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Mealey's Personal Injury

  • April 17, 2024

    Woman’s Experts In Pressure Cooker Explosion Case Admissible, Judge Says

    LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Experts on what caused a pressure cooker lid to suddenly explode can testify in a personal injury suit, an Arkansas federal judge ruled, denying the manufacturer’s motion to exclude.

  • April 11, 2024

    Nursing Home Counsel Enters Appearance In Estate’s $50K Negligence, Survival Suit

    MEDIA, Pa. — Legal counsel representing a skilled nursing facility (SNF) and related entities entered an appearance in a Pennsylvania state court after the estate of a former resident filed a complaint against them asserting claims for negligence, survival and wrongful death for the defendants’ alleged failure to “timely treat” pneumonia that led to the former resident’s death.

  • April 11, 2024

    Ohio Jury Finds Worker’s 8 Conditions Were Aggravated By Injury, Must Be Covered

    SIDNEY, Ohio — A mechanical contractor’s employee’s eight disc bulge and spinal stenosis conditions were aggravated by an injury he sustained at work in 2003 and should be covered under workers’ compensation, an Ohio jury ruled in eight verdicts.

  • April 09, 2024

    Norfolk Southern To Pay $600M To Settle Ohio Train Derailment Litigation

    YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Norfolk Southern Railway Co. and Norfolk Southern Corp. (Norfolk Southern collectively) and the plaintiffs suing them filed notice in Ohio federal court on April 9 indicating that they have reached a $600 million agreement in principle to resolve the class action pertaining to alleged injuries from the release of toxic chemicals in the 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio; a third-party lawsuit among Norfolk Southern and railcar companies continues.

  • April 08, 2024

    Washington Judge Excludes AI-Enhanced Video From Murder Trial

    SEATTLE — An artificial intelligence-enhanced video of a mass shooting does not meet the Frye v. United States standard, and the admission of such opaque and nonpeer-reviewable evidence would likely only introduce prejudice and complications into a murder trial, a Washington state court judge said in excluding the video.

  • April 05, 2024

    Judge Excludes Expert Who Says Man’s Movements Suggest Jump, Not Fall, From Truck

    NEWARK, N.J. — A New Jersey federal judge granted a motion filed by a man who was injured when he allegedly fell from a moving tractor-trailer to exclude an expert who opines that the man jumped instead of fell.

  • April 05, 2024

    Magistrate Judge Allows Biomechanical Testimony From Expert In Injury Suit

    MIAMI — A federal magistrate judge in Florida carved out the specific testimony that one expert retained by a Carnival Corp. may offer in a personal injury suit but largely denied a man’s motion to exclude under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.

  • April 04, 2024

    Court Enters Defense Judgment In Smoker’s Widower’s Wrongful Death Suit

    BOSTON — A Massachusetts state court judge on April 3 entered judgment in favor of two tobacco companies and a local retailer, dismissing all claims brought by the widower of a dead smoker who started smoking around age 10 and smoked for 50 years before dying at 65 from lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

  • April 04, 2024

    Judgment Entered Dismissing Smoker’s Daughter’s Suit Against Tobacco Company

    BOSTON — A Massachusetts state court entered a judgment in favor of a tobacco company after a jury awarded no damages to the daughter of a dead smoker who was diagnosed with lung cancer more than 25 years after quitting smoking.

  • April 01, 2024

    California High Court Affirms Ruling Denying Care Home’s Bid To Compel Arbitration

    SAN FRANCISCO — The California Supreme Court affirmed an appellate court’s judgment upholding a lower court decision denying a nursing home’s motion to compel arbitration in an elder abuse and negligence suit filed against the nursing home related to a former resident’s fall and fracture, finding that the arbitration agreement signed by the resident’s agent under a health care power of attorney was not a health care decision within the agent’s authority.

  • March 29, 2024

    Parties Complete Briefing On Ghost Gun Regulation In U.S. Supreme Court

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a challenge by the U.S. government to a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ affirmance of a Texas federal court decision finding unlawful a rule promulgated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) that broadened the definition of “firearm” to include parts of “ghost guns,” which can be assembled into weapons but, before the rule, were considered by some manufacturers to not require serial numbers or a firearms background check before sale, the parties’ briefs were distributed March 27 for an April 12 conference in the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • March 29, 2024

    Judge Accepts Officials’ Plea Agreements In Veterans Home COVID-19 Death Cases

    SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — A former superintendent and a former medical director of a veterans home entered plea agreements in a Massachusetts state court for their roles in commingling COVID-19-symptomatic residents with asymptomatic residents, leading to 76 deaths, admitting that the charges against them sufficed to make a finding of guilt while agreeing to satisfy court-imposed conditions for three months.

  • March 28, 2024

    Split Florida Panel Reverses $43M Verdict To Dead Smoker’s Son Due To Hearsay

    MIAMI — A split Florida Third District Court of Appeal panel on March 27 reversed a $43 million compensatory and punitive damages verdict in favor of the estate of a dead smoker after finding that the trial court reversibly erred by permitting the smoker’s sons to proffer hearsay evidence indicating that their mother was harmed by her reliance on a tobacco company’s misleading claims about the benefits of cigarette filters.

  • March 28, 2024

    Ankle Monitor Is Potentially A Computer Triggering Professional Liability Coverage

    CHICAGO — An Illinois appeals panel held March 27 that an ankle monitor, at the very least, is potentially computer hardware triggering professional services liability coverage, reversing a lower court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of an insurer in its declaratory judgment lawsuit disputing coverage for an underlying personal injury lawsuit.

  • March 28, 2024

    Panel Affirms Order Denying Bid To Reopen Discovery In Care Home Negligence Suit

    TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey appellate court on March 27 affirmed lower court orders that denied an estate’s request to reopen discovery and granted a nursing home and related entities’ motion for summary judgment in a negligence suit filed against them, finding that the lower court did not abuse its discretion in holding that the estate failed to show “exceptional circumstances” needed to reopen discovery and that there is “no basis” to overturn the order granting summary judgment.

  • March 25, 2024

    Alabama High Court Reverses Judgment For Estate In Nursing Home Arbitration Row

    MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama Supreme Court on March 22 reversed and remanded a lower court’s order denying a nursing home’s motion to compel arbitration in a wrongful death suit against it alleging that staff neglect led to a former resident’s death, finding that the lower court incorrectly ruled that though one of the decedent’s co-guardians signed an arbitration agreement on her mother’s behalf, both were required to sign the arbitration agreement.

  • March 21, 2024

    Medical Experts Can Testify For Widow In Excessive Force Claim Against Police

    CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge ruled that medical experts retained by a woman who alleges that her husband died as a result of a police officer using excessive force while responding to a medical emergency can testify in her suit against the officer.

  • March 21, 2024

    Michigan Court: New Premises Liability Standard Means Expert Improperly Excluded

    DETROIT — A Michigan appeals court found that a trial court improperly excluded an expert’s testimony in a premises liability suit, noting that a recent state Supreme Court case has redefined how courts should apply an open-and-obvious danger defense, and vacated the granting of summary disposition to the defendant.

  • March 14, 2024

    Judge Grants Nursing Home’s Motion To Compel Arbitration In Wrongful Death Action

    ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A Pennsylvania federal judge on March 13 granted in part a motion to compel arbitration in a wrongful death, negligence and survival suit against a skilled nursing facility (SNF) and related entities after a former SNF resident died, finding that the claims for survival and professional negligence against the facility and its named affiliate will proceed to arbitration because a valid arbitration agreement existed between those entities and the estate.

  • March 12, 2024

    Ohio Panel Affirms Ruling Dismissing Wrongful Death Action Against Nursing Home

    CINCINNATI — An Ohio appeals court affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a wrongful death action filed against a nursing home by the adult children of a former nursing home resident who asphyxiated and died, finding that the plaintiffs’ allegations failed to “satisfy the governing legal standard to survive dismissal.”

  • March 11, 2024

    Judge: Causation, Life Care Expert Admissible In Accident Injury Case

    PHILADELPHIA — Experts retained to testify for a man who alleges that he was injured in a motor vehicle accident clear the “low bar for admissibility,” a Pennsylvania federal judge found, denying a motion to exclude under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.

  • March 11, 2024

    Alabama High Court:  Lower Court Must Dismiss Wrongful Death Suit Against Care Home

    MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama Supreme Court on March 8 granted a skilled nursing facility’s petition for writ of mandamus in a wrongful death suit against it, finding that because the court-appointed administrator was “not a proper party to bring suit,” the petition must be granted and the lower court must dismiss the complaint.

  • March 11, 2024

    Jury Finds Monsanto Not Liable For Negligence In Roundup Cancer Lawsuit

    BENTONVILLE, Ark. — A state court jury in Arkansas has ruled in favor of Monsanto Co. in a lawsuit in which a couple argued that exposure to glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup, caused the wife to develop cancer.  The jury found that Monsanto was not negligent and did not sell a defective product that caused the wife’s injury.

  • March 08, 2024

    Mistrial Declared After Florida Jury Hangs In Ovarian Cancer Talc Trial

    MIAMI — A Florida asbestos trial ended in a hung jury after the jury twice told the judge that it could not reach a decision despite a day and a half of deliberations about Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) liability for the death of an anesthesiologist from ovarian cancer.

  • March 08, 2024

    Smoker’s Estate’s Claims Against Tobacco Company, Retailers Rejected By Jury

    SANTA FE, N.M. — A New Mexico state court jury returned a defense verdict on wrongful death claims brought by the estate of a decades-long Marlboro Red smoker who was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer before catching COVID-19 and dying in 2020, ruling in favor of cigarette manufacturer R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (RJR) and two local retailers.