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Mealey's Personal Injury

August 22, 2024
Acetaminophen Autism/ADHD Judge Says Causation Not Proven, Grants Summary Judgment

NEW YORK — The New York federal judge overseeing the acetaminophen autism spectrum disorder-attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ASD-ADHD) multidistrict litigation, who recently found an expert retained by parents who allege that prenatal exposure to acetaminophen causes ADHD to be inadmissible, awarded summary judgment to the defendants after rejecting the plaintiffs’ argument that statements made by the defendants’ expert could use to prove causation.
August 21, 2024
Federal Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Vaccine Case On Causation Grounds

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 20 affirmed a lower court’s finding that parents failed to prove that their child’s injury was caused by a flu vaccine in a National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act case.
August 15, 2024
Firm’s Bid To Exclude Evidence Is ‘Far Too Broad To Enforce,’ Flint Plaintiffs Say

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The Bellwether III plaintiffs in the litigation over the lead-contaminated water crisis in Flint, Mich., have filed a brief in Michigan federal court arguing that it should deny the defendant engineering firm’s motion to prohibit the plaintiffs from introducing into evidence documents that have not been previously disclosed or authenticated because it is “far too broad to enforce” and it would “force the Court to preempt the equitable exceptions” contained in federal and local rules.
August 13, 2024
Bid To Reargue Procedural Deficiency Of COVID-Era Malpractice Claim Denied

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — After a hearing on the motion, a Connecticut state court judge on Aug. 12 denied a physician’s attempt to reargue her contention that an opinion letter necessary to support a malpractice claim of a patient alleging that her head injury was misdiagnosed as gastroenteritis during the COVID-19 pandemic was insufficient and that the lawsuit should have been dismissed.
August 09, 2024
Michigan Supreme Court Declines Review Of Case Involving COVID-Era Tolling Order

LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Supreme Court denied a hospital patient’s application for leave to appeal a decision of the Michigan Court of Appeals, which ruled that the Supreme Court’s administrative order issued during the COVID-19 pandemic removing from the computation of filing deadlines the days spanning Michigan’s state of emergency did not apply to the statutory period required to elapse before a medical malpractice lawsuit could be filed and, thus, the patient’s lawsuit against a hospital and physicians was time-barred.
August 09, 2024
Magistrate Excludes Defense Witnesses, Allows Plaintiffs’ Expert To Testify

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Two doctors in a medical malpractice suit on Aug. 8 asked a federal magistrate judge in Puerto Rico to reconsider his order excluding their expert witnesses, who would testify on whether the standard of care was breached while treating a man who later died after ingesting glyphosate.
August 08, 2024
South Carolina Panel Remands Rehab Facility Liability Suit For Arbitration

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina appeals court on Aug. 7 reversed and remanded a lower court’s order denying a South Carolina rehab facility’s motion to dismiss and compel arbitration in response to a notice of intent to sue filed by the estate of a former resident, finding that the durable power of attorney (POA) executed by the decedent’s daughter on his behalf gave her the authority to enter into the enforceable arbitration agreement when the decedent entered the rehab facility.
August 05, 2024
Defense Expert On Medical Standards Properly Admitted In Malpractice Suit In Georgia

ATLANTA — A Georgia appeals court on Aug. 2 found that a trial court properly allowed expert testimony under the state’s admission standards and affirmed a defense verdict in a medical malpractice suit.
August 05, 2024
City Must Pay Only $100,000 Of $2.75M Wrongful Death Award In Traffic Stop Case

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — An Alabama federal judge on Aug. 2 granted in part a motion of an Alabama city and a city police officer for judgment as a matter of law or a new trial or remittitur of a $4.45 million jury award stemming from a vehicle chase that culminated in the police officer shooting into the plaintiffs’ vehicle after it crashed, holding that the officer was entitled to qualified immunity on excessive force claims and that, by law, the municipality could not be liable for more than $100,000 of the $2.75M in wrongful death punitive damages awarded against the city and the officer.
August 05, 2024
Gardasil MDL Judge Dismisses 4 Cases On Jurisdictional Grounds

STATESVILLE, N.C. — The North Carolina federal judge overseeing the Gardasil multidistrict litigation granted motions to dismiss filed by Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, agreeing that four plaintiffs failed to timely file a required petition in the Vaccine Court.
August 05, 2024
Florida High Court Won’t Review Engle Residency In $2.5M Win For Smoker’s Estate

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Supreme Court on Aug. 2 denied two tobacco companies’ petition to review an appellate panel’s opinion affirming a $2.5 million verdict in favor of the estate of a smoker who died from lung cancer, declining to accept jurisdiction over the tobacco companies’ argument that the smoker was not an Engle member and primarily resided in New York.
August 02, 2024
Expert Did Not Connect Injuries To Malpractice; Summary Judgment Affirmed

PHILADELPHIA — Because an expert for parents did not causally connect the deprivation of oxygen during their child’s delivery to his diagnosis of autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a district court properly excluded the expert’s testimony and did not err in awarding summary judgment on the medical malpractice claims, the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said.
August 02, 2024
Nicotine Pouch Consumer Files Putative Class Action Alleging False Youth Marketing

HARTFORD, Conn. — A consumer of Zyn nicotine pouches filed a putative class action in Connecticut federal court accusing Philip Morris International Inc. (PM) and Swedish Match North America LLC of violating Florida consumer protection statutes by targeting youth and deceptively advertising the products as a “safer and healthier alternative to smoking.”
August 02, 2024
Patient Says Rehab Hospital Ignored Directives, Resulting In Leg Amputation

INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana man has filed a federal complaint against the operators of his skilled nursing facility, alleging that they failed to follow medical directives that a wound vacuum (wound vac) be placed over his three amputated toes, resulting in his lower leg being amputated.
August 01, 2024
COVID-Era Michigan Supreme Court Order Was Authorized, Saves Slip-And-Fall Case

LANSING, Mich. — A split Michigan Supreme Court has ruled that it acted constitutionally in issuing an administrative order dictating how limitations periods for commencing litigation were to be computed during the state of emergency declared during the COVID-19 pandemic, affirming a ruling by the Michigan Court of Appeals and allowing a woman injured in a slip-and-fall incident to proceed with her lawsuit against an apartment property owner/manager.
August 01, 2024
Amici Urge High Court Review Of Ruling Denying Care Facility’s Arbitration Bid

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Groups representing long-term care providers and defense attorneys filed amicus curiae briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court urging it to grant certiorari to review a California Supreme Court decision that affirmed the denial of a skilled nursing facility and its owner’s efforts to compel arbitration of an elder abuse and negligence suit filed against them related to a former resident’s fall and injuries.
August 01, 2024
Texas Panel Again Finds Expert Report Deficient In Nursing Home Negligence Suit

TYLER, Texas — Finding that the causation opinions in an expert’s amended report “suffer from the same deficiencies as his original report,” a Texas appellate panel affirmed the dismissal with prejudice of an estate representative’s health care liability suit against a nursing home where the decedent lived.
August 01, 2024
Ohio Panel Affirms Discovery Ruling For Estate Administrator In Wrongful Death Case

CLEVELAND — Finding that the operators of a group residential facility for children failed to establish that information and documents sought by the administrator of the estate of a boy who died while under their care falls under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) or “is subject to any privilege such that they would be protected from discovery,” an Ohio appellate court affirmed a lower court’s ruling granting the administrator’s motion to compel.
July 31, 2024
Worker Seeks Damages For Injury At Fracking Site, Also Claims Discrimination

OKLAHOMA CITY — A worker who alleges that he was injured while performing his duties on a hydraulic fracturing rig has sued a well services company and the fracking operator that owned the well where the incident took place, seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages.
July 31, 2024
Plaintiffs Seek Reargument In Coverage Dispute Over Earplug Liability Claims

WILMINGTON, Del. — Plaintiffs seeks reargument of a Delaware judge’s ruling in favor of liability insurers in their lawsuit seeking coverage for an underlying earplug product liability multidistrict litigation that resulted in a $6 billion settlement and millions of dollars of defense costs, challenging the judge’s finding that they have failed to demonstrate that there is no genuine issue of material fact regarding their satisfaction of the self-insured retention under any of the insurance policies.
July 30, 2024
Dead Smoker’s Kids Defend $6M Verdict Against Tobacco Company’s ‘Forgery’ Theory

MIAMI — A smoker’s children on Jan. 29 filed an answer brief in the Florida Third District Court of Appeal urging affirmance of a $6 million verdict against a tobacco company, arguing that the company’s argument that records of the dead smoker being diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were forged is undercut by other evidence introduced at trial.
July 30, 2024
Illinois Jury Awards $24.46M In Asbestos Damages To Talc-Facility Janitor, Wife

CHICAGO — An Illinois jury hit Avon Products Inc. with a $24.46 million asbestos verdict, including $1 million in punitive damages, after finding the company responsible for a former janitor’s exposure to asbestos present at a talc-processing facility, sources told Mealey’s Publications.
July 30, 2024
Georgia Supreme Court Holds Statute Of Repose Tolled By COVID-Era Emergency Order

ATLANTA — Reversing a unanimous decision of a panel of the Georgia Court of Appeals, the Georgia Supreme Court has ruled that a COVID-era judicial order tolling various court deadlines was authorized by law and applied to the state’s five-year statute of repose applicable to medical malpractice actions, allowing a woman’s malpractice claims against a hospital alleging the misdiagnosis of sepsis that resulted in amputations to move forward.
July 26, 2024
Hospital Appeals Order Reducing Verdict To $4M In Estate’s Wrongful Death Suit

BRONX, N.Y. — A hospital sued for wrongful death and medical malpractice regarding its purported failure to diagnose a fatal medical condition of a 63-year-old man has appealed a New York state justice’s ruling reducing the jury’s verdict against it from $6.1 million to $4 million and ordering a new trial but refusing to set aside the verdict as against the weight of evidence.
July 25, 2024
Judge Partly Dismisses Hip Replacement Patient’s Suit Over Defective Implant

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted in part and denied in part a motion to dismiss filed by several companies involved in the manufacture and sale of a prosthetic hip replacement who are accused of causing a patient injuries and lost wages after his implant began releasing toxic metals into his body, finding that the patient’s claims, including for violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), are not preempted by federal authority.