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

Mealey's Personal Injury

February 20, 2025
Judge Nixes Company’s Bid To Dismiss Case Alleging Hair Relaxers Caused Cancer

CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois on Feb. 19 denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit against John Paul Mitchell Systems (JPMS), which is one of many defendants in litigation brought by individuals who allege wrongful death and other injuries from endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in hair relaxer products, ruling that JPMS’s argument in favor of dismissal “ignores Plaintiffs’ allegations that EDCs are present in hair relaxer products under the guise of ‘fragrance’ and ‘perfumes,’ but [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] regulations do not require listing individual fragrance ingredients on labels.”
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 Excludes 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 13, 2025
Tepezza MDL Judge Selects First 4 Bellwether Plaintiffs To Head To Trial

CHICAGO — The Illinois federal judge overseeing the Tepezza hearing loss multidistrict litigation has named the first four cases that will proceed as the initial bellwether cases and instructed the parties to confer to decide on the order in which the cases will be tried.
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
Cases Alleging Depo-Provera Caused Tumors Centralized In Fla.’s Northern District

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation on Feb. 8 agreed to centralize cases alleging that a long-lasting injectable contraceptive caused women to develop intracranial meningiomas, a type of brain tumor, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida.
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
Amicus: High Court Review Needed In Camp Lejeune Case Over Right To Jury Trial

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A bar association focused on the civil justice system has filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that it should grant a petition filed by plaintiffs who are challenging a lower court’s decision that they are not entitled to a jury trial in their case against the U.S. government related to water contamination at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina and seeking reversal of an appellate court’s subsequent refusal to entertain their appeal. The bar association argues that the denial of the plaintiffs’ right to a jury trial warrants review.
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 29, 2025
Judge: Discretionary Function Exception Does Not Apply To Flint Tort Claims Case

DETROIT — A federal judge in Michigan on Jan. 28 denied the U.S. government’s motion to dismiss the Flint water crisis Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) lawsuit pursuant to the discretionary function exception (DFE), ruling that the DFE is inapplicable to the “actions and inactions” of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in response to the Flint water crisis. The judge’s ruling addressed only the applicability of the DFE to the lawsuit.
January 28, 2025
Ohio Village, Norfolk Southern Settle Train Derailment Claims For $22 Million

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — The village of East Palestine, Ohio, and Norfolk Southern Corp. on Jan. 27 jointly announced a $22 million settlement to resolve all claims brought by the village arising from the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in 2023 that released toxic chemicals into the environment, according to a news release posted on the village’s website. Litigation involving other parties in the train derailment remain active.
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.