Mealey's Personal Injury
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July 14, 2023
Insurer’s Time To Answer Extended In Coverage Row Over Claims Against Care Home
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — A North Carolina federal magistrate judge issued text-only orders extending time for an insurer and its insured to answer a nursing home’s breach of contract suit for failure to defend and indemnify the nursing home in an underlying negligence action.
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July 14, 2023
Cruise Line And Passenger Reach Settlement, Agree To Dismiss Slip-And-Fall Case
MIAMI — A Florida federal court on July 14 entered a final order of dismissal with prejudice pursuant to the parties’ joint stipulation and settlement in a cruise line passenger’s suit alleging that the cruise line was negligent in the passenger’s treatment after he suffered a fall and stroke and was transported to a hospital in Puerto Rico for further treatment.
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July 14, 2023
Podiatrist Properly Excluded In Defective Shoe Design Case, 2nd Circuit Says
NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on July 13 rejected a man’s bid to reverse summary judgment awarded to Nike Inc. in his suit alleging that a defectively designed sneaker caused his knee injury after finding no error in the exclusion of his expert witness.
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July 13, 2023
California High Court: State Law Claims Are Expressly Preempted By Medicare Act
SAN FRANCISCO — A unanimous California Supreme Court on July 13 affirmed that a Medicare Part C beneficiary’s state law wrongful death, negligence and elder abuse claims based on allegations that his HMO breached a duty of care are preempted by the preemption provision of the Medicare Act.
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July 13, 2023
Expert Opining On Aircraft Fuel Usage, Inspections Can Testify In Crash Suit
DETROIT — The sole remaining defendant in a suit stemming from a fatal aircraft crash lost its bid to exclude a causation expert after failing to show “that the several discrete opinions challenged in the motion have ‘no factual support’ in the record presented,” a Michigan federal judge ruled.
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July 13, 2023
Estate Rep Appeals Judgment For Insurer, Care Home In Medicare Coverage Dispute
PITTSBURGH — An estate representative has appealed a federal district court’s decision granting judgment for an insurer and skilled nursing facility to the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals after the lower court found that the representative failed to show that a Medicare Advantage plan’s failure to cover continued care in the skilled nursing facility caused injuries leading to the amputation of a patient’s leg.
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July 13, 2023
9th Circuit Says COVID Suit Lacks PREP Act Preemption, Federal Jurisdiction
SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a district court’s remand to state court of a COVID-19 death suit filed by legal representatives of a decedent against the nursing home they allege was responsible for her death, finding that the lower court correctly determined that it lacked “federal subject matter jurisdiction under the doctrine of complete preemption” because the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act “is not a complete preemption statute.”
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July 12, 2023
New York Care Homes Respond To $83M Medicare Fraud Suit Seeking Injunction, Order
NEW YORK — After New York Attorney General Letitia James sued multiple nursing homes and their owners and operators in New York state court alleging fraud and illegal misuse of more than $83 million in Medicare and Medicaid funds, the respondents urged the court to reject the her request for a preliminary injunction requiring them to pay for two monitors to control the nursing homes’ operations, which they claim does not meet the “heightened standard” for injunctive relief.
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July 12, 2023
Lowe’s Avoids Sanctions Over Deposition, Deadlines In Personal Injury Suit
EL PASO, Texas — A customer of Lowe’s Home Centers LLC failed to establish that he was entitled to sanctions for the home supply chain’s purported failure to comply with a discovery order or to provide a corporate officer for deposition, a Texas federal magistrate judge ruled, finding that the personal injury plaintiff did not meet its burden to show that sanctions were warranted.
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July 10, 2023
California Jury Awards $8.8M In Asbestos Cement Pipe Case
LOS ANGELES — A California jury found for plaintiffs on a variety of asbestos-related claims and awarded in excess of $8.5 million for exposure stemming from cement pipe used by the city of Newport Beach.
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July 10, 2023
Georgia Panel Reinstates $10.1M Default Judgment In Exploding Vape Case
ATLANTA — A Georgia appellate court vacated a ruling setting aside a $10.1 million default judgment against an electronics company that had failed to respond to a lawsuit accusing it of manufacturing and selling a battery that burned an e-cigarette user when his vape exploded in his pocket, finding that the trial court judge improperly shifted the burden of proof to the plaintiff in evaluating the company’s motion to set aside.
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July 10, 2023
Jury Awards Dead Smoker’s Daughter $132,000 For Lung Cancer Death After Engle Trial
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida jury awarded a dead smoker’s daughter $132,000 in compensatory damages against a tobacco company for causing the smoker’s addiction to cigarettes, which led to her death from lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
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July 06, 2023
Missouri Federal Judge Allows Treating Doctors’ Testimony In Defective Design Case
ST. LOUIS — A Missouri federal judge denied a company’s motion to exclude testimony from a man’s three treating physicians who opine that his injuries were caused by repeated use of a defectively designed chain and ratchet system after finding that the testimony is reliable under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 and will be helpful to a jury.
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July 06, 2023
Massachusetts High Court Rejects Smokers’ Wrongful Death Suits As Untimely
BOSTON — The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court today affirmed the dismissal of two wrongful death actions brought by the estates of deceased smokers against tobacco companies as time-barred, writing that because wrongful death suits are “derivative” actions, the statute of limitations begins to accrue based on the date of injury, not the smoker’s death.
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July 03, 2023
Asbestos Jurisdiction Case Resolved; Supreme Court Denies Petition In Georgia Case
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 30 denied certiorari for a case involving whether an automobile tire defect claim belonged in Georgia after recently issuing an opinion on jurisdiction in an asbestos case the parties cited in briefing.
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June 30, 2023
Federal Magistrate OKs Testimony On Reasonableness Of Medical Rates After Crash
AUSTIN, Texas — Physicians can testify on the reasonableness of medical charges a man incurred for neurological and neck issues after a car accident, a Texas federal magistrate judge said in ruling on two motions to exclude in separate orders.
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June 30, 2023
JP Morgan $290M Pact In Epstein Sex Crimes Case OK’d In Amended Order
NEW YORK — An amended order preliminarily approving a $290 million settlement to be paid by JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. (JPMC) was filed by a federal judge in New York on June 29 in a lawsuit by a class of women allegedly abused or trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein who accuse JPMC of being liable for facilitating those crimes by maintaining Epstein’s accounts.
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June 30, 2023
Split Iowa Supreme Court Says Chemical Injury Plaintiff Failed To Show Causation
DES MOINES, Iowa — A split Iowa Supreme Court has affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a woman’s lawsuit alleging permanent lung injury from exposure to chemical vapors from drain cleaner used in the building where she worked, ruling that she failed to offer evidence to establish causation.
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June 28, 2023
Missouri Federal Judge Limits Engineer’s Testimony In Defective Design Case
ST. LOUIS — A licensed engineered retained as an expert in a product liability case can testify on the ergonomics and biomechanics of a chain and ratchet system, but he is unqualified to offer medical causation opinions, a federal judge in Missouri ruled.
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June 28, 2023
Talc Company Fights Successor Liability After $20M Asbestos Verdict
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — While a jury may draw inferences from evidence, nothing a jury in an asbestos-talc case heard could allow it to impose liability on one talc company for the actions of a company it purchased, Vanderbilt Minerals LLC told a Connecticut judge on June 27.
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June 28, 2023
JP Morgan’s $290M Settlement Preliminarily Approved In Epstein Sex Crimes Case
NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York on June 27 preliminarily approved a $290 million settlement to be paid by JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. (JPMC) to end a lawsuit by a class of women allegedly abused or trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein who accuse JPMC of being liable for facilitating those crimes by maintaining Epstein’s accounts.
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June 27, 2023
Supreme Court Permits Consent-By-Registration In Employee’s Asbestos Suit
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Pennsylvania law requiring that companies consent to jurisdiction when registering to do business permits a Virginia resident’s asbestos suit against the Virginia-based railroad that formerly employed him in Ohio and Virginia, a divided U.S. Supreme Court said June 27.
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June 27, 2023
Judge: Calif. Attorney Allowed To Act As Counsel In Montana Case If AI Not Used
MISSOULA, Mont. — A California attorney may appear as co-counsel in a personal injury case in a federal court in Montana against a dude ranch as long as the attorney does her own writing and signing, appears in person and does not use artificial intelligence (AI) automated drafting programs, a federal judge in Montana ruled, admitting the attorney pro hac vice on those conditions.
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June 27, 2023
Magistrate: Expert Can Offer Inconclusive Opinions On Causation Of Eye Injury
DENVER — A federal magistrate judge in Colorado refused to exclude an expert who said he could not definitively say injuries a man says he sustained when police officers fired pepper-filled projectiles at his eye were caused by the projectiles, finding that the testimony passed muster under Federal Rule of Evidence 702.
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June 26, 2023
Judge Issues Ruling On Care Home’s Motion For Judgment In Wrongful Death Suit
PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania federal judge in an opinion filed June 23 denied in part a nursing home’s motion for summary judgment in a wrongful death, negligence and civil rights violations suit filed against it by the estate of a former resident, finding that genuine issues of material fact remain regarding whether inadequate staffing and training existed and contributed to the decedent’s injuries.