Minor will get $15,000 after 18th birthday
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A federal magistrate judge who had just stepped in and begun presiding over the Flint water crisis bellwether trial for U.S. Judge Judith E. Levy of the Eastern District of Michigan on Aug. 11 declared a mistrial after a juror broke down in tears and the jury told the magistrate judge that further deliberations would not result in a unanimous verdict, sources told Mealey Publications.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A state court lacks jurisdiction under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) over a slip-and-fall personal injury suit against a New Mexico Indian tribe for an incident at the tribe’s casino because the fall did not happen during the act of gambling, a federal judge ruled Aug. 5, granting the tribe summary judgment in its declaratory judgment action.
CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge on July 27 ruled on several motions to exclude expert witnesses filed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and two former collegiate athletes who allege that the association failed to implement adequate concussion policies, which led the two to suffer injuries.
PHOENIX — An expert hired to opine on whether a fatal accident with a ladder was caused by a design defect may not offer legal conclusions but is otherwise qualified to testify, an Arizona federal judge said Aug. 2 in partially granting and partially denying a motion to exclude.
DALLAS — A Texas jury on July 26 awarded $7 billion in punitive damages to the family of a woman who was murdered by a cable technician after finding in June that the woman’s death was the result of the gross negligence of the technician’s employer.
BROOKLYN, N.Y — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 1 granted a nursing home’s motion to dismiss its appeal of a wrongful death suit filed by the son of a man who contracted COVID-19 and died there, finding that because the son voluntarily dismissed the underlying state court suit, the Second Circuit cannot order “any effective relief.”
AUSTIN, Texas — In a July 25 order denying a motion to exclude, a Texas federal magistrate judge was unpersuaded by Ford Motor Co.’s efforts to prevent an expert from testifying on how alleged design defects in a truck battery’s restraint system allowed the battery to eject from a vehicle and crash through a woman’s windshield during a traffic accident.
INDIANAPOLIS — Aearo Technologies and related entities declared bankruptcy July 26, with parent company 3M Co. saying in a press release that it will fund a $1 billion trust resolving the more than 233,000 Combat Arms earplugs lawsuits the companies face.
TAMPA, Fla. — A radiologist retained by Walmart in a slip-and-fall case in a Florida federal court must limit his testimony “to his radiologic interpretation” of images he reviewed, a judge ruled July 22, partially granting a woman’s motion in limine to limit his testimony.
MIAMI — A Florida federal judge on July 21 agreed to limit testimony from an expert witness retained by a woman who claims that she was injured after slipping on a Carnival cruise ship’s deck after finding that portions of his testimony are inadmissible under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — As circuit justice for the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan on July 12 granted a nursing home’s application for an extension until Aug. 29 to file a petition for writ of certiorari challenging the Ninth Circuit’s affirmance of a district court’s order remanding to state court a wrongful death suit filed by the family of a man who died in the nursing home after contracting COVID-19.
HOUSTON — A Texas appellate court on July 14 affirmed a trial court order denying a nursing home’s motion to dismiss a health care liability suit filed against it by the estate representative of a woman who died at the nursing home, finding that the representative’s expert witness report complied with the statutory “standard of care, breach, and causation requirements and that the trial court did not abuse its discretion” in denying the motion to dismiss.
SAN FRANCISCO — California’s derivative injury doctrine does not bar a claim for COVID-19 exposure against an employer brought by an employee’s spouse, a worker and his wife argue in their petitioner brief filed July 22 in the California Supreme Court after the high court granted review of questions certified by the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals concerning an employee’s exposure to COVID-19 at work and an employer’s responsibilities.
By Alan Klein and Sharon O’Reilly
LOS ANGELES — A California judge on June 8 ordered a driver awarded $131,090.53 in damages by a jury for injuries he received when another driver rear-ended him to pay the defendant $62,009.09 in costs because the defendant had previously offered to settle the case for more than the jury award.
MINNEAPOLIS — Calling a jury’s $110 million award for pain and suffering to a man who developed complications after surgery for a broken leg “monstrous and shockingly excessive,” an orthopedic practice on June 13 asked a Minnesota federal court to order a new trial or, in the alternative, remittitur; the plaintiff the next day asked the court to amend the judgment to include pre- and post-judgment interest.
NEW YORK — Former 1990s supermodel Linda Evangelista and the manufacturer of the CoolSculpting fat cell freezing technology on July 20 stipulated to the dismissal with prejudice of Evangelista’s federal product liability lawsuit, with the plaintiff separately posting on social media that she settled the case.
FRESNO, Calif. — A California federal magistrate judge on July 18 recommended approving a $4 million settlement in a negligence and violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) suit filed against a restaurant by a guardian ad litem on behalf of her mother who was injured in a fall there, finding that the terms of the settlement are “fair and reasonable.”
PORTLAND, Ore. — A company that lost a $1,731,308.80 judgment to a worker who was injured on the job filed a reply brief on July 6 in Oregon federal court contending that it should grant judgment as a matter of law (JNOV) because there was no evidence presented at trial that the company knew that the machinery that caused the injury was “unreasonably dangerous."