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

Mealey's Personal Injury

November 07, 2023
Split Panel Affirms Judgment For Senior Living Facility In Premises Liability Case

ATLANTA — A split Georgia appellate court panel affirmed a lower court’s grant of summary judgment to an assisted living facility in a premises liability suit against it after a resident’s fall led to his death, finding that because the crack in the pavement where the man tripped “was a commonly occurring open and obvious static condition,” the facility lacked the superior knowledge necessary to prove premises liability.
November 07, 2023
Man Alleging Injury Through CoolSculpting Appeals To U.S. Supreme Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. — CoolSculpting manufacturer Zeltiq Aesthetics Inc. on Nov. 6 waived its right to file a response to a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a man who argues that an appellate court erred in granting the company summary judgment after finding that he was warned about the risk of paradoxical adipose hyperplasia (PAH) and that his claim fails under the risk-utility or consumer expectations tests.
November 07, 2023
Pennsylvania High Court To Review Disease Act Exclusivity In Asbestos Case

HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court granted a petition and agreed to decide whether under the state’s Occupational Disease Act, a man’s asbestos-related injury case properly belongs before a trial court or the state’s workers’ compensation system.
November 03, 2023
Judge: 1 Claim Remains, Some Expert Testimony Allowed In Cruise Injury Case

MIAMI — A Florida federal judge partially dismissed a lawsuit against a cruise liner company filed by a woman who claims to have been injured in her stateroom and partially granted its motion to exclude certain experts from testifying.
November 02, 2023
Del. Court Denies Dismissal, Says Claims Against Rehab Don’t Fall Under PREP Act

NEW CASTLE, Del. — A Delaware state court denied dismissal to a skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility in a wrongful death and negligence suit against it filed by the daughter of a woman who died after purportedly contracting COVID-19 at the facility, finding that the complaint was timely filed and that the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act) does not provide immunity for the claims against the facility.
November 02, 2023
Flint Class Plaintiffs Propose $8M Settlement With Engineering Firm

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The class plaintiffs in the Flint water crisis litigation have moved in Michigan federal court for preliminary approval of an $8 million settlement with one of the firms that provided engineering and consulting services to the city of Flint.
November 02, 2023
California High Court Rejects Asbestos-Talc Experts Ruling Case

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Supreme Court on Nov. 1 denied Johnson & Johnson’s petition for review asking the court to decide the standard applied to evidentiary rulings, the admission of nonwitness expert opinions and how courts should evaluate cases alleging exposure to asbestos in products not designed to contain asbestos.
November 01, 2023
Judge: Pilot Can’t Opine On Air Traffic Controller Standards In Crash Suit

HONOLULU — A Hawaii federal judge on Oct. 31 granted a motion by the United States to limit the testimony of an expert retained in a wrongful death case, finding that the pilot who was retained to opine on what caused a helicopter to crash does not have the requisite experience as an air traffic controller to offer his opinions.
October 31, 2023
Split 3rd Circuit: No Jurisdiction Over NFL Injury 3rd-Party Payments Dispute

PHILADELPHIA — A trial court’s denial of a lawsuit loan company’s motion to amend rules regarding the payment of claims involving third-party funders after a National Football League concussion injury class settlement was “not a ‘final decision’” that may be reviewed, a divided Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, dismissing the company’s appeal.
October 27, 2023
Panel Says Son Agreed To Arbitrate Individual Claims In Care Home Negligence Suit

LOS ANGELES — A California appellate court affirmed in part a lower court order denying a nursing home’s motion to compel arbitration in a reckless neglect suit against it regarding the death of a former resident but reversed the denial of a motion to compel arbitration of individual claims filed by a son who signed the arbitration agreement, finding that though the son lacked authority to sign on his father’s behalf, by signing in his individual capacity the son agreed to arbitrate “certain nonrepresentative claims.”
October 25, 2023
Kentucky Appeals Court: Experts In Elder Negligence Care Case Properly Excluded

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Experts retained by a family that sued their mother’s care facility for negligence were unqualified to opine on the standard of care or medical causation, a Kentucky appeals court found, ruling that summary judgment for the facility was appropriate.
October 19, 2023
Asbestos Talc Debtor’s Settlement With Truck Driver OK’d By Bankruptcy Judge

WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware federal bankruptcy judge approved an $85,000 settlement that an affiliate co-debtor of talc mining company Cyprus Mines Corp. and talc supplier Imerys Talc America Inc. agreed to pay to a truck driver in Vermont who was injured in a slip-and-fall accident.
October 19, 2023
Expert Testimony OK’d In Suit Against Walmart, But Jury Returns Defense Verdict

RALEIGH, N.C. — A North Carolina federal jury found that a woman did not prove that Walmart acted in a negligent manner, finding for the retailer in a personal injury case alleging injuries resulting from a parking lot crash, a week after the judge ruled that her treating physician could offer expert testimony.
October 17, 2023
Panel: Signing Arbitration Agreement Not Health Care Decision In Care Home Suit

FRANKFORT, Ky. — A Kentucky appellate court affirmed a lower court’s order denying a nursing home’s motion to compel arbitration in a widow’s negligence suit against it, finding that though signing the mandatory arbitration agreement was necessary for treatment at the nursing home and the widow had the authority under Kentucky law to make health care decisions for her husband, her entering into an arbitration agreement on her husband’s behalf was not a health care decision.
October 17, 2023
Defense Verdict Delivered For Knee Implant Maker In Washington Federal Case

SEATTLE — A Washington federal jury returned a defense verdict for DePuy Synthes Sales Inc., rejecting claims that the medical device manufacturer negligently designed its knee replacement device or failed to warn users of associated risks.
October 17, 2023
Counsel In Firefighting Foam Settlement Seek More Than $96M In Fees, Costs

CHARLESTON, S.C. — The class counsel who reached a $1.18 billion settlement related to injury claims stemming from the firefighting agent known as aqueous film forming foam (AFFF), which contains per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), have filed a brief in South Carolina federal court seeking a combined $96,936,213.21 in attorney fees and costs.
October 16, 2023
Supreme Court Grants Certiorari In 2nd Challenge To Chevron Deference

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 13 granted a petition for a writ of certiorari in a second case challenging the doctrine of Chevron deference and ordered that it be briefed on a schedule allowing argument “in tandem” with a pending case pertaining to the same issue, both of which involve challenges to regulations that require fishing vessels to pay federal monitors.
October 16, 2023
High Court Denies Cert To Nursing Home Seeking Reversal Of COVID Suit Remand

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 16 denied a nursing home’s petition for certiorari seeking to reverse a remand to state court of an elder abuse and negligence suit against it for complications allegedly related to a resident contracting COVID-19 on grounds that the state law negligence claims are preempted by the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act.
October 16, 2023
Accident Reconstruction Expert Met Daubert Standards For Testimony, Judge Says

VALDOSTA, Ga. — A Georgia federal judge denied a motion to exclude an accident reconstruction expert retained by a man who says he was injured after falling from a utility-boom truck’s bucket.
October 11, 2023
Trailer Owner Sanctioned For Incomplete Discovery In Personal Injury Suit

DALLAS — Acknowledging the “unusual circumstances” of the counsel for a defendant in a tractor-trailer accident personal injury lawsuit being unable to locate a company representative, a Texas federal magistrate judge ruled that the defendant was still responsible for its failure to provide complete discovery responses despite counsel’s representation of its efforts to comply with the discovery requests.
October 10, 2023
'Visibly Angry’ Juror Caused $8.8M Asbestos Verdict, Pipe Maker Says

LOS ANGELES — “Serious juror misconduct” by two jurors who interjected their own anger and biases into an asbestos trial and a verdict form that fatally failed to include potentially liable nonparties require a Los Angeles court to grant a new trial, an asbestos pipe manufacturer told the court after a nearly $9 million verdict.
October 09, 2023
Washington Federal Judge Tosses Experts Retained In Slip-And-Fall Case

SEATTLE — An expert retained by a man who fell inside a Home Depot does not offer any testimony that is beyond the knowledge of a lay juror, and another expert is excluded as a sanction for untimely disclosure, a Washington federal judge ruled.
October 09, 2023
FDA ‘Unsatisfied With The Status Of’ CPAP Device Recall; New Website Launched

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration voiced its dissatisfaction with the process for the recall of continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) devices, bi-level positive air pressure (Bi-PAP) devices and ventilators made by Philips Respironics and announced the launch of a new website “to ensure consumers have the latest information on the Philips' recall.”
October 09, 2023
Jury Awards $1M To Estate Of Dead Smoker Who Immigrated From Cuba

MIAMI — A Florida state court jury awarded $800,000 in compensatory damages and $200,000 in punitive damages to the estate of a Cuban immigrant who died from smoking-related injuries while living in Florida, after an appellate panel reversed and remanded a 2016 defense verdict in which jurors said the decedent was not an Engle member because he was not a citizen or resident of Florida when his cancer manifested. VIDEO OF THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
October 09, 2023
Hawaii Jury Awards Smoker $14M For Lung Cancer

HONOLULU — A Hawaii state court jury awarded a smoker $6 million in compensatory damages and $8 million in punitive damages against a tobacco company that she accused lulled into her smoking light and filtered cigarettes believing they were safer and causing her to develop lung cancer. VIDEO OF THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.