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

Mealey's Personal Injury

July 22, 2024
S.C. Federal Judge Rules That Expert Can Testify In Tree Stand Injury Case

CHARLESTON, S.C. — A South Carolina federal judge denied a motion to exclude an expert who will testify that a tree stand manufacturer violated the standard of care, which led to a man being injured after the tree stand failed.
July 22, 2024
Judge Largely Rules For Insurers In Coverage Suit Over Earplug Liability Claims

WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware judge largely ruled in favor of liability insurers in a 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, finding that the plaintiffs 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 19, 2024
Judge: Expert Testimony That Injuries Related To Crash Unsupported By Evidence

NEWARK, N.J. — An expert who opined that it is possible that a man suffered a stroke as a result of injuries he received during a tractor-trailer collision cannot testify because his conclusions do not meet to the standards set under Federal Rule of Evidence 702, Fed. R. Evid. 702, and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993), a New Jersey federal judge ruled July 18.
July 19, 2024
Judge Allows Competing Medical, Use Of Force Experts In Case Filed By Inmate

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge ruled on competing motions to exclude medical and excessive force experts in a lawsuit filed by a man who alleges that he was injured while an inmate at a California state prison.
July 18, 2024
Monsanto Files Official Notice Of Appeal In Pennsylvania Glyphosate Cancer Case

PHILADELPHIA — Monsanto Co. has filed a notice in the Pennsylvania Superior Court officially appealing the verdict against the company in a glyphosate cancer lawsuit in which a state court judge reduced an initial $2.25 billion damages award to $404,308,904.11. Monsanto listed the issues on appeal but did not provide the reasoning behind its challenge to the verdict.
July 18, 2024
CPAP MDL Judge Sets Date For Medical Monitoring Settlement Hearing

PITTSBURGH — The federal judge overseeing the multidistrict litigation involving the recall of approximately 10.8 million continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) sleep apnea devices will hold a final fairness hearing on Oct. 30 on a $25 million settlement to resolve medical monitoring claims in the MDL.
July 16, 2024
Judge Allows Expert To Opine If Speed Of Crash Supports Alleged Injuries

OMAHA, Neb. — A Nebraska federal judge on July 15 denied a couple’s motion to exclude testimony from an expert opining on the speed, impact, energy and severity of a collision, finding that the arguments for exclusion go to weight, not admissibility.
July 15, 2024
Dollar General To Pay $12M, Make Nationwide Safety Investments Under DOL Pact

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Dollar General Corp. and its retail subsidiaries will pay $12 million in penalties and make safety changes as part of its corporate-wide settlement presented to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC).
July 15, 2024
Connecticut Court Hears Arguments On CDA Immunity In Snapchat Assault Suit

WATERBURY, Conn. — Snap Inc., which operates the Snapchat social network, squared off in Connecticut court against the parents of a minor who was sexually assaulted by two men that she met through the platform, with the social media company asserting that it is immune from liability for the rapists’ actions under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA).
July 11, 2024
Magistrate Judge OKs Expert Testimony In Case Alleging Death Stemmed From Crash

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A federal magistrate judge in Florida agreed to limit certain opinions offered by a medical examiner in a wrongful death suit stemming from an overdose of opioid medication but found that his other testimony is admissible and further ruled that a rebuttal witness can testify on possible causes of a woman’s injuries.
July 11, 2024
Pleadings Of Passenger Injured In Jet Ski Accident Survive Challenge By Cruise Line

MIAMI — In an action by a cruise line seeking exoneration from or limitation of liability for an accident involving two of its passengers riding jet skis supplied by it, a Florida federal court denied the cruise line’s motion to dismiss the statement of claims of one of the passengers and to strike her affirmative defenses to the petition.
July 11, 2024
Dallas Jury Awards $500,000 For Man’s Mesothelioma

DALLAS — A Texas judge entered judgment on a $500,000 asbestos verdict, finding that the plaintiffs are entitled to costs and various interest on the $325,000 in exemplary damages awarded by the jury.
July 11, 2024
Care Facility, Owner Seek High Court Review Of Ruling Affirming Arbitration Denial

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A California skilled nursing facility and its owner/operator filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court seeking review of a California Supreme Court ruling affirming the denial of their efforts to compel arbitration of an elder abuse and negligence suit filed against the petitioners related to a former resident’s fall and injuries.
July 10, 2024
Tobacco Company Not Liable For Smoker’s Laryngeal Cancer Death, Jury Says

MIAMI — A Miami-Dade County, Fla., 11th Judicial Circuit Court jury issued a verdict awarding no damages and finding a tobacco company not liable for claims that it defectively designed Virginia Slims cigarettes and caused a smoker’s death from laryngeal cancer. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
July 09, 2024
Court Deputy Files Scheduling Order In Malpractice Suit Against Rehab Home

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — At the direction of an Arkansas federal court clerk, a courtroom deputy filed an order outlining deadlines for discovery and a proposed trial date in a man’s medical malpractice suit against the nursing and rehabilitation center he alleges failed to provide him with the appropriate standard of care for his pressure ulcers, leading to infection and colostomy surgery.
July 09, 2024
Ohio Panel Reverses Judgment For Care Home, Finds Fact Questions Remain For Jury

CANTON, Ohio — An Ohio appellate court on July 8 reversed and remanded a lower court’s ruling that granted summary judgment to a nursing home in a wrongful death and negligence suit against it, finding that questions of fact remain for a jury regarding whether “proper monitoring” of a former resident’s urinary tract infection (UTI) would have prevented her death from sepsis.
July 09, 2024
Smoker’s Estate Opposes Florida High Court Review Of Engle Residency Requirements

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A smoker’s estate argues in an answer brief that the Florida Supreme Court should not review an appellate panel’s opinion affirming a $2.5 million verdict against two tobacco companies for the smoker’s death from lung cancer, writing that the panel’s holding that she was an Engle member despite also residing in New York does not conflict with any other case.
July 08, 2024
Federal Magistrate Judge Recommends Reduced Attorney Fees In CoolSculpting Case

ORLANDO, Fla. — A federal magistrate judge in Florida recommended that attorney fees for counsel who successfully defended a company in a design defect case be reduced from the counsel’s request after finding “that employing 15 attorneys and four paralegals for this matter, and requesting over $1 million in fees for a 13-month period, to be excessive on its face.”
July 08, 2024
Merck Says 3 Gardasil Cases Must Be Dismissed On Jurisdictional Grounds

STATESVILLE, N.C. — Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC tells the court overseeing the Gardasil multidistrict litigation that plaintiffs opposing its motion to dismiss “yet again ask this Court to interpret the Vaccine Act in a way that, so far as Merck is aware, no court ever has.”
July 05, 2024
Causation Expert Found Unreliable By Wash. Federal Judge In Slip-And-Fall Suit

SEATTLE — Because a woman’s causation expert “is not an expert in analyzing surveillance video,” she cannot testify in a slip-and-fall lawsuit because her opinion on the exact moment a woman’s knee hit the ground is not reliable under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Washington federal judge held.
July 05, 2024
Texas Appeals Court: Biomechanical Engineer Testimony Properly Excluded

DALLAS — While Texas courts do allow biomechanical engineers to offer expert testimony in car accident cases, a trial court did not err in excluding an expert who did not offer any evidence that the injuries allegedly sustained in a crash were inconsistent with the physical forces created in the collision, a state appeals court ruled in affirming a $700,000 verdict.
July 03, 2024
Objectors Say $600M Ohio Train Deal Is ‘Unconstitutional,’ Cite EPA Whistleblower

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Two plaintiffs in the class action against Norfolk Southern Railway Co. and Norfolk Southern Corp. (Norfolk Southern, collectively) related to toxic chemicals spilled during the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, have filed separate objections to a $600 million settlement, saying it is “unconstitutional” because evidence of liability and damages has been suppressed or withheld and information from a whistleblower at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency exposes “shocking efforts” by the EPA to “avoid learning the truth immediately after” the derailment.
July 03, 2024
Judge Approves Death Settlement Against Care Home, Apportions Distributions

ST. LOUIS — A Missouri federal judge on July 2 approved a confidential settlement agreement in a wrongful death suit filed by a decedent’s daughter against a nursing home, finding “that the balance of interests in this case favors” keeping the settlement terms confidential and that the daughter’s proposed apportionment to all three of the decedent’s children “is just and fair.”
July 03, 2024
Death Suit Against Memory Care Facility Assigned To Magistrate For Mediation

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A Missouri federal magistrate judge on July 2 was assigned to alternative dispute resolution (ADR) through a notice of inclusion in a mediation program in a wrongful death suit filed the previous day against a memory care facility and a related entity asserting that the defendants acted negligently in failing to implement safety procedures and provide adequate staffing to prevent a former’s resident’s “avoidable” fall, which purportedly led to his death.
June 28, 2024
COMMENTARY: Courts Must, As Recently Reminded, Follow The Law In Rule 702 Expert Testimony Determinations

By Erin Sheley