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

Mealey's Personal Injury

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.
January 17, 2024
High Court Told ‘Chaos’ Will Ensue ‘In A World Without Chevron’ Deference

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court was told Jan. 17 that “chaos” will ensue “in a world without Chevron” deference by government attorneys, who urged it to apply stare decisis and uphold Chevron, which is being challenged in two cases arising out of federal fishing regulations.
January 18, 2024
Judge Says Flint Trial Against Engineering Firm Will Consider Nonparties At Fault

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A federal judge in Michigan has denied a request by plaintiffs in the Flint water crisis litigation and ruled that a forthcoming trial against an engineering firm that was involved in switching the city’s water supply will consider the issue of nonparties at fault, such as the state and city officials who participated in that decision.
January 17, 2024
N.Y. Panel Affirms Order Denying Judgment In Row Over Wrongful Hospice Admission

NEW YORK — A New York state appellate court affirmed a lower court’s order denying a medical practice, hospital and physician’s summary judgment motion in a medical malpractice suit related to a man’s purported wrongful admission into hospice for stage IV pancreatic cancer when he actually did not have pancreatic cancer, finding that the hospital and related parties failed to show that they did not depart from accepted standards of care or that any purported departure did not cause the man’s injuries.
January 17, 2024
New Mexico Supreme Court: State Courts Lack Jurisdiction To Hear Casino Tort Cases

SANTA FE, N.M. — Two previous federal court opinions triggered a termination clause within New Mexico’s tribal gaming compact regarding waiver of sovereign immunity because the opinions held that jurisdictional shifting of tort claims that arose at tribal casinos from tribal to state court is not authorized by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), the New Mexico Supreme Court found Jan. 16 in holding that the state’s courts lacked jurisdiction to hear a tort casing brought against the Pueblo of Pojoaque for injuries suffered by a worker at the tribe’s casino.
January 11, 2024
California Judge Won’t Tax Some Asbestos Costs, Lets Juror Prejudice Ruling Stand

LOS ANGELES — A California judge said he already largely discounted a juror’s declaration before finding that there was no prejudice from comments made during deliberation in an asbestos case and that he would deny reconsideration, while in a second ruling said a prevailing party is entitled to expert fees are available even when an expert doesn’t testify.
January 11, 2024
Wrestlers’ Attorney Petitions High Court After Sanctions In CTE Class, Mass Cases

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An attorney and his firm who represent allegedly injured wrestlers in a class tort complaint and a mass action against World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. and Vincent K. McMahon (together, WWE) filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court asking the justices to consider the appropriateness of attorney fees and costs as sanctions that they have been ordered to pay.
January 09, 2024
Magistrate Partially Grants Motions To Exclude Expert Testimony In Crash Case

AUSTIN, Texas — A federal magistrate judge in Texas agreed to limit the testimony presented by two experts retained by a man suing the federal government for injuries he sustained in a car crash with a federal employee.
January 09, 2024
Ohio Panel Affirms Judgment For Care Home, Says Assisting Patient Is Medical Claim

CLEVELAND — An Ohio appellate court affirmed a lower court’s grant of summary judgment to a skilled nursing facility and related entities in a breach of contract and negligence suit filed against them after a former resident fell and sustained leg and ankle fractures, finding the lower court’s decision correct because the fall, which occurred when aides were helping the resident move from a commode to her wheelchair, constituted a medical claim in the complaint that was filed after the applicable statute of limitations.