reached a $3.35 million settlement with a local woman who claims she was forced out of the Fresno Fire Department’s training academy because of her gender.

Michelle Maher stated in her lawsuit that she was set up to fail by fire training academy supervisors and that her exams were graded unfairly. As part of the settlement, the city will dismiss its appeal. Staff Report, The Fresno Bee 06/12/2010
Read Article: The Fresno Bee

June 21, 2010

Dallas Cowboys Employees Reach Settlements in Building Collapse

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Two Dallas Cowboys employees injured when the team practice facility collapsed on them during a storm last year reached confidential settlements with the bankrupt companies that built the tent-like structure.

The terms of the out-of-court agreement reached last week were not disclosed. A Cowboys team scout and special teams coach sued Summit Structures LLC of Allentown, Pa., and its Canadian parent, Cover-All Building Systems Inc., last year.

One plaintiff was left paralyzed from the waist down, and the second had a broken vertebra. Jon Nielsen, The Dallas Morning News 06/16/2010
Read Article: The Dallas Morning News

June 20, 2010

Louisville City Settles Suit Over Fatal Police Collision

by Dr. Shezad Malik

An $835,000 settlement has been reached in a lawsuit filed against the city of Louisville over an accident with a police cruiser that killed a local man in 2006.

Donnie Puente was standing next to his car in the emergency lane on a Kentucky highway when a police car driven by Officer Kenten Measle swerved into the lane, striking and killing Puente.

Measle was suspended for 30 days, but the death was ruled accidental. Jason Riley, Louisville Courier Journal 06/14/2010
Read Article: Louisville Courier Journal

June 19, 2010

Work Discrimination Suit Settled For $125K

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A $125,000 settlement has been reached in a discrimination lawsuit against a Kansas-based staffing company.

The lawsuit was filed against the Spencer Reed Group, LLC, by a 55-year-old white employee who claimed that she was subjected to harsher working conditions because of her age and race.

She claimed that she was given more work than her co-workers and was forced to provide reports on a weekly basis instead of monthly like the other employees. Also, the lawsuit stated that the plaintiff’s bosses often yelled and belittled her in front of the other employees.

As part of the settlement, the company will provide equal employment opportunity training and will post anti-discrimination notices. Staff Report, Kansas City Info Zine 06/13/2010
Read Article: Kansas City Info Zine

June 18, 2010

Lawsuit Claims Driver Was Drunk, Caused Fatal Crash

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed against a Naples, Fla., teacher alleging that she was intoxicated when she caused a car accident last year that killed a local woman.

The lawsuit, filed by the family of Bree Kelly, claims that Andrea M. Kidder was drunk at the wheel, which caused her to rear end the truck Kelly was riding in at over 70 mph, throwing Kelly from the vehicle and killing her.

Florida investigators are still awaiting the results of a toxicology report on Kidder’s blood, but have not filed any charges as of yet. Aisling Swift, Naples News 06/13/2010
Read Article: Naples News

June 17, 2010

Doctor Desai Indicted in Nevada Hepatitis Outbreak.

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The AP (6/4) reported, “A former physician-owner and two former employees at a Las Vegas-area colonoscopy clinic were indicted on 28 felony charges, including racketeering, negligence and insurance fraud stemming from a 2008 hepatitis C outbreak.

A judge in Las Vegas issued arrest warrants for physician Dipak Desai and former Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada anesthetists Ronald Ernest Lakeman and Keith Mathahs on charges resulting from allegations they misused syringes and clinic instruments to transmit the incurable liver disease to seven patients.”

Read the full story here.

June 16, 2010

New York Rules Man May Sue Wife’s Psychiatrist Over Herpes Infection.

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The New York Law Journal (6/7, Walder) reports, “A man who says he contracted a sexually transmitted disease after his wife had an affair with her allegedly infected psychiatrist can bring a negligence action against the doctor, a state judge has ruled.

The man, Carl Levine, claimed that Dr. Robert Werboff had a duty to warn him that he had herpes simplex before having unprotected sex with Levine’s wife.

Looking to ‘common concepts of morality, logic, and … the social consequences of imposing the duty,’ Westchester County Supreme Court Justice Nicholas Colabella agreed that Werboff owed a reasonable duty of care to Mr. Levine.”

Read the full story here.