Mealey's Personal Injury
-
March 07, 2023
South Carolina Jury Awards $29.1M In Asbestos-Talc Case
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Plaintiffs awarded $29,139,691 in an asbestos-talc case against Whittaker, Clark & Daniels Inc.(WCD) have asked the court to appoint a receiver for the company, saying that if it isn’t there already, the company faces “imminent danger” of future insolvency.
-
March 07, 2023
Tobacco Company Argues In Favor Of Juror Interviews After Smoker Wins $6.5M
BOSTON — A tobacco company on March 6 filed a brief in a Massachusetts court denying that it will “harass” jurors by calling them to ask questions about a recent trial at which they awarded $5 million to a smoker with laryngeal cancer who also received $1.5 million in prejudgment interest and urging the court to deny the smoker’s emergency motion to prohibit it from contacting jurors. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
-
March 07, 2023
Force Expert In, Alternative Design Expert Out In Truck Liftgate Injury Case
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A biomechanical engineer can testify about the force required to operate the liftgate of a truck, but an engineer’s proposed testimony about alternative designs must be excluded because it fails to satisfy the reliability standards of Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Federal Rule of Evidence 702, a federal judge in Pennsylvania held in denying in part and granting in part the liftgate designer’s motion in limine.
-
March 07, 2023
Pennsylvania Jury Returns Defense Verdict In Take-Home Exposure Case
PITTSBURGH — A Pennsylvania jury returned a defense verdict in a take-home exposure case against asbestos fiber supplier Union Carbide Corp., finding that the company’s Calidria was not defective.
-
March 06, 2023
Ford Seeks To Compel Production Of Settlements After $275,000 Asbestos Award
GREENSBORO, N.C. — A federal court in North Carolina should compel production of amounts a woman received from pretrial settlements, which are both discoverable and may well exceed the jury’s $275,000 asbestos verdict, Ford Motor Co. says.
-
March 06, 2023
Texas Supreme Court To Hear Battery Maker’s Challenge In Exploding Vape Case
AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Supreme Court granted two petitions for review, one filed by a Korean battery-maker and one by its U.S. subsidiary, which are seeking to challenge a Texas appellate panel’s rulings affirming a trial court’s finding of personal jurisdiction over them in a personal injury lawsuit brought by a man who claims that they manufactured the battery that exploded in his portable e-cigarette vape device, causing him severe burns.
-
March 02, 2023
Denial Of Care Home’s Motion To Compel Arbitration Affirmed Absent Capacity To Contract
VENTURA, Calif. — A California appellate court affirmed a trial court’s order denying a nursing home’s motion to compel arbitration after a former resident died and his heirs sued the nursing home for wrongful death and elder abuse, finding that due to an absence of evidence supporting cognitive improvement following his stroke, the man lacked the capacity to enter into the agreement and consent to waive his right to a jury trial.
-
March 01, 2023
Journalists Denied Class Certification In Police Treatment Suit
MINNEAPOLIS — A motion for class certification filed by journalists, other members of the press and Communications Workers of America (CWA) in a lawsuit alleging mistreatment by law enforcement while the plaintiffs were covering protests in 2020 following the death of George Floyd was denied by a federal judge in Minnesota who found that commonality and typicality were not shown.
-
March 01, 2023
Injured Railroad Worker’s Experts Allowed To Offer Testimony In FELA Case
OMAHA, Neb. — A federal judge in Nebraska largely denied a railroad company’s motions to exclude the testimony of four experts in an injured railroad worker’s Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA) suit under Federal Rule of Evidence 702, excluding only a railroad safety consultant’s testimony related to whether the locomotive in question was underpowered on the date of the accident.
-
February 24, 2023
On Remand, Review Commission Upholds OSHA Citation For Walmart Safety Violations
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission upheld a $10,000 citation by U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Occupational Safety and Health Administration after it was found that the injury to a Walmart Inc. warehouse employee was caused by the employer’s failure to follow federal workplace safety standards, the DOL announced Feb. 24.
-
February 24, 2023
Wisconsin Supreme Court Denies Review Of $32M Jury Award For Car Seat Malfunction
MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin Supreme Court denied a petition for review of an automobile manufacturer challenging the ruling of a state appellate panel affirming a $38.1 million verdict — $32 million of which was apportioned against the manufacturer — by a jury that determined that the collapse of the driver’s seatback in his Hyundai Elantra during a rear-end collision caused his spinal injuries and paralysis.
-
February 24, 2023
Georgia Federal Judge Limits Expert’s Testimony In Premise Liability Injury Case
ATLANTA — A Georgia federal judge partly granted a motion to exclude an expert retained by a woman who fell inside a CVS store while working, finding that certain of his opinions constitute improper legal conclusions and others are based on unreliable information.
-
February 24, 2023
1 Expert In, 1 Expert Out In Suit Alleging Exploding Phone Battery Started Fire
PITTSBURGH — A Pennsylvania federal judge agreed to exclude one expert witness retained by a man who claims that a faulty cell phone battery caused a house fire but granted Apple Inc.’s motion to exclude the expert opining on the causation of his injuries.
-
February 21, 2023
Judgment Entered After Calif. Jury Finds For Orthopedic Surgeon In Negligence Suit
Other medical professionals settled with plaintiff before trial
-
February 21, 2023
Plaintiff Injured In Car Crash Awarded $536,250 Judgment After Verdict
Jury awards $189,500 in economic damages and $346,750 in noneconomic damages
-
February 21, 2023
New York Jury Returns Defense Verdict In Asbestos Fiber Supplier Case
BUFFALO, N.Y. — An Erie County jury returned a defense verdict for plastics company’s fiber supplier, sources told Mealey Publications.
-
February 17, 2023
Family Of Fatally Injured Off-Shore Worker Awarded $24.3M Judgment After Trial
LAKE CHARLES, La. — A federal judge in Louisiana issued a $24,382,978.40 final judgment in favor of the wife and child of an off-shore worker who was fatally injured on the job after a jury found that the owner and operator of an off-shore oil platform and a company it hired to remove firewater pipes were negligent or at fault for causing the worker’s death.
-
February 16, 2023
Freed From Stay, 24-Year-Old With Meso Seeks Trial Against J&J
LOS ANGELES — Now that a judge lifted the stay imposed by the LTL Management bankruptcy, an asbestos-talc case may be fully prosecuted at trial within the next 60 days, a 24-year-old man suffering from mesothelioma tells a California judge in a case management statement.
-
February 15, 2023
Plaintiffs: Flint Defense Parties’ Hotel Records Obtained Validly, Are Relevant
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The Flint water crisis plaintiffs filed a brief in Michigan federal court opposing a defendant engineering firm’s motion to seal documents and seeking a protective order, arguing that records related to the hotel stay of the defendants’ attorneys and witnesses during the bellwether trial are relevant and were obtained with a subpoena that was “valid and unchallenged.”
-
February 15, 2023
Ohio Train Derailment Spurs Lawsuits For Exposure To Vinyl Chloride, Other Toxins
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Several lawsuits, some of them class actions, have been filed against railway operator Norfolk Southern Corp. in Ohio federal court alleging injury and toxic exposure following a train derailment that spilled vinyl chloride and other toxins in East Palestine, Ohio. One of the class actions, which is representative of the other lawsuits filed thus far, alleges that Norfolk Southern is liable for willful and wanton conduct.
-
February 15, 2023
Delaware Federal Judge Denies Dismissal Of COVID Death Suit, Says No PREP Act Bar
WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware federal judge denied a nursing home’s dismissal motion in a wrongful death and negligence suit against it filed by the family of a former resident who died after contracting COVID-19 there, finding that because the family’s claims do not relate to using a “covered countermeasure,” such as masks or vaccinations, their claims are not barred under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act.
-
February 15, 2023
New Trial Denied After Defense Verdict In Auto Accident Suit
Jury found that plaintiff had not proven negligence of driver who changed lanes
-
February 15, 2023
$625,872 Medical Negligence Judgment Satisfied After New Trial; Setoff Denied
LOS ANGELES — A doctor found negligent by a jury in his diagnosis and treatment of a patient has satisfied the $626,872 judgment against him after the California judge presiding over the case denied his motions to offset damages by the amount of a settlement with another defendant and for a new trial.
-
February 15, 2023
Georgia Jury Awards $1.55 Million To Couple Injured In Head-On Collision
Driver’s negligence caused injuries, couple says
-
February 14, 2023
11th Circuit Affirms Expert Exclusion, Summary Judgment In Design Defect Case
ATLANTA — “[A]n unbridged ‘analytical gap’ between” an expert’s observations and his opinion that a boat’s engine compartment hatch and lift actuator were defectively designed warrants exclusion, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said, affirming a district court’s order and its award of summary judgment in favor of the manufacturer.