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

Mealey's Personal Injury

May 26, 2023
Michigan Panel Remands Medical Malpractice Suit For Testimony Exclusion Error

DETROIT — Michigan evidentiary law requires a trial court to filter out expert testimony that is unreliable, not to determine if the testimony is “unassailable,” a state appeals court held May 25, reversing an award of summary judgment in favor of a hospital and its employees in a medical malpractice suit.
May 23, 2023
Denial Of Care Home’s Motion To Compel Arbitration Affirmed Absent POA Signature

FRANKFORT, Ky. — A Kentucky appeals court affirmed a lower court order denying a nursing home’s motion to compel arbitration in an executor’s negligence and wrongful death suit filed against it on behalf of a deceased former resident, finding that the home failed to establish the arbitration agreement’s validity because it was signed by the decedent’s spouse in her capacity as his wife rather than power of attorney (POA) and was not a condition for admission.
May 23, 2023
Texas Supreme Court Affirms Jurisdiction Over Battery Maker In Exploding Vape Case

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Supreme Court affirmed a trial court’s finding of personal jurisdiction over a Korean battery-maker and its U.S. subsidiary in a personal injury lawsuit brought against them by a man who was burned after a battery they manufactured exploded in his e-cigarette device, rejecting their defense that they did not intend for their batteries to be sold for standalone use in e-cigarettes.
May 22, 2023
Federal Judge OK’s Testimony On Safety Policies, Procedures In Slip-And-Fall Case

DENVER — A Colorado federal judge on May 19 denied a motion to preclude an expert retained by a grocery store owner to rebut an expert on safety procedure in a slip-and-fall case, rejecting a man’s claim that the expert’s testimony was irrelevant under Federal Rule of Evidence 702.
May 17, 2023
Expert Testimony OK’d In Indiana Appeal But Court Finds $4M Verdict Excessive

INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana appeals court found no error in the admission of expert testimony and photographs submitted in support of a woman’s slip-and-fall claims against a store but agreed that the $4 million jury award was excessive and granted a new trial to determine damages.
May 17, 2023
Ohio Officials Named In Train Derailment Case Say Plaintiffs Lack Standing To Sue

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and the director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) moved in Ohio federal court seeking to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a nonprofit group pertaining to the state’s response to the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, contending that the group lacks standing and fails to state a substantive due process claim.
May 17, 2023
Magistrate: Safety Expert Out In Slip-And-Fall Case, Testimony Unhelpful To Jury

DENVER — Walmart successfully argued to a Colorado federal magistrate judge that an expert retained by a woman who alleges that she was injured after slipping on a floor inside of a store is inadmissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 702.
May 16, 2023
Testimony Based On Medical Records Is ‘Unreliable’ In Crash Suit, Judge Said

ROANOKE, Va. — A federal judge in Virginia agreed that testimony from a neurosurgeon retained by a trucking company sued in relation to a crash involving one of its employees should be limited and excluded testimony based on certain medical records.
May 12, 2023
Woman Says Prevailing Party Costs Aren’t Subject To Offset After Asbestos Verdict

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Federal rules permit prevailing parties’ recovery of certain litigation expenses that are not subject to offsets, a woman awarded $275,000 by a jury for her relative’s death from mesothelioma told a federal judge in North Carolina in response to Ford Motor Co.’s post-trial motion to amend the verdict.
May 11, 2023
Injured Man’s Experts Can Testify In Suit Against Cruise Company, Judge Says

MIAMI — A Florida federal judge denied two motions filed by Royal Caribbean to exclude experts retained by a man who alleges that he was injured while aboard a cruise ship because the objections to the testimony do not amount to an inadmissibility ruling.
May 11, 2023
Norfolk Southern Loses Bid To Transfer School’s Train Derailment Toxic Injury Case

PITTSBURGH — A federal judge in Pennsylvania on May 10 denied a motion by Norfolk Southern Corp. to transfer to Ohio federal court a school district’s toxic exposure case related to the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, ruling that transfer is not warranted based on multiple factors.
May 09, 2023
Massachusetts High Court Affirms More Than $37M Verdict For Smoker

BOSTON — The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on May 9 affirmed a jury’s verdict against a tobacco company for conspiracy leading to a smoker’s addiction to cigarettes and lung cancer, entered a judgment for more than $37 million, including trebled damages, attorney fees and interest, and affirmed the accrual of pre- and post-judgment interest at the statutory 12% rate.
May 08, 2023
Split Mass. High Court Reverses Dismissal In Veterans Home COVID-19 Death Case

BOSTON — A split Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court reversed a lower a court’s dismissal of criminal charges against a former superintendent and medical director of a veterans home for their roles in commingling COVID-19-symptomatic residents with asymptomatic residents, leading to 76 deaths, finding that the defendants’ failure to comply with infection control practices constituted wanton or reckless behavior.
May 05, 2023
Judge Says Fracking Operators Failed To Meet Standard Of Care In Injury Lawsuit

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A federal judge in Pennsylvania has denied a motion to dismiss a hydraulic fracturing injury case, ruling that “a reasonable factfinder” could find that the fracking operators’ conduct “constituted an extreme departure from the standard of care.” The judge also said that questions remained regarding the application of “gross negligence” in the master service agreement between the operators and a third-party contractor and, therefore, the case could not be dismissed.
May 04, 2023
High Court Asks Assault Victims To Respond In Title IX Statute Of Limitations Cases

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court has requested that victims of sexual assault by an Ohio university employee respond to the university’s petitions for writ of certiorari by June 1. The university seeks review of a rule as to when a Title IX claim accrues devised by a divided Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in conflict with other circuits that permitted several plaintiffs to assert Title IX claims against it based on conduct that occurred more than 20 years before they filed suit.
May 04, 2023
Medical Coding Expert ‘Has No Place’ In Slip-And-Fall Case, Federal Judge Rules

MIAMI — A Florida federal judge granted a man’s motion to exclude a coding and billing expert retained by Wal-Mart in a slip-and-fall case, citing previous cases in the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that found the expert’s testimony to be unhelpful to a jury.
May 04, 2023
Panel Rules On Agency Issues In Estate’s Negligence Suit Against Hospital, Doctor

ELGIN, Ill. — An Illinois appellate court granted in part and reversed in part and remanded an estate administrator’s appeal of a trial court’s summary judgment for a hospital in a negligence and wrongful death suit against the hospital and a treating physician after the administrator’s husband died there, finding that the trial court erred by granting summary judgment regarding the estate administrator’s claims but did not err on claims made under the Illinois Family Expense Act because the administrator had notice of the doctor’s independent contractor status.
May 03, 2023
Plaintiffs Update Bid For Third-Party Complaint Against Reinsurers In Crash Case

MIAMI — The day after updating their proposal for adding claims against reinsurers in a plane crash case in which settlements were reached over an $844 million default judgment, plaintiffs filed a notice in Florida court that the hearing on their motion was canceled.
May 03, 2023
Widow, Defendants Battle Over $20M Verdict, Potential Punitive Damages

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A judge should award $40 million in punitive damages because of both the egregious attempts to hide or ignore the dangers of asbestos in an asbestos window glazing compound case and the defendants’ apparent net worths, a widow told a Connecticut judge. But in their own post-trial motions, one defendant argues that there was insufficient evidence that it knew of the product’s danger and another said it could not be liable for a predecessor’s conduct.
May 02, 2023
Michigan Appeals Court Reverses Exclusion Of Expert, Summary Judgment Grant

DETROIT — A Michigan appeals court held that a “trial court appeared more concerned with conducting a miniature trial” than adequately determining the admissibility of a causation expert retained by a woman who sued a nursing home for medical malpractice and reversed a grant of summary judgment and remanded the case.
May 02, 2023
Order Compelling Arbitration Affirmed In Wrongful Death Suit Against Nursing Home

TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey appellate court affirmed a lower court order compelling arbitration in an executor’s wrongful death suit against a nursing home on behalf of a man who died after a monthlong stay there, finding that despite state law voiding such agreements “as against public policy,” U.S. Supreme Court precedent favoring arbitration requires enforcement of the agreement.
May 02, 2023
Va. Federal Judge: Life-Care Expert Is Unqualified To Opine On Medical Needs

ROANOKE, Va. — Testimony from a life-care planner retained by a trucking company exceeds her area of expertise because she is rendering medical opinions, a Virginia federal judge ruled, granting a motion to exclude filed in a car-crash suit.
April 28, 2023
Ford Launches Causation, Settlement Offset Challenges To Asbestos Verdict

GREENSBORO, N.C. — In a pair of motions, Ford Motor Co. tells a federal judge in North Carolina that the more than $6.8 million in settlement monies more than offsets the $275,000 plus interest judgment and that the plaintiff’s expert improperly assumed that brake dust was hazardous and mixed science on chrysotile asbestos and brake dust in concluding that exposure to friction products was a substantial factor in a man’s mesothelioma.
April 27, 2023
Miss. High Court Says Daughter Not ‘Surrogate’ In Nursing Home Arbitration Row

JACKSON, Miss. — The Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed and remanded a lower court order denying a nursing home’s motion to compel arbitration in a negligence and wrongful death suit brought against it by the daughter of a former resident, finding that the nursing home failed to show that the decedent lacked capacity, which is a requirement for a surrogate to make health care decisions on behalf of the person they are representing.
April 27, 2023
Judge: Causation Expert In Postal Truck Accident Case Passes Admissibility Test

PHOENIX — The opinions of an expert retained by the government who concluded that the injuries a man alleges that he sustained in an accident with a postal truck actually predate the incident are admissible, an Arizona federal judge ruled.