Mealey's Personal Injury : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Personal Injury

February 13, 2024
Alabama Jury Awards $4.5M For Excessive Force By Police In Post-Chase Shooting

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A federal jury in Alabama awarded $4.45 million in compensatory and punitive damages to the estate of a deceased motorist and an injured passenger, who sued a Birmingham police officer and the city alleging that the officer used excessive force in shooting the motorist and passenger after their vehicle crashed as a result of being struck by the officer’s car during a pursuit.
February 12, 2024
Order Compelling Arbitration Reversed For COVID Death Claims Against Care Home

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — An Illinois appellate court reversed in part and remanded a lower court’s order compelling arbitration in an estate administrator’s suit against a nursing home after a former resident contracted COVID-19 and died, finding that the claims under the Illinois Wrongful Death Act cannot be arbitrated because the beneficiaries of the estate did not consent to arbitration.
February 12, 2024
11th Circuit Tosses Insurer’s Appeal In Direct Action Suit For Lack of Jurisdiction

ATLANTA — The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that it lacks jurisdiction over an insurer’s appeal of a lower court’s contrary ruling in a direct action lawsuit arising from gunshot injuries, finding that the lower court’s order on dueling summary judgment motions is not final or immediately appealable because it is silent as to an award of any prejudgment interest.
February 09, 2024
U.S. Government Appeals 5th Circuit Ruling Invalidating Ghost Gun Regulation

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. government filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals erred in affirming a Texas federal court decision finding unlawful a rule promulgated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) that broadened the definition of “firearm” to include parts of “ghost guns,” which can be assembled into weapons but, before the rule, were considered by some manufacturers to not require serial numbers or a firearms background check before sale.
February 09, 2024
No Exception To Expert Report Service Requirement, Texas Appeals Court Says

EASTLAND, Texas — A woman’s failure to properly serve a copy of her experts’ reports on the defendants in her medical malpractice suit as required under the Texas Medical Liability Act (TMLA) warrants the dismissal of her case, a Texas state appeals court ruled Feb. 8 in reversing a trial court.
February 08, 2024
Panel Deems Arbitration Agreement Unenforceable In Nursing Home Neglect Suit

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — An Arkansas appellate court on Feb. 7 affirmed a lower court order denying a nursing home’s motion to compel arbitration in a medical negligence suit against it by the estate of a woman who died after sustaining injuries at the nursing home, finding that the lower court correctly held that the arbitration agreement lacked “mutuality of contract” because the facility could sue for unpaid fees in court while claims for medical negligence are subject to arbitration.
February 08, 2024
No Abuse Of Discretion In Excluding Expert In Crash Case, 2nd Circuit Rules

NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 7 affirmed the dismissal of a man’s claim for negligence against United Parcel Service Inc. and one of its employees after a jury returned a defense verdict, finding no error in the court’s decision to exclude an expert witness.
February 06, 2024
Expert On Forklift Safety Design Excluded; Manufacturer Wins Summary Judgment

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A Kansas federal judge granted summary judgment to a forklift manufacturer in a personal injury suit after finding that the expert retained by the injured man failed to provide reliable alternative designs that would have prevented the accident.
February 06, 2024
9th Circuit Panel Rules PREP Act Immunity Extends To State Vaccine Prioritization

SAN FRANCISCO — A panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in related appeals reversed an Oregon federal court decision denying the motions to dismiss of Oregon’s governor and other state officials in a class action by prison inmates seeking damages for alleged constitutional violations resulting from the officials’ decision to prioritize COVID-19 vaccination for prison workers over the inmates.
February 05, 2024
Online Marketplace Operator Not Liable For Users’ Murder, 10th Circuit Finds

DENVER — The operator of the Letgo online marketplace platform is not liable for the murder of a Colorado couple at the hands of a purported seller they met through the website, a 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, affirming a trial court’s finding that Letgo did not act negligently or cause the couple’s murder.
February 02, 2024
Judge: Expert Out In Use Of Force Case, Testimony Unreliable And Prejudicial

ORLANDO, Fla. — Allowing a correctional expert retained by defendants in an excessive force case “to testify will infuse the trial with prejudice,” a Florida federal judge ruled, finding that the expert’s testimony is unreliable and unhelpful.
February 02, 2024
University Must Provide Past Incident Info To Student Claiming Sexual Assault

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Police reports, communications and other information about previously reported incidents of off-campus sexual assaults and harassment are relevant to a university student’s claims of sexual discrimination over the school’s response to her claimed assault, a West Virginia federal magistrate judge found, ordering Marshall University to supplement its discovery responses.
February 02, 2024
Judge Says Experts Admissible Under Rule 403 But Orders Briefing Under Daubert

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Florida federal judge said experts in a personal injury suit opining on whether injuries from an accident caused a woman to fail an exam should not be excluded under Federal Rule of Evidence 403 but ordered that a new motion be filed before trial addressing whether the testimony is admissible under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.
February 02, 2024
Massachusetts Panel Vacates Judgment For Rehab Facility In Wrongful Death Suit

BOSTON — A Massachusetts appeals court on Feb. 1 vacated a lower court’s judgment for a rehabilitation facility and reversed the lower court’s order allowing the facility’s motion for judgment notwithstanding the jury verdict and granting a new trial in a wrongful death suit, finding that the lower court incorrectly determined “that the erroneous admission” of the issuance of a statement of deficiency against the facility was prejudicial without determining whether the admission merited a new trial.
February 01, 2024
Flint Plaintiffs Seek Final Approval Of $8M Settlement With 3 Engineering Firms

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The plaintiffs in the Flint water crisis litigation have filed a brief in Michigan federal court seeking final approval of an $8 million class settlement with three firms that provided engineering and consulting services to the city of Flint in its decision to switch its water supply to the Flint River, a move that precipitated the lead contamination of the city’s drinking water.
January 31, 2024
HIV Expert Excluded In Cruise Ship Infection Case, Florida Federal Judge Rules

MIAMI — An HIV expert retained by a cruise company is barred from testifying in a suit brought by a woman who alleges that she contracted the virus during an emergency blood transfusion while aboard the vessel, a Florida federal judge ruled.
January 29, 2024
Pa. Jury Awards $2.25B To Man With Cancer In Roundup Trial Against Monsanto

PHILADELPHIA — A jury in Pennsylvania state court on Jan. 26 awarded $2.25 billion in combined damages to a man who said exposure to Monsanto Co.’s herbicide Roundup caused his cancer.
January 26, 2024
Wrongful Death Suit Over Deadly Alligator Filed Against Florida 55-Plus Community

FORT PIERCE, Fla. — The personal representative of the estate of a resident of a Florida retirement community on Jan. 25 filed a wrongful death suit against the company operating the community in a Florida state court, asserting that the woman’s death from an alligator attack near her home resulted from the company’s negligence in failing to warn of the danger caused by alligators or to remove them.
January 24, 2024
Appeals Court: No Error In Medical Expert Exclusion In Nursing Home Care Case

CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said it’s “not a close call” that an expert retained to testify in medical malpractice suit against a nursing home failed to establish a “familiarity with the standard of medical care in Memphis” and found no error in a district court excluding his testimony.
January 23, 2024
1st Circuit: Expert Did Not Opine On Standard Of Care, Was Properly Excluded

BOSTON — After finding that an expert retained by the children of a woman who died after a surgery was properly excluded, the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a summary judgment grant to a group of doctors and a hospital in Puerto Rico in a negligence case.
January 23, 2024
Louisiana Federal Judge Allows Safety Expert’s Testimony In Maritime Injury Suit

NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana federal judge denied a motion to exclude a maritime safety expert retained by a man who alleges that he was injured while disembarking from a dredging vessel, finding that the testimony is admissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 702.
January 22, 2024
Part Of Expert Testimony Improperly Excluded But Court Finds No Reversible Error

LOS ANGELES — A trial court erred in excluding portions of an expert’s testimony for a woman who says she was injured in a slip-and-fall inside a Panda Express restaurant, but that error was harmless, a California appeals court said Jan. 19 in affirming summary judgment for the restaurant.
January 19, 2024
Federal Magistrate: Trucking Expert Can Testify To Cause Of Multivehicle Crash

PENDLETON, Ore. — An expert retained by a man injured in car accident involving multiple vehicles is not required to consider every piece of evidence in formulating his opinions, and his failure to so does not render his testimony unreliable under Federal Rule of Evidence 702, a federal magistrate judge in Oregon ruled in denying a motion to exclude filed by two other drivers.
January 19, 2024
Prison Officials Seek High Court Review Of COVID-Related Qualified Immunity Rulings

WASHINGTON, D.C. — California corrections officials have filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking review of four panel opinions from the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirming lower federal court decisions denying the officials qualified immunity for their conduct in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic after 26 inmates and a prison employee died from COVID-19.
January 19, 2024
Settlement Reached In Class Alleging Injuries From Ankle Monitoring Device

DENVER — A man seeking to represent a class of individuals who allege that they were injured by an alcohol tracking ankle monitor and the device’s manufacturer notified a Colorado federal court that the parties have reached a confidential settlement to resolve all claims.