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

Mealey's Personal Injury

August 11, 2023
OSHA Regulations Don’t Apply To Maritime Case, Judge Rules In Excluding Expert

DETROIT — An expert relied on Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations in forming his conclusions in a maritime personal injury lawsuit, but the regulations do not apply to U.S. Coast Guard inspected vessels, a Michigan federal judge said, granting a motion to exclude his testimony.
August 11, 2023
Panel Quashes Order Denying Dismissal In Wrongful Death Suit Against Nursing Home

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Florida appellate court granted certiorari and quashed a lower court’s order denying dismissal of an estate’s wrongful death and negligence suit against a purported partnership that owned a 95% interest in a nursing home’s licensee and the alleged sole owner of the licensee’s management company, finding that the estate’s allegations that the partnership and owner were involved with the nursing home’s management decisions did not suffice to comply with Florida law regarding negligence suits against nursing homes.
August 09, 2023
Split Supreme Court Revives Federal ‘Ghost Gun’ Regulation Pending Appeal

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A divided U.S. Supreme Court on Aug. 8 granted the application of the United States to stay a judgment of a Texas federal court vacating a rule promulgated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) that broadened the definition of “firearm” to include parts of “ghost guns,” which can be assembled into weapons but, before the rule, were not required to have serial numbers and could be obtained without a firearms background check.
August 09, 2023
Medical Expert Properly Excluded From Opining On Causation, 11th Circuit Affirms

ATLANTA — The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals found no error in a district court excluding an expert witness under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc. after finding that the expert did not consider alternative reasons for a woman’s allergic reaction, affirming the dismissal of a medical malpractice suit.
August 09, 2023
Civil Rights Claims In Suit Stemming From University COVID-19 Death Dismissed

PITTSBURGH — A Pennsylvania federal judge dismissed with prejudice civil rights claims in the amended complaint of the estate administrator of a university student who died of COVID-19 in a lawsuit that also alleged state law claims of wrongful death, survival and willful misconduct against the university and others, finding that the administrator could not establish that there had been conduct that “shocks the conscience” given the several measures taken by the university to reduce the risk posed by COVID-19 during the pandemic.
August 08, 2023
Monsanto Objects To $72M PCB Judgment, Says Plaintiffs’ Motion Is ‘Improper’

SEATTLE — Monsanto filed a brief in Washington state court arguing that the court should reject the proposed final judgment for two plaintiffs who won $72 million for injuries from polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) because it is “improper” in several respects and misstates the jury’s verdict.
August 07, 2023
Judge Excludes 1 Expert, Rules On Allowed Testimony In Candle Injury Case

PHOENIX — An Arizona federal judge ruled on five motions relating to expert testimony and who is to blame for a man’s serious injuries allegedly caused when fragrance in a candle caused a flashover.
August 03, 2023
Panel Affirms Order Denying Arbitration In Negligence Suit Against Care Home

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina appellate court on Aug. 2 affirmed a lower court’s order denying a nursing home’s motion to dismiss, to compel arbitration and to stay in a suit against it alleging negligence related to a resident’s incurring a hip fracture, finding that the resident’s agent acting pursuant to a health care power of attorney (HCPOA) lacked the authority to enter the arbitration agreement on his behalf.
August 03, 2023
Judge: Expert Opining On Hand Injury From Frozen Chicken Can Testify

SEATTLE — A Washington federal judge denied a motion to exclude an expert witness testifying on injuries a man sustained after allegedly cutting his hand on metal shears inside a bag of frozen chicken after finding that objections to the testimony can best be addressed through cross-examination.
August 03, 2023
New York Care Homes Appeal Orders Requiring Monitors In $83M Medicare Fraud Suit

NEW YORK — Less than a week after a New York state justice issued orders requiring independent monitors in an $83 million Medicare and Medicaid fraud suit, multiple nursing homes and their owners and operators appealed, arguing that the monitors are unnecessary and would disrupt their business.
August 03, 2023
Defendant’s Representation Satisfies Judge At Juror Harassment Hearing

LOS ANGELES — The judge overseeing an order to show cause hearing on juror harassment in the wake of an $8.8 million asbestos verdict said he would not take any further action in light of a defendant’s representation that there would be no more unsolicited contact with jurors at their homes.
August 03, 2023
Judge Partially Excludes Safety Expert’s Testimony In Slip-And-Fall Case

TAMPA, Fla. — A Florida federal judge agreed to limit testimony from a safety expert retained by a man who says he slipped on a wet floor in a Target store but denied a motion to exclude the man’s life care planning expert.
August 02, 2023
Asbestos Defendant Says Recent Authority Supports Causation Specificity Argument

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Recent out-of-state rulings support the conclusion that the presence of visible dust does not satisfy the causation standard in Connecticut, which instead requires specificity regarding the dose of asbestos, a defendant told a state court judge in a statement of supplemental authority in support of a motion to set aside a verdict.
August 01, 2023
Pennsylvania Federal Judge OKs Experts In Design Defect Case Against Caterpillar

PITTSBURGH — A missing piece of evidence does not warrant exclusion of experts’ testimony, but a Pennsylvania federal judge agreed to bar testimony on one opinion that is irrelevant to a man’s suit alleging that a faulty design of construction equipment caused his injury.
July 28, 2023
Florida Supreme Court Won’t Review Dismissal Of Smoker’s Kids’ Claims

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Supreme Court declined to accept jurisdiction over a petition filed by the children of a dead smoker seeking review of a split appellate panel’s ruling affirming the dismissal of their claims for noneconomic damages as a nonfinal, nonappealable ruling.
July 28, 2023
Summary Judgment Granted In Alleged Defective Medical Device Case, Expert Excluded

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee federal judge ruled that a retained expert in a defective medical device case “either did not measure the suture or her measurements of the suture are impossible” and excluded the testimony and found that without her testimony, summary judgment is appropriate.
July 27, 2023
Experts Properly Admitted In Chemical Exposure Case, Wisconsin Court Says

MILWAUKEE — A Wisconsin trial court did not err in allowing expert testimony during a trial in which a worker says he was injured from exposure to the chemical diacetyl, a state appellate court ruled, upholding a $5.3 million jury award.
July 26, 2023
Texas Panel Finds Jurisdiction Over Korean Battery Maker In Exploding Vape Case

HOUSTON — A Texas appellate panel on July 25 affirmed a trial court’s jurisdiction over a South Korean battery maker and its U.S. subsidiary in a personal injury lawsuit brought by a man who claims that he was burned after the battery exploded in his e-cigarette device, citing recent Texas Supreme Court precedent.
July 25, 2023
Nebraska High Court Reverses, Deems Suit Filed After Estate Reopening Timely

LINCOLN, Neb. — A unanimous Nebraska Supreme Court reversed and remanded an appellate court’s determination that a lower court correctly dismissed a woman’s negligence suit against the estate of a man involved in an automobile accident with her, finding that the woman’s second amended complaint “relates back to the date of the first amended complaint,” which was filed within the applicable statute of limitations.
July 21, 2023
California Jury Awards $18.8M Against J&J For Man’s Mesothelioma

LOS ANGELES — A California jury hit Johnson & Johnson with an $18.8 million verdict in an asbestos-talc case freed from the company’s related bankruptcy stay and held it 100% liable for the 25-year-old’s mesothelioma.
July 21, 2023
Protesters Reach $13.7M Settlement With New York City For Arrests, Use Of Force

NEW YORK — A putative class of individuals who participated in protests in New York City following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police filed a motion in a federal court in New York seeking preliminary approval of a settlement of up to $13,731,000 with the city and individual New York Police Department (NYPD) defendants.
July 20, 2023
Federal Judge Allows Detainees’ Pandemic Cleaner Poisoning Claims To Proceed

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Putative class claims first filed in March by detainees who say they were poisoned by a cleaning solution the facility operator used multiple times an hour between February 2020 and April 2021 as a purported safety measure against COVID-19 “fall within the heartland of delayed discovery cases,” a federal judge in California ruled, denying a motion to partially dismiss the complaint based on the purported applicable statute of limitations.
July 17, 2023
Jury Hits Monsanto With $72M Verdict In Seattle-Area School PCB Injury Lawsuit

SEATTLE — A jury in a Washington state court on July 14 awarded two individuals a total of $72 million for injuries caused by exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) produced by Monsanto Co. that were present in a Seattle-area school.
July 14, 2023
6th Circuit Affirms Remand In COVID Death Suit, Says No PREP Act Preemption

CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a district court’s remand of a negligence and COVID-19 wrongful death suit to state court, finding that the nursing home defendants failed to establish preemption under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act by not providing evidence of a federal agency delegating authority to the defendants to act on the agency’s behalf.
July 14, 2023
Insurer’s Time To Answer Extended In Coverage Row Over Claims Against Care Home

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — A North Carolina federal magistrate judge issued text-only orders extending time for an insurer and its insured to answer a nursing home’s breach of contract suit for failure to defend and indemnify the nursing home in an underlying negligence action.