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

Mealey's Personal Injury

June 30, 2023
JP Morgan $290M Pact In Epstein Sex Crimes Case OK’d In Amended Order

NEW YORK — An amended order preliminarily approving a $290 million settlement to be paid by JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. (JPMC) was filed by a federal judge in New York on June 29 in a lawsuit by a class of women allegedly abused or trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein who accuse JPMC of being liable for facilitating those crimes by maintaining Epstein’s accounts.
June 30, 2023
Split Iowa Supreme Court Says Chemical Injury Plaintiff Failed To Show Causation

DES MOINES, Iowa — A split Iowa Supreme Court has affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a woman’s lawsuit alleging permanent lung injury from exposure to chemical vapors from drain cleaner used in the building where she worked, ruling that she failed to offer evidence to establish causation.
June 28, 2023
Missouri Federal Judge Limits Engineer’s Testimony In Defective Design Case

ST. LOUIS — A licensed engineered retained as an expert in a product liability case can testify on the ergonomics and biomechanics of a chain and ratchet system, but he is unqualified to offer medical causation opinions, a federal judge in Missouri ruled.
June 28, 2023
Talc Company Fights Successor Liability After $20M Asbestos Verdict

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — While a jury may draw inferences from evidence, nothing a jury in an asbestos-talc case heard could allow it to impose liability on one talc company for the actions of a company it purchased, Vanderbilt Minerals LLC told a Connecticut judge on June 27.
June 28, 2023
JP Morgan’s $290M Settlement Preliminarily Approved In Epstein Sex Crimes Case

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York on June 27 preliminarily approved a $290 million settlement to be paid by JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. (JPMC) to end a lawsuit by a class of women allegedly abused or trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein who accuse JPMC of being liable for facilitating those crimes by maintaining Epstein’s accounts.
June 27, 2023
Supreme Court Permits Consent-By-Registration In Employee’s Asbestos Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Pennsylvania law requiring that companies consent to jurisdiction when registering to do business permits a Virginia resident’s asbestos suit against the Virginia-based railroad that formerly employed him in Ohio and Virginia, a divided U.S. Supreme Court said June 27.
June 27, 2023
Judge: Calif. Attorney Allowed To Act As Counsel In Montana Case If AI Not Used

MISSOULA, Mont. — A California attorney may appear as co-counsel in a personal injury case in a federal court in Montana against a dude ranch as long as the attorney does her own writing and signing, appears in person and does not use artificial intelligence (AI) automated drafting programs, a federal judge in Montana ruled, admitting the attorney pro hac vice on those conditions.
June 27, 2023
Magistrate: Expert Can Offer Inconclusive Opinions On Causation Of Eye Injury

DENVER — A federal magistrate judge in Colorado refused to exclude an expert who said he could not definitively say injuries a man says he sustained when police officers fired pepper-filled projectiles at his eye were caused by the projectiles, finding that the testimony passed muster under Federal Rule of Evidence 702.
June 26, 2023
Judge Issues Ruling On Care Home’s Motion For Judgment In Wrongful Death Suit

PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania federal judge in an opinion filed June 23 denied in part a nursing home’s motion for summary judgment in a wrongful death, negligence and civil rights violations suit filed against it by the estate of a former resident, finding that genuine issues of material fact remain regarding whether inadequate staffing and training existed and contributed to the decedent’s injuries.
June 26, 2023
Attorneys Sanctioned For Filing Brief With Fake Lawsuits Generated By ChatGPT

NEW YORK — Before determining that an injured airline passenger’s complaint against an airline is time-barred and must be dismissed, a New York federal judge sanctioned the passenger’s attorneys, ordering them to pay a $5,000 penalty to the court and write letters to a number of judges, for including fake citations and fake lawsuits produced by ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot application, in a response brief filed in New York federal court.
June 26, 2023
High Court Denies Review Of Title IX Statute Of Limitations In Sexual Assault Cases

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 26 denied petitions for writs of certiorari by Ohio State University (OSU) seeking review of Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rulings in separate cases that sexual assault suits brought based on the conduct of a university employee that occurred more than 20 years before the victims filed suit were not barred by the statute of limitations.
June 26, 2023
$6M Wrongful Death Verdict For Estate Reversed Due To Improperly Admitted Evidence

DES MOINES, Iowa — An Iowa appellate court reversed and remanded a $6 million jury verdict for an estate in its wrongful death and negligence suit against a nursing home, finding that the trial court improperly admitted hearsay evidence, including rumors of a certified nursing assistant’s (CNA) prior bad acts without “clear proof” of the alleged misconduct.
June 23, 2023
Split California Panel Affirms: Wrongful Death Claim Is Not Subject To Arbitration

LOS ANGELES — A divided California appellate court affirmed a lower court’s decision denying a rehabilitation center’s motion to compel arbitration in a wrongful death suit against it, finding that the California Code of Civil Procedure binds heirs to arbitration only for wrongful death claims related to professional negligence, rather than elder abuse as alleged in the case.
June 21, 2023
Appeals Court: Governmental Immunity In Dispute After Expert Properly Admitted

DETROIT — A Michigan trial court did not err in denying a motion for summary disposition based on governmental immunity after finding that a causation expert’s testimony was admissible, a state appellate panel ruled in affirming.
June 20, 2023
High Court Justices Decline To Review Veteran’s Plutonium Exposure Class Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 20 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari by a veteran who alleges that his leukopenia was caused by exposure to radioactive plutonium while he was serving in the Air Force in the mid-1960s and argued that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals erred when it held that the Veterans Court lacked the jurisdiction to certify in a single class veterans with both exhausted and unexhausted claims.
June 20, 2023
Jury Finds Dead Smoker Failed To Prove Addiction In Engle Trial

TAMPA, Fla. — A Florida jury returned a defense verdict in an Engle trial on claims brought by the three adult children of a smoker who died at 46 from lung cancer, rejecting the children’s claim that their mother was deceived into smoking filtered cigarettes. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
June 16, 2023
N.C. Supreme Court Reverses Dismissal Of Exploding Vape Case Against Battery Maker

RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina Supreme Court on June 16 reversed a split appellate panel’s ruling affirming the dismissal for lack of jurisdiction of a man’s personal injury lawsuit against a South Korean battery maker and its U.S. subsidiary for burns he suffered after an e-cigarette device exploded in his pocket, ordering the trial court to reconsider its jurisdictional rulings in light of new U.S. Supreme Court precedent.
June 16, 2023
Ohio Train Derailment Case Is Valid, ‘Special Danger’ Created, Nonprofit Says

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — A nonprofit organization that sued officials in Ohio for their alleged failure to properly respond to the train derailment and resulting toxic chemical spill in East Palestine filed an opposition brief arguing that a motion to dismiss by the two state defendants should be denied because the nonprofit established that they created a “special danger” in how they handled the incident.
June 15, 2023
Florida Supreme Court: Despite $16M Loss, Smoker’s Sister May Seek Attorney Fees

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Supreme Court on June 15 provisionally granted a dead smoker’s sister’s motion for attorney fees from a tobacco company, despite its prior affirmance of the reversal of a $16 million damages award in her favor, finding that Florida’s proposal for settlement (PFS) statute is not limited to prevailing parties and that an affirmed compensatory damages judgment in her favor triggers the statute.
June 15, 2023
Veteran Asks Supreme Court To Decide Class Cert Dispute In Plutonium Exposure Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A veteran who alleges that his leukopenia was caused by exposure to radioactive plutonium while he was serving in the Air Force in the mid-1960s filed a reply brief in the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that his petition should be granted so the justices can correct an error by the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals when it held that the Veterans Court lacked the jurisdiction to certify in a single class veterans with both exhausted and unexhausted claims.
June 14, 2023
Death, Injury Suit Over Washout On Reservation Correctly Dismissed, Panel Says

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A North Dakota federal court lacked jurisdiction under the discretionary function exception of the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) to hear a suit filed against the United States for the deaths of two people and injuries to two others after a road culvert on an Indian reservation was washed away in heavy rains and they unknowingly drove off the road and into the floodwaters below, the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held in affirming dismissal of the action.
June 14, 2023
Judge Releases Reasoning For Causation Expert Exclusion In Therapy Device Case

TAMPA, Fla. — A Florida federal judge released an order to explain his earlier ruling that an expert retained by a man who alleged that an electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) device caused permanent neurological injury is inadmissible, days after a jury entered a verdict finding that the manufacturer’s inadequate instruction was not a proximate cause of damage.
June 13, 2023
Florida Panel: Tribe Not Shown To Have Waived Immunity From COVID-Related Tort Claim

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Florida appellate court granted the Seminole Tribe’s petition to prohibit a trial court from proceeding with a negligence claim brought by a patron who said he contracted COVID-19 at the tribe’s casino, finding that the patron failed to demonstrate that the tribe waived sovereign immunity because the patron failed to follow the pre-suit procedures laid out in the compact in which the tribe waived its sovereign immunity for tort claims committed at its gaming facilities.
June 13, 2023
Class Certified In Case Accusing JP Morgan Of Facilitating Epstein Sex Crimes

NEW YORK — A class of women allegedly abused or trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein was certified by a federal judge in New York on June 12 in a case accusing JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. (JPMC) of being liable for facilitating those crimes by maintaining Epstein’s accounts.
June 13, 2023
Texas Panel Says Record Lacks Evidence Showing Agency In Care Home Arbitration Row

DALLAS — A Texas appellate court reversed and remanded a lower court order compelling arbitration in a wrongful death suit filed against a nursing home by a deceased former resident’s husband, finding that though the husband signed an arbitration agreement stating that he was acting as his wife’s agent, there is no evidence showing the existence of an agency relationship.