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Mealey's Personal Injury

  • February 21, 2025

    4th Circuit Finds Pro Se Plaintiff Was Wrongly Denied Post-Stay Discovery

    RICHMOND, Va. — A trial court abused its discretion in denying a plaintiff’s request for discovery as untimely in a negligence suit against the United States, a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, holding that even if a second request served after the lifting of a discovery stay was untimely, a pre-stay request was not.

  • February 21, 2025

    Experts Properly Admitted To Testify On Cause Of Man’s Death, Opine On Prevention

    MIAMI — There was no error in a lower court allowing experts to testify for the estate of a man who died from carbon monoxide poisoning, a Florida appellate court ruled, affirming a verdict against the company that rented the man equipment that he used to strip hardwood floors in an enclosed space.

  • February 18, 2025

    Survivors Appeal Qualified Immunity Ruling In COVID-19 Nursing Home Deaths Case

    CAMDEN, N.J. — The survivors of former nursing home residents who died from COVID-19 filed a notice of appeal to the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals seeking review of a decision by a New Jersey federal court that New Jersey’s governor and public health commissioner are entitled to qualified immunity in their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic with respect to nursing homes and granting the officials’ motion to dismiss.

  • February 18, 2025

    Judge Partially Exclude Experts In Injury Case But Allows Case To Move Forward

    CHARLESTON, S.C. — A federal judge in South Carolina partially granted a motion to exclude experts in a lawsuit alleging an injury at a Target store but denied the company’s motion for summary judgment.

  • February 12, 2025

    Magistrate Judge Finds Alternative Design Ideas Speculative, Bars Testimony

    DALLAS — Experts retained to opine on a safer alternative design to a forklift involved in a workplace accident cannot testify, a Texas federal magistrate judge held, because the “proposed alternatives amount to speculative concepts, which is insufficient to rise to the level of an admissible expert opinion.”

  • February 11, 2025

    Recommendations Made On Experts’ Admissibility In Maritime Accident Case

    MIAMI — A federal magistrate judge in Florida recommended that a cruise ship operator’s motion to exclude expert witnesses be granted in part and that a motion to exclude the company’s medical expert be denied and a motion to exclude a rebuttal witness be granted, but he noted that some of the more persuasive arguments for exclusion were not raised by the parties.

  • February 10, 2025

    Justice Partly Amends Judgment For Smoker’s Death, Denies Claim Of Extreme ‘Bias’

    SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — A Massachusetts state court justice on Feb. 7 agreed that a previously entered judgment worth more than $105 million in favor of the widower of a dead smoker should be amended to reduce the attorney fees award and recalculate the trebled damages award but otherwise maintained the judgment, which the tobacco company had in part claimed was evidence of “extreme bias.”

  • February 07, 2025

    Survivors Of University Student Who Died In COVID-19 Isolation Renew Contract Claims

    NEWARK, N.J. — The estate and parents of a college sophomore who died from an epileptic seizure while in COVID-19 isolation during the school year filed an amended complaint against a university on Feb. 6 alleging breach of contract and of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing after a New Jersey federal court dismissed wrongful death and negligence claims based on the statute of limitations and a fraudulent concealment claim and their original contract claims as deficiently pleaded.

  • February 07, 2025

    Smoker’s Malpractice Settlement Precludes Widow’s Wrongful Death Suit, Panel Says

    MIAMI — A Fourth District Florida Court of Appeal panel on Feb. 6 affirmed a trial court’s entry of summary judgment for a cigarette company on Engle claims brought against it by a widow for causing her husband’s lung cancer and death, which the trial court deemed precluded by the husband’s previous settlement of medical malpractice claims against his cancer doctor.

  • February 06, 2025

    Smoker’s Daughter Waived Elder Juror Exclusion Challenge, Panel Says

    TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The First District Florida Court of Appeal on Feb. 5 affirmed a defense verdict rejecting a wrongful death suit brought by a deceased smoker’s daughter against two tobacco companies, writing that she failed to timely raise or preserve her objection to the fact that the trial court did not summon any potential jurors over the age of 70.

  • February 06, 2025

    Helicopter Engine Maker Not Liable For Fatal Crash Involving Repaired Carburetor

    MT. HOLLY, N.J. — Concluding that a helicopter engine manufacturer had not been involved in the repair of a carburetor during which allegedly defective parts were installed, a New Jersey judge granted the manufacturer’s motion for summary judgment in a lawsuit brought by the survivor of a helicopter crash victim who alleged that the helicopter’s carburetor caused a malfunction that resulted in the crash.

  • February 06, 2025

    ‘Racial Targeting’ Argument Tainted $34 Million Verdict, Tobacco Company Says

    TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A tobacco company argues in an appellant brief filed in a Florida appellate court that a jury’s $34 million verdict against it for the death of a 38-year-old smoker with cancer that allegedly caused a brain hemorrhage should be reversed in part because the smoker’s estate made improper, inflammatory arguments that the company “‘targeted’ black males” with its marketing.

  • February 05, 2025

    Reinsurer Wins Dismissal Of $844M Suit To Enforce Consent Judgments

    MIAMI — A reinsurer won dismissal with prejudice of a case that sought to enforce approximately $844 million in consent judgments entered against an airline in connection with a 2016 plane crash, with a Florida judge ruling in part that “Florida law narrowly restricts the circumstances in which an insured can ever directly pursue claims against a reinsurer to facts that are not alleged here.”

  • January 31, 2025

    11th Circuit Grants Joint Motion To Dismiss Appeals In Traffic Stop Death Case

    BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted a joint motion to dismiss with prejudice the cross-appeals of a deceased motorist and the motorist’s injured passenger and a city and city police officer seeking review of several Alabama federal court rulings in a case involving a traffic stop and chase that culminated in a crash and shooting of the motorist and passenger by the officer.

  • January 29, 2025

    Tobacco Company, Retailer Settle Wrongful Death Suit Brought By Widower

    SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — A tobacco company, retailer and the widower of a dead smoker settled a wrongful death suit brought in Massachusetts state court by the widower the day after openings in the trial were held regarding the widower’s claims that they are liable for his wife’s death from lung cancer at age 59 after she got hooked on smoking when she was given free samples of cigarettes as a 14-year-old.

  • January 28, 2025

    Mass. Justice Trebles Damages, Enters $105M Judgment For Smoker’s Cancer Death

    SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — A Massachusetts state court justice entered judgment worth roughly $105 million in favor of the widower of a smoker who got hooked on cigarettes after being handed a free sample at age 12 and died from lung cancer at age 59, after adding attorney fees and interest to the jury’s $10.6 million verdict, then adding additional trebled damages due to the tobacco company’s “unfair and deceptive trade practices.”

  • January 28, 2025

    Character.AI Defendants: Speech Concerns, Other Defects Doom Negligence Suit

    ORLANDO, Fla. — The company behind Character.AI and various related parties urged a federal judge in Florida to dismiss a suit claiming its artificial intelligence led to a teen’s suicide, saying free speech, product liability law and jurisdictional issues all doom the action.

  • January 27, 2025

    Experts Featured In Mealey's Daubert Report

    Entries are ordered in alphabetical order of the expert in each area of expert testimony.  Experts appeared in the January to December 2024 issues of Mealey’s Daubert Report.

  • January 27, 2025

    No Error In Excluding Experts, Dismissing Claim In Suit Against Driver, Employer

    RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said a district court did not abuse its discretion in barring experts from testifying on the timing of inclement weather that a tractor-trailer driver encountered before a crash or in excluding expert testimony on whether the driver was acting within the standard of care.

  • January 24, 2025

    New Jersey State Officials Have Qualified Immunity For Orders Addressing COVID-19

    CAMDEN, N.J. — Concluding that that they were entitled to qualified immunity in their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic with respect to nursing homes, a New Jersey federal court granted a motion to dismiss by New Jersey’s governor and public health commissioner in a lawsuit by survivors of former nursing home residents who died from COVID-19.

  • January 24, 2025

    SharkNinja Wins Final Judgment In Faulty Blender Case After Judge Excluded Expert

    INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana federal judge entered final judgment in favor of SharkNinja Operating LLC after finding that an expert retained by a woman who alleges that she was injured by a defective blender was excluded from testifying and the judge granted its motion for summary judgment.

  • January 24, 2025

    Judge Nixes Company’s Bid To End Fracking Case, Says Material Questions Exist

    HARRISBURG, Pa. — A federal judge in Pennsylvania has denied an oil company’s motion for summary judgment in a lawsuit alleging it is liable for an injury sustained by a worker at a hydraulic fracturing well pad, ruling that “the self-serving evidence submitted by the parties is insufficient to show that there are no questions of material fact” in the case.

  • January 24, 2025

    J&J, Man Awarded $15M By Connecticut Jury Debate Punitive Damages, Experts

    BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — In a quartet of briefs filed in a Connecticut court, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) entities and a mesothelioma sufferer who was awarded $15 million briefed the size of the award, what amount the court should award as punitive damages and whether the court properly admitted experts and instructed the jury.

  • January 16, 2025

    Heart Pump Maker Says Wrongful Death Case Cannot Survive Preemption Argument

    ST. LOUIS — A husband and daughter failed to allege how a surgically implanted heart pump was defectively designed or how that alleged defect caused a woman’s death, the manufacturer of the device argues in a reply brief to its motion for judgment on the pleadings, urging the Missouri federal court to find that the claims are preempted by federal law.

  • January 15, 2025

    Seattle Jury Awards $100M To 4 Plaintiffs In School PCB Case Against Monsanto

    SEATTLE — A jury in Washington state on Jan. 14 awarded four plaintiffs a total of $100 million in compensatory and punitive damages against Monsanto Co. in a trial over injuries allegedly caused by exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) at a Seattle-area school.  The plaintiffs had sought $4.14 billion in punitive damages.