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Mealey's Personal Injury

  • September 11, 2024

    5th Circuit Affirms Win For BP In Deepwater Injury Case; Expert Properly Excluded

    NEW ORLEANS — A lower court did not err in excluding a man’s causation expert in a Deepwater Horizon oil spill injury case, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled, affirming a summary judgment award in favor of BP Exploration & Production Inc. and its affiliates.

  • September 10, 2024

    Agent Under POA Alleges Negligence Against Care Home Over Pressure Injuries

    KANSAS CITY, Mo.  — An agent pursuant to a power of attorney (POA) sued a rehabilitation facility, a related entity and the facility owners and operators in a Missouri federal court, asserting that their negligence in failing to adequately staff the facility and provide the appropriate care resulted in a former resident developing pressure injuries, causing “pain, suffering and mental anguish.”

  • September 09, 2024

    Company Urges Dismissal After Arbitration Bid Denied In Care Home Negligence Suit

    NORTHERN JACKSON, Miss. — One day after a Mississippi federal judge denied a skilled nursing facility’s motion to compel arbitration in a negligence and medical malpractice suit filed against it and an affiliated limited liability corporation by a former resident through his guardian, the company filed a reply brief urging the judge to dismiss the case against it for lack of personal jurisdiction.

  • September 09, 2024

    TikTok Not Immune From Its Own First-Party Expression In Curating, Promoting Videos

    PHILADELPHIA — A panel of the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed in part and vacated in part the judgment of a Pennsylvania trial court dismissing a lawsuit by the mother of a 10-year-old girl who accidentally asphyxiated herself after watching a video encouraging similar behavior curated by an online video service and featured on the girl’s “For You Page,” ruling that the curation and promotion of videos is first-party expressive conduct, not third-party conduct for which the service was immune from liability under the Communications Decency Act (CDA).

  • September 06, 2024

    Testimony From Officer’s Expert On Man’s Injuries Limited In Use Of Force Case

    BOISE, Idaho — An expert retained by a police officer who is facing allegations that he violated a man’s constitutional rights during an arrest cannot testify about the cause of his injuries because his conclusions are not based on facts in evidence, an Idaho federal judge ruled.

  • September 04, 2024

    Traffic Stop Plaintiffs Appeal Jury Award Adjustments, Grant Of Qualified Immunity

    BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The estate of a deceased motorist and the motorist’s passenger involved in a traffic stop and chase that culminated in a crash and shooting and who sought damages from an Alabama city and city police officer for wrongful death and excessive force filed a notice of appeal to the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, seeking review of several orders of an Alabama federal court, including the vacatur of a $1.5 million award to the passenger based on qualified immunity granted to the police officer.

  • September 03, 2024

    Minor Injured By E-Cig Battery Explosion Appeals Dismissal To 7th Circuit

    CHICAGO — A minor who was injured when lithium-ion batteries intended for use with an e-cigarette device exploded in his pocket filed an amended docketing statement to the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals asserting the grounds for jurisdiction over his appeal of an Indiana federal judge’s ruling dismissing his personal injury claims against a Korean battery maker.

  • August 27, 2024

    Negligence Claim Against Care Home Dismissed; Ohio Resident Rights Claim Survives

    TOLEDO, Ohio — A federal judge in Ohio dismissed as time-barred negligence and punitive damages claims against a nursing home operator but found that the administratrix of a former resident’s estate has plausibly alleged that the facility committed negligent acts or omissions, and therefore, breached its duty of care to the resident in violation of his rights under the state’s resident rights statute.

  • August 27, 2024

    Arkansas Federal Judge Rules Firearms Expert Cannot Testify On Misfired Pistol

    EL DORADO, Ark. — An expert who opines that it is possible for a firearm to accidentally fire when dropped cannot testify because he failed to base his conclusions on a reliable methodology as required under Federal Rule of Evidence 702, an Arkansas federal judge ruled.

  • August 23, 2024

    City, Officer Appeal $2.75M Jury Verdict For Wrongful Death In Traffic Stop Case

    BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — An Alabama city and city police officer on Aug. 22 filed a notice of appeal to the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, seeking review of several orders of an Alabama federal court after it entered an amended final judgment on a jury verdict of $2.75 million in punitive damages to the estate of a deceased motorist who sought damages for excessive force and wrongful death in the shooting of the motorist and his passenger after their vehicle crashed.

  • August 22, 2024

    3rd Circuit Affirms Judgment For Insurer, Care Home In Medicare, Civil Rights Suit

    PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed judgment for an insurer and a skilled nursing facility (SNF) in an estate representative’s suit stemming from the Medicare Advantage plan’s failure to cover continued skilled nursing care and the facility’s failure to document a wound that led to the amputation of the patient’s leg, agreeing with the lower court that the representative failed to exhaust all administrative remedies under Medicare and failed to show that the woman’s wound changed during her stay at the facility.

  • August 22, 2024

    Acetaminophen Autism/ADHD Judge Says Causation Not Proven, Grants Summary Judgment

    NEW YORK — The New York federal judge overseeing the acetaminophen autism spectrum disorder-attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ASD-ADHD) multidistrict litigation, who recently found an expert retained by parents who allege that prenatal exposure to acetaminophen causes ADHD to be inadmissible, awarded summary judgment to the defendants after rejecting the plaintiffs’ argument that statements made by the defendants’ expert could use to prove causation.

  • August 21, 2024

    Federal Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Vaccine Case On Causation Grounds

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 20 affirmed a lower court’s finding that parents failed to prove that their child’s injury was caused by a flu vaccine in a National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act case.

  • August 15, 2024

    Firm’s Bid To Exclude Evidence Is ‘Far Too Broad To Enforce,’ Flint Plaintiffs Say

    ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The Bellwether III plaintiffs in the litigation over the lead-contaminated water crisis in Flint, Mich., have filed a brief in Michigan federal court arguing that it should deny the defendant engineering firm’s motion to prohibit the plaintiffs from introducing into evidence documents that have not been previously disclosed or authenticated because it is “far too broad to enforce” and it would “force the Court to preempt the equitable exceptions” contained in federal and local rules.

  • August 13, 2024

    Bid To Reargue Procedural Deficiency Of COVID-Era Malpractice Claim Denied

    BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — After a hearing on the motion, a Connecticut state court judge on Aug. 12 denied a physician’s attempt to reargue her contention that an opinion letter necessary to support a malpractice claim of a patient alleging that her head injury was misdiagnosed as gastroenteritis during the COVID-19 pandemic was insufficient and that the lawsuit should have been dismissed.

  • August 09, 2024

    Michigan Supreme Court Declines Review Of Case Involving COVID-Era Tolling Order

    LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Supreme Court denied a hospital patient’s application for leave to appeal a decision of the Michigan Court of Appeals, which ruled that the Supreme Court’s administrative order issued during the COVID-19 pandemic removing from the computation of filing deadlines the days spanning Michigan’s state of emergency did not apply to the statutory period required to elapse before a medical malpractice lawsuit could be filed and, thus, the patient’s lawsuit against a hospital and physicians was time-barred.

  • August 09, 2024

    Magistrate Excludes Defense Witnesses, Allows Plaintiffs’ Expert To Testify

    SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Two doctors in a medical malpractice suit on Aug. 8 asked a federal magistrate judge in Puerto Rico to reconsider his order excluding their expert witnesses, who would testify on whether the standard of care was breached while treating a man who later died after ingesting glyphosate.

  • August 08, 2024

    South Carolina Panel Remands Rehab Facility Liability Suit For Arbitration

    COLUMBIA, S.C.  — A South Carolina appeals court on Aug. 7 reversed and remanded a lower court’s order denying a South Carolina rehab facility’s motion to dismiss and compel arbitration in response to a notice of intent to sue filed by the estate of a former resident, finding that the durable power of attorney (POA) executed by the decedent’s daughter on his behalf gave her the authority to enter into the enforceable arbitration agreement when the decedent entered the rehab facility.

  • August 05, 2024

    Defense Expert On Medical Standards Properly Admitted In Malpractice Suit In Georgia

    ATLANTA — A Georgia appeals court on Aug. 2 found that a trial court properly allowed expert testimony under the state’s admission standards and affirmed a defense verdict in a medical malpractice suit.

  • August 05, 2024

    City Must Pay Only $100,000 Of $2.75M Wrongful Death Award In Traffic Stop Case

    BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — An Alabama federal judge on Aug. 2 granted in part a motion of an Alabama city and a city police officer for judgment as a matter of law or a new trial or remittitur of a $4.45 million jury award stemming from a vehicle chase that culminated in the police officer shooting into the plaintiffs’ vehicle after it crashed, holding that the officer was entitled to qualified immunity on excessive force claims and that, by law, the municipality could not be liable for more than $100,000 of the $2.75M in wrongful death punitive damages awarded against the city and the officer.

  • August 05, 2024

    Gardasil MDL Judge Dismisses 4 Cases On Jurisdictional Grounds

    STATESVILLE, N.C. — The North Carolina federal judge overseeing the Gardasil multidistrict litigation granted motions to dismiss filed by Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, agreeing that four plaintiffs failed to timely file a required petition in the Vaccine Court.

  • August 05, 2024

    Florida High Court Won’t Review Engle Residency In $2.5M Win For Smoker’s Estate

    TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Supreme Court on Aug. 2 denied two tobacco companies’ petition to review an appellate panel’s opinion affirming a $2.5 million verdict in favor of the estate of a smoker who died from lung cancer, declining to accept jurisdiction over the tobacco companies’ argument that the smoker was not an Engle member and primarily resided in New York.

  • August 02, 2024

    Expert Did Not Connect Injuries To Malpractice; Summary Judgment Affirmed

    PHILADELPHIA — Because an expert for parents did not causally connect the deprivation of oxygen during their child’s delivery to his diagnosis of autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a district court properly excluded the expert’s testimony and did not err in awarding summary judgment on the medical malpractice claims, the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said.

  • August 02, 2024

    Nicotine Pouch Consumer Files Putative Class Action Alleging False Youth Marketing

    HARTFORD, Conn. — A consumer of Zyn nicotine pouches filed a putative class action in Connecticut federal court accusing Philip Morris International Inc. (PM) and Swedish Match North America LLC of violating Florida consumer protection statutes by targeting youth and deceptively advertising the products as a “safer and healthier alternative to smoking.”

  • August 02, 2024

    Patient Says Rehab Hospital Ignored Directives, Resulting In Leg Amputation

    INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana man has filed a federal complaint against the operators of his skilled nursing facility, alleging that they failed to follow medical directives that a wound vacuum (wound vac) be placed over his three amputated toes, resulting in his lower leg being amputated.