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

Mealey's Personal Injury

April 07, 2023
Ohio Court Reverses Sanctions, Says Asbestos Firm’s Suits Were Not Frivolous

CLEVELAND — An Illinois court’s ruling on a company’s successor status does not bind Ohio courts, and an asbestos law firm’s repeated naming and dismissal of the company was not frivolous or unreasonable, evidenced by the fact that other attorneys filed similar suits, an Ohio court said April 6 in reversing an award of sanctions against the firm.
April 06, 2023
Louisiana Panel Affirms Award In Crash Suit, Finds No Error In Trial Court Rulings

SHREVEPORT, La. — A Louisiana trial court did not err in denying an “emergency” Daubert hearing requested by a woman three days into trial for injuries sustained in a car accident, a state appeals court ruled April 5, also finding no error in other rulings brought up on appeal and affirming the judgment.
April 06, 2023
Man Seeks Punitive Damages Against Fracking Operator For Oilfield Injury

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A man who was injured while performing oil field services at a hydraulic fracturing site on April 5 filed an amended lawsuit against the operator in New Mexico federal court seeking punitive damages for the company’s “reckless conduct” that caused him harm.
April 06, 2023
Federal Magistrate Judge Limits Toxicologist’s Testimony In Cruise Injury Case

MIAMI — A toxicology expert retained by Carnival Corp. can testify on a woman’s blood-alcohol concentration at the time of a fall but cannot opine on whether intoxication contributed to the accident, a Florida federal magistrate judge ruled in a personal injury suit.
April 05, 2023
High Court Asked To Review Statute Of Limitations In University Sexual Abuse Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An Ohio university has requested that the U.S. Supreme Court review what it contends is an “extreme new ‘discovery rule’” for determining when Title IX claims accrue 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 after the Sixth Circuit reversed a district court’s judgment dismissing the plaintiffs’ claims of sexual abuse by a university doctor as barred by the two-year statute of limitations.
April 03, 2023
Missouri High Court: Work Product Protection Waived In Shared Accident Documents

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The plaintiffs in a personal injury negligence suit against a hospital cannot withhold documents pertaining to their settlement of an unrelated lawsuit, the Missouri Supreme Court held, ruling that the plaintiffs’ disclosure of those documents in the previous suit constituted waiver of the work product doctrine and defeated their claims that the documents are protected from discovery by privilege.
March 31, 2023
Woman’s Rebuttal Witness Allowed In Case Alleging Injury While On Cruise

MIAMI — A cruise line failed to convince a federal magistrate judge in Florida to exclude a woman’s rebuttal expert witness who says that the lifeboat she was aboard when she was injured was traveling at an unreasonable speed as it headed back to a cruise ship.
March 29, 2023
No Remand In COVID Death Suit Against Care Home Absent Joinder-Ending Diversity

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A California federal judge denied a remand motion in a family’s COVID-19-related wrongful death suit against a senior living facility, finding that because Federal Rules of Civil Procedure factors “weigh against joinder” of the care home manager, “remand is not mandatory.”
March 29, 2023
Illinois Panel Finds Jurisdiction Over Battery Maker In Exploding Vape Suit

CHICAGO — An Illinois appellate panel on March 28 affirmed a trial court’s personal jurisdiction over a Korean battery-maker’s subsidiary in a personal injury lawsuit brought by a man who claims that he was injured by an exploding e-cigarette device after finding that the company sold thousands of its batteries into Illinois for use in other products.
March 29, 2023
Texas Supreme Court Questions Battery Maker On Jurisdiction In Exploding Vape Case

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Supreme Court during oral arguments questioned a Korean battery-maker and its U.S. subsidiary about their argument that a trial court lacked personal jurisdiction over them in a personal injury lawsuit brought by a man who was burned after a battery they manufactured exploded in his e-cigarette device, which the man’s counsel argues was a “foreseeable” use of the product.
March 29, 2023
11th Circuit Affirms Ruling That Nixed Expert Testimony And Dismissed Cancer Case

ATLANTA — In an unpublished opinion, a panel of the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 28 affirmed a lower court’s decision in a cancer victim’s groundwater contamination lawsuit against Raytheon Technologies Corp. and held that a lower court did not abuse its discretion when it excluded the plaintiffs’ causation experts’ testimony and, therefore, the case was properly dismissed.
March 27, 2023
Court Enters Judgment After Ford Drops Asbestos Settlement Discovery Motion

GREENSBORO, N.C. — A federal judge in North Carolina entered judgment after Ford Motor Co. dropped its motion to compel production of settlements and offsets and assented to judgment based on plaintiff’s concession that settlements exceeded the jury’s $275,000 verdict.
March 24, 2023
UnitedHealthcare Says State Laws Regulating MA Plan ‘Standards’ Are Preempted

SAN FRANCISCO — A California Medicare Advantage (MA) provider filed a supplemental brief with the California Supreme Court in a negligence, elder abuse and wrongful death suit filed against it, contending that state laws purporting to regulate MA plans are preempted as confirmed by the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Medicaid & Medicare Advantage Products Association of Puerto Rico, Inc. v. Emanuelli Hernández, which found, in part, that the legislative history of the Medicare Advantage Act’s preemption clause shows the intent to expand preemption.
March 24, 2023
Woman Sues L’Oreal, Others For Fraud Leading To Injury From Phthalate Exposure

NEW YORK — A woman who says she has been injured as a result of exposure to phthalates in cosmetic products sued L’Oreal USA Inc. and others on March 23 in New York federal court contending that they negligently misrepresented and/or fraudulently represented that their hair-straightening products had been tested and were found to be safe, despite their knowledge to the contrary.
March 24, 2023
Stone Cutters Sue Quartz Makers For Fraud, Exposure To Hazards Causing Silicosis

LOS ANGELES — Two stone cutters have sued multiple companies that make quartz countertops in California state court, contending that they are liable for causing the cutters to develop silicosis by fraudulently concealing the toxic hazards of the products and creating hazardous conditions in which the plaintiffs were exposed to the products in question.
March 21, 2023
Miss. High Court Finds Expert Unqualified, Reverses Judgment Denial In Med-Mal Case

JACKSON, Miss. — Ruling that a trial court abused its discretion in admitting the expert testimony of a physician whose qualifications were not submitted to the court, the Mississippi Supreme Court reversed the lower court’s ruling denying summary judgment to a hospital in a medical malpractice case and rendered judgment in favor of the hospital.
March 20, 2023
Tennessee Federal Jury Renders Defense Verdict In Motorcycle Rollover Case

Driver claimed parking brake suddenly engaged; manufacturer said driver’s coat got caught in wheel
March 20, 2023
Texas Judge Adds To Jury’s $11.56M Award For Woman’s Surgical Complications

Past medical expenses, interest added in final judgment against Baylor College of Medicine
March 20, 2023
California Jury: Los Angeles Officer Did Not Assault Woman After Issuing Ticket

City argued that traffic officer acted in self-defense in assault and battery case
March 17, 2023
Florida Federal Jury Says Ethicon Pelvic Mesh Devices Not Defectively Designed

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida federal jury found that there were no design defects in two Ethicon Inc. pelvic mesh devices in the case of a woman who claims that the devices failed to treat her stress urinary incontinence (SUI) and pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and required corrective surgeries.
March 16, 2023
Federal Jury Awards $6.1M To Parents In Louisiana State University Hazing Death Suit

BATON ROUGE, La. — A federal jury in Louisiana has said the parents of a Louisiana State University freshman who died in 2017 of alcohol poisoning following a fraternity hazing incident are entitled to $6.1 million in compensation; however, the university and most of the individual students named in the survival and wrongful death action had reached confidential settlements with the family before trial.
March 16, 2023
Asbestos-Talc Defendants Face Punitive Damages After $20M Verdict

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A federal judge set briefing on the issue of punitive damages after a Connecticut jury found against both asbestos defendants and awarded $20 million in compensatory damages to a woman.
March 15, 2023
Judgment Granted For Government In Negligence Suit Over Veteran’s Cancer Death

LEXINGTON, Ky. — A Kentucky federal judge granted the U.S. government’s motion for summary judgment in a medical negligence suit filed against it by the widow of a veteran alleging that the Veterans Affairs (VA) facility where her husband was treated was negligent because it failed to screen for lung cancer using low-dose computed tomography (LDCT), finding that the widow’s expert witness failed to show that LDCT screening was the required standard of care.
March 14, 2023
Oregon Jury Awards $18.5M In Asbestos Case Against Talc Supplier

PORTLAND, Ore. — An Oregon jury awarded $18.5 million on negligence and product liability claims stemming from a woman’s death from mesothelioma after exposure to Whittaker, Clark & Daniels Inc. (WCD) talc.
March 10, 2023
Order Issued After Elder Files Putative Class Fraud Suit Against 55-Plus Community

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge on March 9 issued a standing order outlining filing requirements three days after a senior resident of a retirement community filed a putative class action, asserting that the community defrauded seniors and people with disabilities by falsely representing that residents will be provided with needed care services without disclosing that staffing policies are insufficient to meet the residents’ needs.