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

Mealey's Personal Injury

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.
October 09, 2023
New Mexico Jury Rejects Smoker’s Estate’s Claims Against Tobacco Company

SANTA FE, N.M. — A New Mexico state court jury returned a defense verdict after rejecting a smoker’s estate’s claims that a tobacco company was negligent, conspired to conceal the risks of smoking or that the company and a local retailer provided the smoker with a defective product that caused his death in 2021 from starvation and suffocation resulting from surgeries and treatments he received for oral cancer. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
October 05, 2023
Wrongful Death Suit Filed Against Rehab That Employed Nurse Charged With Homicide

PITTSBURGH — The son of a former rehabilitation facility resident filed a wrongful death and negligence suit against the facility after a nurse employed there was charged with criminal homicide related to insulin overdose deaths at a facility where she previously worked, asserting, in part, that the rehab facility’s negligent failure to conduct a background check of the nurse led to the resident’s death.
October 04, 2023
New Jersey Court Faults Asbestos-Talc Expert Admissions, Topples $224M Award

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — Given the apparent defects in expert opinions a trial judge improperly admitted three asbestos experts in a talc case without first holding a hearing on whether their methodologies and opinions were reliable, a New Jersey appeals court said Oct. 3 in reversing a $223.8 million verdict against Johnson & Johnson and remanding for a new trial.
October 02, 2023
9th Circuit Says Navajo Law Does Not Govern Traffic Accident On Federal Highway

SAN FRANCISCO — Despite the fact that a traffic accident occurred within the boundaries of the Navajo Nation, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found that a district court did not err in dismissing claims raised under Navajo law because the accident occurred on a federal highway, which renders the accident site nontribal land.
September 29, 2023
Ford Stuck With $20M Asbestos Verdict After Court Finds No Error

ST. LOUIS — None of the nine issues Ford Motor Co. raised in an appeal of a $20 million asbestos verdict demonstrate an error, a Missouri appeals court said in affirming the verdict without a written opinion.
September 28, 2023
Contentious Oral Arguments In Lead Paint Case Focus On Applicability Of Ruling

CHICAGO — A panel of the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in long-running lead-based paint litigation for personal injuries involving 150 consolidated cases, as plaintiffs’ attorneys argued that a lower court’s ruling holding that they were prevented from bringing their claims for injury was “clear error” while attorneys for the defendants said issue preclusion doctrines apply to all plaintiffs and bind them from pursuing the litigation.
September 26, 2023
Woman’s Claims Against Birth Control Device Companies Survive Motions To Dismiss

CHICAGO — A woman’s claim that a defective birth control device can detach and migrate through the body on Sept. 25 survived three motions for summary judgment filed by the manufacturer, distributor and parent company of the device in an Illinois federal court.
September 26, 2023
Nevada High Court Affirms Denial Of Rehab’s Motion To Compel Heirs To Arbitration

CARSON CITY, Nev. — The Nevada Supreme Court affirmed a lower court’s denial of a rehabilitation facility’s motion to compel heirs to arbitration in a wrongful death suit filed against it by a decedent’s estate and his heirs, finding that though the lower court compelled the estate’s claims to arbitration, the decedent lacked the authority “to bind the heirs to arbitration absent their agreement.”
September 26, 2023
Judge: Plaintiffs’ Expert’s Methodology ‘Well-Supported,’ Opinion Is Admissible

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A federal judge in Michigan on Sept. 25 denied defendants’ motion to exclude a plaintiffs expert in the litigation related to the lead-contaminated water crisis in the city of Flint, Mich., ruling that the methodology he used is “well-supported” in that he uses sources upon which other experts have relied in the case and uses data derived from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), which included the water lead levels observed during the Flint water crisis.
September 26, 2023
Judge: Post-Judgment Garnishment Bids Fail In Excessive Force Case

MUSKOGEE, Okla. — Ruling in part that the Oklahoma doctrine of “reasonable expectations” does not apply and that the relevant coverage agreement is not ambiguous, an Oklahoma federal judge on Sept. 25 ended post-judgment garnishment bids against an insurer and reinsurer in an excessive force case pertaining to a traffic stop.
September 25, 2023
Illinois High Court Affirms Denial Of Care Home’s Motion To Compel Arbitration

CHICAGO — A unanimous Illinois Supreme Court affirmed an appellate court judgment that affirmed denial of a nursing home’s motion to compel arbitration in a negligence and wrongful death suit filed against it by the daughter of a woman who died there, finding that because the contract for facility admission, which included an arbitration provision, terminated upon the resident’s death, the arbitration provision “was no longer an available option.”
September 21, 2023
Man Appeals Summary Judgment Grant, Expert Exclusion In Gun Design Defect Case

OKLAHOMA CITY — A man who accidentally shot himself while removing a handgun from its holster filed a notice of appeal to the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals after a district court granted the gun manufacturer summary judgment and excluded his experts, who opined that the accident could have been prevented if the gun had been equipped with a manual safety.
September 20, 2023
Health Care Provider Loses Bid To Exclude Causation Expert In Deadly Fall Case

PHOENIX — An Arizona federal judge on Sept. 19 denied a motion for summary judgment after finding that a causation expert retained by the estate of an elderly woman who died after a fall while in the care of an in-home health aide can testify.
September 20, 2023
Texas Federal Judge Agrees To Limit Expert Testimony In Slip-And-Fall Case

HOUSTON — A doctor testifying on behalf of a woman who is suing after a fall in a Home Depot store can discuss his diagnosis and treatment plan but cannot opine on causation, a federal judge in Texas ruled.
September 20, 2023
Arizona Federal Judge Rules On Dueling Motions To Exclude In Design Defect Case

PHOENIX — A federal judge in Arizona has resolved challenges to three experts retained in a lawsuit alleging that a couple were injured when a tire on the recreational vehicle they were traveling in ruptured and the RV burst into flames.
September 20, 2023
J&J: Asbestos-Talc Verdict Tagged Wrong Party, Lacked Causation Evidence

LOS ANGELES — In post-trial briefing after an $18.8 million verdict, Johnson & Johnson told a California judge that it wasn’t the party responsible for the talcum powder in question and that there is insufficient evidence that asbestos can cause pericardial mesothelioma.
September 18, 2023
Government Urges High Court To Uphold ‘Bedrock Principle’ Of Chevron Deference

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. secretary of Commerce, two National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) officials and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (collectively, the government) urge the U.S. Supreme Court in a Sept. 15 brief to not overrule the doctrine of Chevron deference in a challenge to fishery regulations that were upheld by the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, writing that doing so could “cause disruption” to complex federal regulatory schemes.