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

Mealey's Personal Injury

March 25, 2025
Sig Sauer Loses En Banc Review Bid For Experts Ruling In Gun Design Defect Case

CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied an en banc hearing to review its ruling that while a district court properly excluded expert testimony on causation, it erred in excluding design defect testimony and reversed an award of summary judgment, rejecting a gun manufacturer’s argument that the ruling that expert testimony on causation is not needed in a complex design defect case “misapprehended Kentucky law.”
March 24, 2025
11th Circuit Dismisses Complaint Accusing Depo-Provera MDL Judge Of Misconduct

ATLANTA — The chief judge of the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals found that the “voluntary corrective actions” by the judge overseeing the Depo-Provera multidistrict litigation who faced a complaint that her encouragement of women to apply for leadership positions in the MDL constituted impermissible bias and judicial misconduct “warrant the conclusion of this proceeding.”
March 21, 2025
Jury Awards $40M To Estate Of Smoker Hooked After Getting Samples As Teen

WOBURN, Mass. — A Massachusetts state court jury awarded more than $40 million in compensatory and punitive damages to the estate of a dead smoker who began smoking after receiving free samples as a teenager and who developed lung cancer after smoking for 37 years, finding punitive damages warranted against two tobacco companies that it said engaged in “malicious” and grossly negligent” conduct. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
March 20, 2025
Expert In Car Crash Case Can Testify On Future Lost Wages, Not Future Medical Care

SEATTLE — An expert retained in a personal injury suit stemming from a car accident can opine on a man’s future loss earnings but is prohibited from “parroting the opinion of a non-testifying expert” on future medical costs, a Washington federal magistrate judge said.
March 20, 2025
Wyoming High Court Affirms Dismissal For Failure To Pay Attorney Fee Sanction

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A trial court did not abuse its discretion or violate a personal injury plaintiff’s rights under the Wyoming Constitution by ordering her to pay defense attorney fees and costs as a sanction for violating a motion in limine or in dismissing her case with prejudice when she failed to pay the sanction as ordered, the Wyoming Supreme Court ruled.
March 18, 2025
Plaintiffs Leadership Named For Depo-Provera MDL

PENSACOLA, Fla. — The Florida federal judge overseeing the Depo-Provera multidistrict litigation, a group of cases alleging that a long-lasting injectable contraceptive caused women to develop intracranial meningiomas, a type of brain tumor, has appointed Christopher Seeger of Seeger Weiss LLP as plaintiffs’ lead counsel.
March 14, 2025
University Denies Existence Of Contract With Student Who Died In COVID-19 Isolation

NEWARK, N.J. — In response to the amended complaint filed by the estate and parents of a college sophomore who died from an epileptic seizure while in a university’s COVID-19 isolation alleging breach of contract and of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, the university on March 13 moved a New Jersey federal court to dismiss the complaint, contending that there was no valid contract between it and the student.
March 14, 2025
Associations Urge High Court Reversal Of Ruling Finding Nondelegation Violation

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Telecom provider petitioners and broadband association petitioners filed reply briefs on March 13 in the U.S. Supreme Court, urging reversal of an en banc Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling that a subsidy program violates the “private nondelegation doctrine” after the high court granted two petitions for a writ of certiorari and consolidated cases concerning whether Congress violated the nondelegation doctrine by authorizing the Federal Communications Commission to delegate to a private entity.
March 12, 2025
Juul, Florida Settle Youth Marketing Suit For $79M

TAMPA, Fla. — Florida and e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. entered into a consent judgment in Florida state court under which Juul will pay $79 million over several years to resolve state claims that it unlawfully marketed its popular e-cigarette products to youth, months after a state court judge denied Juul’s motion to dismiss the state’s claims against it.
March 12, 2025
‘Paucity Of Evidence’ Linking Disorders To Gardasil Vaccine Bars Preemption Defense

STATESVILLE, N.C. — The manufacturer of the Gardasil vaccine could not unilaterally add warnings to the vaccine’s label, the North Carolina federal judge overseeing the Gardasil multidistrict litigation ruled, finding that the bellwether plaintiffs’ sole remaining claim is preempted by federal law.
March 11, 2025
Smoker’s Widow Says Judge Wrongly Reduced Verdict By $4.5M

MIAMI — The widow of a smoker who died from lung cancer argues in a March 11 initial brief to the Florida Third District Court of Appeal that a trial judge wrongly reduced judgment in her favor down to $11.5 million from the $16 million a jury awarded her after entering a post-trial directed verdict on her fraud claims, asserting that the jury’s fraud findings should have been upheld.
March 10, 2025
Federal Judge Enters $24B Judgment Against China For COVID-19 Economic Damage

CAPE GIRDEAU, Mo. — A Missouri federal judge on March 7 entered a default judgment in favor of the state of Missouri in the amount of almost $24.5 billion in the state’s lawsuit against the People’s Republic of China, other Chinese governmental entities, the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences alleging that the defendants covered up the existence and danger of COVID-19 and hoarded personal protective equipment (PPE) to the detriment to the citizens of Missouri.
March 07, 2025
10th Circuit Finds Expert Did Not Support Causation; Summary Judgment Affirmed

DENVER — A representative of an estate’s named experts in a suit against a skilled nursing facility failed to show that the facility’s actions caused one of its residents to fall, the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held, affirming a district court’s summary judgment award and ruling that the court did not err in failing to hold a hearing to consider the experts’ admissibility under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.
March 06, 2025
Life-Care Planner Can Testify In Case Alleging Injuries From Defective Air Bag

ORLANDO, Fla. — A life-care planner can testify for a man who alleges that he was severely injured by a defective air bag, a Florida federal judge found March 5, rejecting arguments that his testimony should be excluded as duplicative of the man’s treating physicians.
March 06, 2025
Magistrate Judge: Experts Can Opine On Employability, Lost Income After Fall

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Tennessee federal magistrate judge largely denied two motions to exclude expert testimony presented on behalf of a man who says he is unable to work after falling at a restaurant after finding that experts meet the admissibility standards set in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Federal Rule of Evidence 702.
March 06, 2025
COVID-19 Countermeasure Causation Standards Are Not Final Agency Action, HHS Says

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The federal government on March 5 moved to dismiss a lawsuit brought by more than 200 individuals whose family members were treated during the COVID-19 pandemic with and allegedly died as a direct result of certain countermeasures such as hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin and alleged that the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was applying an incorrect standard for eligibility and to date had found no one eligible for the Countermeasure Injury Compensation Program (CICP) benefits.
March 05, 2025
Treating Doctors Survive Motions To Exclude In Car Crash Injury Dispute

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The treating physicians of a man who alleges that he was injured in a car accident may testify on his treatment, prognosis and future treatment, a New Mexico federal magistrate judge ruled in denying two motions to exclude their testimony.
March 04, 2025
Jury Returns Verdict For American Honda In Asbestos Brakes Case

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — A Los Angeles jury found that an automaker’s brake products failed to perform as an ordinary customer would expect and that it failed to adequately warn about the dangers but that the conduct was not a substantial factor in a man’s development of mesothelioma.
March 03, 2025
Panel Affirms $6M Verdict For Dead Smoker’s Kids, Rejects ‘Forgery’ Theory

MIAMI — The Florida Third District Court of Appeal affirmed a $6 million verdict in favor of a dead smoker’s children against a tobacco company, finding that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by admitting evidence regarding the smoker’s diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) that was contested by the smoker’s own physician.
February 28, 2025
Iowa High Court: Psych Tests May Be Disclosed Only To Licensed Psychologists

DES MOINES, Iowa — A trial court erred in granting an insurance company’s motion to compel production of a plaintiff’s psychological test materials in a dispute over uninsured and underinsured motorist (UM) benefits, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled, finding that state law unambiguously holds that discovery of such materials may be made only from one licensed psychologist to another.
February 26, 2025
Sig Sauer Wants En Banc Rehearing On Experts Ruling In Pistol Design Defect Case

CINCINNATI — A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that expert testimony on causation is not needed in a complex design defect case “misapprehended Kentucky law,” a gun manufacturer argues in a Feb. 25 petition for an en banc rehearing of a recent split decision that found that while a district court properly excluded expert testimony on causation, it erred in excluding design defect testimony and reversed an award of summary judgment.
February 26, 2025
Massachusetts Wrongful Death Judgment For Smoker’s Estate Reduced By $20 Million

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — A Massachusetts state court entered an amended judgment of approximately $86.6 million against a tobacco company in favor of the estate of a smoker who died from lung cancer, after a state court justice agreed to amend the judgment to correct an “error” that led to a previously entered judgment worth more than $105 million comprising a jury verdict, an incorrectly large attorney fees award and a posttrial $20 million award for deceptive and unfair conduct that the justice trebled under state law.
February 25, 2025
Judge Rules That Genuine Issues Of Fact Exist In Ohio Train Derailment Case

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — A federal judge in Ohio has issued four opinions in the lawsuit related to injuries allegedly caused by the derailment of a train operated by Norfolk Southern Corp. that exposed the village of East Palestine, Ohio, to numerous toxic chemicals. The judge ruled on four motions for summary judgment, finding that disputed issues of fact and damages remain in third-party litigation brought by Norfolk Southern against the railcar and chemical defendants.
February 25, 2025
Engineering Firm To Pay $53M To Settle Claims Related To Flint Water Crisis

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — An engineering firm that is a defendant in the litigation over the lead-contaminated water crisis in Flint, Mich., has moved in Michigan federal court for approval of a $53 million settlement with Bellwether III plaintiffs that would resolve all claims brought by minors or plaintiffs designated as “legally incompetent or incapacitated individuals.”
February 25, 2025
Show Cause Order Issued For Auto Accident Settlement Involving Inactive Insurer

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. — A New York state justice issued a show cause order regarding a petition for court approval of a settlement for injuries sustained by a child of an insured in an auto accident, for which a $30,000 settlement offer was made by the insurer pursuant to an underinsurance claim.