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

Mealey's Personal Injury

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.
June 12, 2023
Virgin Islands Judge Dismisses Tobacco Company From Smoker’s Lawsuit

CHRISTIANSTED, St. Croix — A U.S. Virgin Islands judge dismissed one tobacco company from a smoker’s pending lawsuit against it, another tobacco company, a wholesaler and two retailers for selling him cigarettes that caused him to develop bladder cancer and heart disease, two weeks after denying the wholesaler’s motion for summary judgment.
June 12, 2023
Dead Smoker Claimed ‘Right’ To Smoke Despite Risks, Tobacco Company Tells Jurors

TAMPA, Fla. — An attorney for a tobacco company told a Florida state court jury during opening arguments that it should reject claims brought in an Engle trial by the three children of a smoker who died at 46 from lung cancer, arguing that the smoker ignored advice to quit and said she had a “right” to smoke, while her adult children’s attorney says the smoker was deceived into smoking filtered cigarettes. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
June 09, 2023
Punitive Damages, Post-Trial Motions Briefed After $20M Asbestos Verdict

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A plaintiff awarded $20 million in an asbestos action urged a Connecticut judge in a June 8 reply to impose $40 million in punitive damages and said a successor talc company can be held liable because after it purchased its predecessor, it continued with the same reckless conduct.
June 09, 2023
Majority Affirms Ruling In Favor Of Golf Club, Insurer In Premises Liability Suit

GRETNA, La. — A majority of a Louisiana appeals court panel affirmed a lower court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of a golf club and its insurer in a premises liability lawsuit brought by a guest of the golf club, finding that the guest failed to submit any evidence or expert testimony to demonstrate that the alleged uneven surface of the golf club’s parking lot combined with a purported lack of lighting was unreasonably dangerous.
June 09, 2023
Assault Victims Deny Circuit Split Exists In Title IX Statute Of Limitations Cases

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sexual assault victims who sued an Ohio university based on the conduct of a university employee that occurred more than 20 years before the victims filed suit tell the U.S. Supreme Court that the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals correctly ruled that the cases were not barred by the applicable statute of limitations and that no circuit split existed on the proper interpretation as to when a Title IX claim accrues that warrants review by the court.
June 08, 2023
Judge: Expert Allowed In Case Alleging Injuries From Exploding Candle

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Testimony from an expert retained from a woman who alleges that she was injured by a defective candle is relevant and reliable, a Tennessee federal judge ruled June 7 in denying Walmart’s motion to exclude the testimony.
June 08, 2023
Split Supreme Court Says FNHRA Grants Private Rights For Nursing Home Residents

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A split U.S. Supreme Court on June 8 ruled that the Federal Nursing Home Reform Act (FNHRA) confers a private right of action to nursing home residents, finding that there is no incompatibility between enforcement of civil rights claims under Section 1983 and the right to be free from chemical restraints under the FNHRA.
June 06, 2023
Widow, Tobacco Companies Answer Smoker’s Kids’ Claims Before Florida Supreme Court

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The widow of a smoker filed a jurisdictional brief in Florida Supreme Court opposing an appellate panel’s ruling dismissing the smoker’s children’s claims for damages as part of the wrongful death lawsuit she filed as personal representative of the smoker’s estate, while the two tobacco companies she sued in a brief filed the same day write that the panel decision dismissing the children’s claim for damages was nonfinal and unappealable.
June 06, 2023
Panel Reverses Dismissal Of Insurer’s Coverage Suit Over Spa’s Alleged Negligence

ATLANTA — A Georgia appeals panel on June 5 concluded that a lower court erred in dismissing an insurer’s declaratory judgment lawsuit disputing coverage for an underlying action alleging that a spa insured’s employee injured a customer during a Brazilian bikini wax, finding that, based on the underlying allegations, it is possible that the insurer could show that the insured violated the relevant statutes and regulations as to esthetician licensing.
June 06, 2023
Ford Says Expert, Settlements Warrant Directed Verdict, Amended Judgment

GREENSBORO, N.C. — A woman essentially concedes that her expert’s opinion was based on nothing more than his belief that asbestos friction products were dangerous unless proven otherwise, and settlements more than offset the jury’s entire $275,000 award and any fees, Ford Motor Co. argues in reply briefs in support of motions to amend the judgment and for directed verdict.
June 06, 2023
Missouri Jury Awards $9.7M For 39-Year-Old Woman’s Household Asbestos Exposures

ST. LOUIS — A Missouri jury awarded a widower and an estate $9.7 million for a woman’s take-home exposure to asbestos and resulting death from mesothelioma after the judge in the case said the plaintiff was entitled to sanctions for discovery violations.