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

Mealey's Personal Injury

November 05, 2024
Late Medical Malpractice Case May Be Viable Due To Georgia COVID-19 Emergency Order

ATLANTA — A Georgia Court of Appeals panel rejected a medical malpractice litigant’s arguments that the five-year statute of repose did not apply to his renewal action or did not apply because his lawsuit was previously dismissed involuntarily, but vacated the judgment of a trial court dismissing the action and remanded it for consideration of whether the statute of repose had been tolled by a COVID-era judicial order as laid out by a recent Georgia Supreme Court opinion.
November 05, 2024
Mo. Federal Judge Finds Expert Testimony Not Relevant In Wrongful Death Case

ST. LOUIS — Because a Missouri federal judge had previously granted a retail store summary judgment on a negligence claim against it in a wrongful death suit stemming from the drowning of a child in an aboveground pool, he ruled that the testimony from two experts is no longer relevant.
November 04, 2024
Federal Judge: Case Alleging Injury From Falling Sign In Target Moves Forward

NEW ORLEANS — An expert retained by a woman who alleges that she was injured by a falling sign in a Target store is qualified to testify and his opinions are relevant, a federal judge in Louisiana ruled, also rejecting Target’s motion for summary judgment after finding that whether the company is liable is in dispute.
November 01, 2024
Split Panel: Silicosis Case Fails Due To Plaintiff’s Unreliable Experts

HOUSTON — A split Texas appeals court panel on Oct. 31 affirmed a lower court’s ruling in favor of Exxon Mobil Corp. in a silica injury lawsuit brought by a worker who sandblasted railcars and contended that he developed pulmonary fibrosis because the company created a situation in which he had to perform an “intrinsically unsafe and ultrahazardous activity.” The panel held that the worker’s experts were not reliable.
October 29, 2024
9th Circuit Denies Rehearing Of Ruling That Uber Has Duty Of Care Toward Driver

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has denied a petition for rehearing en banc or panel rehearing of a panel reversal of a grant of summary judgment by a Washington federal court in favor of a rideshare company in a lawsuit by the estate and survivors of one the company’s drivers stemming from the driver’s murder during a carjacking attempt perpetrated by two people who had signed up for the company’s services with false personal information and a prepaid phone and gift card minutes before being matched with the driver.
October 28, 2024
New York Jury Awards $600,000 In Mechanic’s Mesothelioma Case

NEW YORK — A New York jury awarded $300,000 each for past and future pain and suffering experienced by a former automobile mechanic with mesothelioma but declined to award any punitive damages against defendant North American Honda Motor Co. Inc., sources told Mealey Publications.
October 24, 2024
Florida Panel Limits New Trial In Widower’s Engle Case To Spousal Damages

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Fourth District Florida Court of Appeal on Oct. 23 issued an order on the scope of a new trial in an Engle case in which a dead smoker’s widower originally won $157 million, writing that the new trial should consider only the widower’s entitlement to compensatory damages under the state’s Wrongful Death Act based on new Florida Supreme Court precedent allowing surviving spouses to pursue noneconomic damages even if they married after the relevant injury manifested.
October 23, 2024
In Malpractice Suit, Nevada High Court Modifies Attorney Fee Award

CARSON CITY, Nev. — In consolidated appeals of a malpractice suit over a 2009 surgery mishap, the Nevada Supreme Court largely affirmed rulings in favor of the prevailing plaintiff; however, the court modified an attorney fee award of more than $1.5 million to reflect a lesser fee award against two professional entities, with the court holding that “a vicariously liable professional entity cannot be held more liable than its principal and thus cannot owe more . . . attorney fees than its principal.”
October 23, 2024
Woman: Character.AI Creators Strictly Liable, Negligent In Son’s Suicide

ORLANDO, Fla. — Character.AI’s creators knowingly used sex to lure minors to the program and failed to apply appropriate guiderails for an artificial intelligence whose dangers they were uniquely aware of, leading a child to depression and, ultimately, death, his mother claims in an Oct. 22 strict product liability and negligence suit filed in Florida federal court.
October 23, 2024
Substantial Nexus Existed Between Burn Incident, Vehicle Use, Panel Says In Reversal

TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey appeals panel on Oct. 23 reversed a lower court’s ruling in favor of an automobile insurer in an insured’s lawsuit seeking personal injury protection (PIP) benefits for her injuries caused when a hot beverage spilled on her when she was sitting in her car at a Dunkin’ Donuts’ drive-through, finding that the insured’s injuries were a “natural and reasonable . . . consequence” of the use of her vehicle and, therefore, a substantial nexus existed between the injury incident and her vehicle use.
October 22, 2024
Split Illinois High Court Affirms Judgment In Row Over Care Homes’ COVID Immunity

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A split Illinois Supreme Court affirmed an appellate court’s decision answering in the affirmative a question certified to it from a lower court after modifying it to ask whether a specific executive order issued by the Illinois governor grants “immunity for ordinary negligence claims to healthcare facilities that rendered assistance to the State during the COVID-19 pandemic,” finding that “the appellate court appropriately reframed the certified question to clarify that immunity applies only to ordinary negligence claims.”
October 22, 2024
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 May, June, July, August, September and October 2024 issues of Mealey’s Daubert Report.
October 22, 2024
Injured Passenger, Cruise Line Reach Tentative Settlement In Jet Ski Accident

MIAMI — After a cruise line and a passenger injured while riding a jet ski supplied by the cruise line reached a tentative settlement, a Florida federal judge on Oct. 21 closed the case administratively without prejudice to the parties to file a stipulation of dismissal within 60 days, retaining jurisdiction over the case pending the consummation of the settlement.
October 21, 2024
Causation Experts In Deepwater Injury Case Properly Excluded, 11th Circuit Says

ATLANTA — A district court did not abuse its discretion in excluding two experts retained by men who allege that they were injured as a result of exposure to crude oil and dispersants during the cleanup of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and granting summary judgment in favor of BP Exploration & Production Inc. and its affiliates, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Oct. 18.
October 18, 2024
Nevada High Court: No PREP Act Immunity For Failure To Set COVID Safety Protocol

CARSON CITY, Nev. — A panel of the Nevada Supreme Court has denied a petition filed by a skilled nursing facility for a writ of mandamus directing a state court judge to dismiss the complaint of the survivor of a rehabilitation patient who died of COVID-19 contracted while in the facility, holding that neither the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act nor a state COVID-19 emergency directive granted immunity for the facility’s failure to establish an effective COVID-19 safety protocol.
October 16, 2024
Connecticut Jury Hits J&J Entities With $15 Million Talc Verdict

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A jury in Connecticut on Oct. 15 awarded a man and his wife $15 million in their asbestos-talc suit against Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and various related entities and triggered a punitive damages phase that by state law will be decided by the judge in the future, sources told Mealey Publications.
October 16, 2024
Nevada High Court Affirms Retroactive Application Of Higher Attorney Fee Cap

CARSON CITY, Nev. — A trial court did not err in awarding the prevailing plaintiffs in a personal injury case the maximum attorney fee award under revised rules that went into effect after the defendants filed their request for a new trial because the amendment to the rules was a procedural change governing the remedy and did not affect the parties’ substantive rights, a Nevada Supreme Court panel ruled.
October 16, 2024
Taxotere MDL Judge Won’t Reconsider Lone Pine Order Requiring Proof Of Diagnosis

NEW ORLEANS — The federal judge overseeing the Taxotere hair loss multidistrict litigation refused to reconsider her Lone Pine order requiring that plaintiffs, including representatives of plaintiffs who have died, show proof of a diagnosis of permanent chemotherapy-induced alopecia (PCIA).
October 15, 2024
Panel Reverses Judgment For Nursing Home In Death Suit Over Sepsis, Organ Failure

CLEVELAND — An Ohio appellate court reversed in part and remanded a lower court’s ruling granting summary judgment to a nursing home and related entities in a wrongful death and negligence suit against them related to a former resident’s sepsis and organ failure that led to his death, finding that the lower court erred in its determination that vicarious liability claims cannot prevail against the nursing home and related parties because the complaint did not name as a defendant an individual employee of the nursing home.
October 14, 2024
Judge: ‘Multitude Of Issues’ Remain In Coverage Suit Over Fatal Drunk Driving Crash

STAMFORD, Conn. — A Connecticut judge denied an insurance agency’s motion for summary judgment that it had no duty to recommend or procure a liquor liability insurance policy for a mini market that would have covered the risks associated with its unlicensed and illegal sale of hard alcohol, finding there are a “multitude of issues” that preclude summary judgment in favor of the agency in a negligence lawsuit arising from a $24 million wrongful death settlement.
October 11, 2024
3rd-Party Defendants: ‘Norfolk Southern Alone’ Is Liable For Ohio Train Derailment

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Two of the third-party defendants being sued by Norfolk Southern Corp. over the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, that released toxic chemicals into the air and soil have filed a brief in support of a motion for summary judgment on two claims against them, arguing that “Norfolk Southern — and Norfolk Southern alone — is responsible for the derailment it caused and the consequences of its erroneous vent-and-burn decision.”
October 10, 2024
Nursing Home Counsel Enters Appearance In Suit Over Elopement Injuries, Death

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Legal counsel for both a nursing home and the county that operates it on Oct. 9 entered an appearance in a Pennsylvania federal court after a widow and administratrix of her husband’s estate sued the nursing home and the county, asserting claims for wrongful death, survival and deprivation of rights related to the defendants’ alleged failure to supervise the decedent whose elopement purportedly led to the injuries resulting in his death.
October 10, 2024
Standing, Adequacy Of RICO Allegations Disputed In Reinsurer’s Lawsuit

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A New York federal judge has dismissed a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act lawsuit without prejudice against more than a dozen defendants that a reinsurer alleged took part in purportedly fraudulent workers’ compensation claims and personal injury lawsuits.
October 09, 2024
Testimony On Child’s Sexual Abuse OK’d In Case Against School Board, Bus Monitor

NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana federal judge denied a motion to exclude testimony based on a forensic child sexual abuse interview after finding that the expert’s testimony is reliable and will assist a jury, also citing the expert’s previously allowed testimony in related cases.
October 08, 2024
High Court Hears Arguments On Whether ATF May Treat ‘Ghost Gun’ Parts As Firearms

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 8 heard competing arguments as to whether the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) may for the purposes of regulation broaden the Gun Control Act’s (GCA) definition of “firearm” to include parts of “ghost guns,” which can be assembled into weapons after performing certain operations on them such as drilling holes or removing plastic tabs and which, before the regulation, were considered by some manufacturers to not require serial numbers or a firearms background check before sale.