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

Mealey's Personal Injury

March 29, 2024
Judge Accepts Officials’ Plea Agreements In Veterans Home COVID-19 Death Cases

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — A former superintendent and a former medical director of a veterans home entered plea agreements in a Massachusetts state court for their roles in commingling COVID-19-symptomatic residents with asymptomatic residents, leading to 76 deaths, admitting that the charges against them sufficed to make a finding of guilt while agreeing to satisfy court-imposed conditions for three months.
March 28, 2024
Split Florida Panel Reverses $43M Verdict To Dead Smoker’s Son Due To Hearsay

MIAMI — A split Florida Third District Court of Appeal panel on March 27 reversed a $43 million compensatory and punitive damages verdict in favor of the estate of a dead smoker after finding that the trial court reversibly erred by permitting the smoker’s sons to proffer hearsay evidence indicating that their mother was harmed by her reliance on a tobacco company’s misleading claims about the benefits of cigarette filters.
March 28, 2024
Ankle Monitor Is Potentially A Computer Triggering Professional Liability Coverage

CHICAGO — An Illinois appeals panel held March 27 that an ankle monitor, at the very least, is potentially computer hardware triggering professional services liability coverage, reversing a lower court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of an insurer in its declaratory judgment lawsuit disputing coverage for an underlying personal injury lawsuit.
March 28, 2024
Panel Affirms Order Denying Bid To Reopen Discovery In Care Home Negligence Suit

TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey appellate court on March 27 affirmed lower court orders that denied an estate’s request to reopen discovery and granted a nursing home and related entities’ motion for summary judgment in a negligence suit filed against them, finding that the lower court did not abuse its discretion in holding that the estate failed to show “exceptional circumstances” needed to reopen discovery and that there is “no basis” to overturn the order granting summary judgment.
March 25, 2024
Alabama High Court Reverses Judgment For Estate In Nursing Home Arbitration Row

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama Supreme Court on March 22 reversed and remanded a lower court’s order denying a nursing home’s motion to compel arbitration in a wrongful death suit against it alleging that staff neglect led to a former resident’s death, finding that the lower court incorrectly ruled that though one of the decedent’s co-guardians signed an arbitration agreement on her mother’s behalf, both were required to sign the arbitration agreement.
March 21, 2024
Medical Experts Can Testify For Widow In Excessive Force Claim Against Police

CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge ruled that medical experts retained by a woman who alleges that her husband died as a result of a police officer using excessive force while responding to a medical emergency can testify in her suit against the officer.
March 21, 2024
Michigan Court: New Premises Liability Standard Means Expert Improperly Excluded

DETROIT — A Michigan appeals court found that a trial court improperly excluded an expert’s testimony in a premises liability suit, noting that a recent state Supreme Court case has redefined how courts should apply an open-and-obvious danger defense, and vacated the granting of summary disposition to the defendant.
March 14, 2024
Judge Grants Nursing Home’s Motion To Compel Arbitration In Wrongful Death Action

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A Pennsylvania federal judge on March 13 granted in part a motion to compel arbitration in a wrongful death, negligence and survival suit against a skilled nursing facility (SNF) and related entities after a former SNF resident died, finding that the claims for survival and professional negligence against the facility and its named affiliate will proceed to arbitration because a valid arbitration agreement existed between those entities and the estate.
March 12, 2024
Ohio Panel Affirms Ruling Dismissing Wrongful Death Action Against Nursing Home

CINCINNATI — An Ohio appeals court affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a wrongful death action filed against a nursing home by the adult children of a former nursing home resident who asphyxiated and died, finding that the plaintiffs’ allegations failed to “satisfy the governing legal standard to survive dismissal.”
March 11, 2024
Judge: Causation, Life Care Expert Admissible In Accident Injury Case

PHILADELPHIA — Experts retained to testify for a man who alleges that he was injured in a motor vehicle accident clear the “low bar for admissibility,” a Pennsylvania federal judge found, denying a motion to exclude under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.
March 11, 2024
Alabama High Court: Lower Court Must Dismiss Wrongful Death Suit Against Care Home

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama Supreme Court on March 8 granted a skilled nursing facility’s petition for writ of mandamus in a wrongful death suit against it, finding that because the court-appointed administrator was “not a proper party to bring suit,” the petition must be granted and the lower court must dismiss the complaint.
March 11, 2024
Jury Finds Monsanto Not Liable For Negligence In Roundup Cancer Lawsuit

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — A state court jury in Arkansas has ruled in favor of Monsanto Co. in a lawsuit in which a couple argued that exposure to glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup, caused the wife to develop cancer. The jury found that Monsanto was not negligent and did not sell a defective product that caused the wife’s injury.
March 08, 2024
Mistrial Declared After Florida Jury Hangs In Ovarian Cancer Talc Trial

MIAMI — A Florida asbestos trial ended in a hung jury after the jury twice told the judge that it could not reach a decision despite a day and a half of deliberations about Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) liability for the death of an anesthesiologist from ovarian cancer. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
March 08, 2024
Smoker’s Estate’s Claims Against Tobacco Company, Retailers Rejected By Jury

SANTA FE, N.M. — A New Mexico state court jury returned a defense verdict on wrongful death claims brought by the estate of a decades-long Marlboro Red smoker who was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer before catching COVID-19 and dying in 2020, ruling in favor of cigarette manufacturer R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (RJR) and two local retailers. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
March 07, 2024
Smoker’s Daughter Properly Allowed To Pursue Punitives, Florida Panel Told

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A dead smoker’s daughter filed an appellee brief urging a Florida appellate panel to affirm a trial judge’s order allowing her to add a claim for punitive damages to her wrongful death complaint against two tobacco companies, while the companies argue that the claim is barred by Florida’s punitive damages statute because they have already been ordered to pay punitive damages for “the same act or single course of conduct.”
March 06, 2024
Judge Dismisses Smoker’s Widow’s Wrongful Death Suit For Failure To Prosecute

LAS CRUCES, N.M. — A New Mexico federal judge granted several tobacco companies’ motions to dismiss a wrongful death suit brought against them by the widow of a dead smoker after finding that the plaintiff failed to appear for, respond to or prosecute her suit after the companies removed the case to federal court.
March 06, 2024
Notice Of Order On Brief Filed After Octogenarian’s $2.3M Elder Abuse Verdict

LOS ANGELES — An 87-year-old woman filed a notice in a California court of a judge’s ruling allowing her to file a brief of up to 20 pages regarding her motion for attorney fees after a jury awarded her $2,342,800 in a suit alleging that a rehabilitation facility where she previously resided, its owner and related entities acted negligently and committed elder abuse by failing to provide adequate care, resulting in injuries from falls that caused permanent shoulder damage.
March 06, 2024
Settlement Reached In Malpractice Suit After Expert Testimony Is Limited

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A federal judge in Puerto Rico dismissed a medical malpractice suit with prejudice when parties alerted the court that they had reached a confidential settlement, days after the judge agreed to exclude testimony from an expert on standard of care but allowed testimony from a life-care planning expert.
March 05, 2024
5th Circuit: Causation Expert Properly Excluded In Deepwater Horizon Injury Case

NEW ORLEANS — A district court properly excluded a man’s medical expert after finding that he failed to show causation in a lawsuit against BP Exploration & Production Inc. related to his injuries through the exposure to chemicals during the cleanup operation that followed the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held.
February 29, 2024
Judgment Entered After Jury Rejects Dead Smoker’s Estate’s Defective Design Claims

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida state court judge entered final judgment rejecting wrongful death claims brought against a tobacco company and a retailer that sold its products by the estate of a smoker who died after being diagnosed with laryngeal cancer. A jury previously rejected the estate’s claims that filtered cigarettes smoked by the decedent were defective. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
February 28, 2024
Attorney Fee Award Affirmed In PIP Dispute Involving Estate Of Man Killed By Car

TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey appellate court affirmed a lower court’s award of attorney fees and costs to a medical center that intervened in a personal injury protection (PIP) suit filed by the estate of a man against multiple parties, including an insurer seeking to void a policy for material misrepresentations, finding that the lower court did not abuse its discretion in awarding attorney fees and costs “commensurate” with what the medical center paid under its retainer agreement.
February 27, 2024
$13.7M Settlement Between Protesters, City For Arrests, Use Of Force Approved

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York granted final approval of a $13,731,000 settlement between the city of New York and a class of approximately 1,380 individuals who were arrested or arrested and subjected to force by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) during protests in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd.
February 26, 2024
Texas Appeals Court: Fatal Crash Suit Jury Should Have Heard Expert Testimony

BEAUMONT, Texas — A Texas appeals court overturned a $10 million jury verdict in a wrongful death suit after finding that the trial court improperly excluded expert testimony that a woman who was killed in the crash had alcohol in her system, which might have influenced the jury’s assignment of fault.
February 26, 2024
City Seeks Judgment As Matter Of Law After $4.5M Excessive Force Jury Verdict

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — In response to an Alabama federal jury’s award of $4.45 million in compensatory and punitive damages to the estate of a deceased motorist and an injured passenger stemming from a vehicle chase that culminated in a police officer shooting into the plaintiffs’ vehicle after it crashed, an Alabama city and police officer moved for judgment as a matter of law or, in the alternative, a new trial or remittitur of the jury award.
February 22, 2024
Medical Condition Not Widely Recognized, Testimony Barred In Toxic Exposure Case

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California federal judge granted in large part three motions to exclude expert testimony in a case in which a woman claims medical injuries from toxic mold exposure, finding that one expert was unqualified to opine on a medical condition and that the testimony from the other witnesses was connected to that expert’s conclusions.