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Mealey's Personal Injury

  • January 16, 2026

    No Indemnification Owed For $300,000 Personal Injury Judgment, Panel Says, Reverses

    BOSTON — A Massachusetts appeals court on Jan. 15 held that a homeowners insurer owes no indemnification for an underlying $300,000 personal injury judgment, reversing a lower court in concluding that the man who the underlying judgment was awarded against is not a member of his grandmother’s household and, as a result, is not insured under the policy at issue.

  • January 15, 2026

    Defense Expert Improperly Excluded In Fla. Slip-And-Fall Case; $5.5M Verdict Tossed

    MIAMI — An expert for Walgreens Co. who opined that a woman who fell in a store may have had a seizure due to alcohol withdrawal was improperly excluded, a Florida appeals court held Jan. 14, reversing a more than $5 million verdict in a slip-and-fall case and remanding the case for a new trial.

  • January 15, 2026

    Cancer Sufferers File 3 Cases Against Monsanto Alleging Fraud Related To Roundup

    WILMINGTON, Del. — Three people with cancer filed nearly identical lawsuits on Jan. 14 in Delaware state court asserting that Monsanto Co. fraudulently represented that independent scientists have concluded that glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup, is safe. One plaintiff, James O’Brien Jr., argues that Monsanto’s “intentional, grossly negligent, wanton, willful, and reckless conduct warrants” punitive damages.

  • January 15, 2026

    Airbnb Denies Liability For Carbon Monoxide Injuries At Rental Property

    SAN FRANCISCO — Airbnb Inc. has filed an answer in California federal court denying all claims brought by a family that alleges they were poisoned by carbon monoxide (CO) during a stay at a property they rented through the online platform. Airbnb also asserts affirmative defenses, contending that the family is not entitled to punitive damages because the complaint fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.

  • January 15, 2026

    Texas Federal Judge: Expert In RV Injury Case Out For Unreliable Methodology

    SHERMAN, Texas — A Texas federal judge found that a woman who sued over injuries she sustained when a wooden panel fell from a recreational vehicle failed to show that “it is more likely than not that” her expert’s opinions are based on a reliable methodology and granted a motion to exclude.

  • January 14, 2026

    Parties Agree To Dismissal Of Suit Alleging Uber Breached Duty Of Care To Driver

    SEATTLE — A rideshare company and the estate and survivors of one of its drivers filed a stipulation for order of dismissal with prejudice on Jan. 13, having reached a settlement in December in a lawsuit brought as a result of the driver’s murder during a carjacking attempt perpetrated by two people who had signed up for the company’s services with false personal information and a prepaid phone and gift card minutes before being matched with the driver.

  • January 13, 2026

    Tesla Answers Complaint In Wrongful Death Suit Over ‘Defective’ Autopilot

    SALT LAKE CITY — Tesla Inc. and Tesla of UT Inc. (collectively, Tesla) filed an answer to a complaint in a product liability and wrongful death suit filed by survivors of people killed in a Tesla Model X, alleging that the vehicle was “unreasonably dangerous and defective” when it was driven by one of the decedents and crashed into a truck due to the failure of the vehicle’s autopilot feature.

  • January 12, 2026

    Jury Returns Defense Award In Injury Case After Judge Excludes Expert Testimony

    NASHVILLE — A Tennessee federal jury returned a defense verdict in a premise liability case in which the judge previously ruled that an expert retained by a woman who says she fell on a man’s raised sidewalk could not testify because his opinions were obvious and not based a reliable methodology.

  • January 09, 2026

    Man Seeking To Add COVID Vaccine To Vaccine Injury Table Appeals Standing Ruling

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A man who sought an order forcing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to add the COVID-19 vaccine to the Vaccine Injury Table (VIT) so he could be compensated by the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) filed a notice of appeal to the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Jan. 8 after a District of Columbia federal judge granted the government’s motion to dismiss for lack of standing, having found that an act of Congress was a necessary step to adding a vaccine to the VIT.

  • January 09, 2026

    Expert’s Testimony Properly Excluded As Unreliable, 9th Circuit Rules

    PHOENIX — An expert retained by a plaintiff in a product liability case to prove causation was properly excluded under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 after the district court judge found his testimony to be unreliable, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled Jan. 8, affirming a summary judgment award for the manufacturer of a portable camping fire device.

  • January 09, 2026

    Ky. High Court: Factual Parts Of Hospital’s Fall Analysis Exempt From Disclosure

    FRANKFORT, Ky. — A Kentucky trial court erred when it required a hospital to produce factual portions of a root cause analysis following a patient’s fall as that information is privileged, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled, affirming an appellate panel’s writ prohibiting a trial court from enforcing its discovery order as to those portions of the document.

  • January 08, 2026

    Insurer’s Rescission Bid Denied In Coverage Dispute As To Underlying Litigation

    BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A New York federal judge denied an insurer’s motion for summary judgment seeking rescission of policies due to a purported material misrepresentation in a policy application and a determination that the insurer has no duty to defend in underlying personal injury litigation involving a property owner and a property manager, finding “that there was no misrepresentation” in the application and that there is no dispute that a duty to defend is covered under the policies.

  • January 08, 2026

    Judge Refuses To Dismiss Insurer’s Suit Arising From Injury At Cryotherapy Facility

    LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California refused to dismiss an insurer’s lawsuit seeking a declaratory judgment that its business owners liability insurance policy’s professional services exclusion bars coverage for a patient’s underlying action alleging that she was injured at a cryotherapy facility while receiving medical treatment from the insured, also denying the insured’s motion to dismiss the insurer’s claim seeking reimbursement of the $275,000 it paid to settle the underlying action on its insured’s behalf.

  • January 05, 2026

    Nevada High Court Affirms Ruling Finding Claim To Now-Insolvent Insurer Excluded

    LAS VEGAS — The Nevada Supreme Court affirmed a lower court’s ruling finding that a truck driver’s claim for work-related injuries to the trucking company’s now-insolvent insurer was excluded by a workers’ compensation exclusion clause, finding that the driver failed to show that he was an independent contractor and that the workers’ compensation claim related to his injuries was denied.

  • January 05, 2026

    Experts Cannot Opine On Negligence Theories Not In Complaint, Judge Holds

    OMAHA, Neb. — A Nebraska federal judge on Jan. 2 held that testimony from an expert retained by employees of Union Pacific Railroad Co. (UPR) who sued for injuries they sustained during their employment is limited “to the three theories of negligence enumerated in the operative complaint.”

  • December 23, 2025

    Mich. Appeals Court Says No Error In Excluding Nurse’s Standard-Of-Care Testimony

    DETROIT — A Michigan trial court did not err in excluding standard-of-care testimony from an expert in a medical malpractice case after finding that it was “too general and too unconnected to accept,” a divided state appeals court held in affirming in an interlocutory appeal.

  • December 23, 2025

    Federal Judge Finds No Error In Magistrate Judge’s Ruling On Expert Testimony

    MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Tennessee federal judge refused to reverse a decision by a magistrate judge that excluded one expert on police policies to testify in case alleging that police violated a man’s constitutional rights during an arrest but allowed another to testify, finding that nothing in the order is “clearly erroneous or contrary to law.”

  • December 22, 2025

    Testimony From Experts For Man Killed In Construction Accident Limited

    PITTSBURGH — Experts retained by the estate of a man who died of injuries from a workplace accident allegedly caused by a faulty cement mixer can testify on how certain design elements “could have caused [the man’s] injury, but not whether they did,” a Pennsylvania federal magistrate judge said in partially granting two motions to exclude.

  • December 22, 2025

    Minnesota Jury Awards $65.5 Million For Talc-Related Mesothelioma

    ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Minnesota jury on Dec. 19 awarded a 37-year-old woman and her husband more than $65.5 million for peritoneal mesothelioma she developed after exposure to asbestos in Johnson & Johnson consumer talc.

  • December 22, 2025

    Ky. High Court: Fact Issue Exists Concerning Whether COVID Immunity Law Applies

    FRANKFORT, Ky. — Finding that evidence of gross negligence in the treatment of a nursing home resident who died during the pandemic that would nullify immunity under the Kentucky COVID-19 immunity statute had been alleged sufficient to create a question of material fact, a split Kentucky Supreme Court reversed the judgment of a state appellate court upholding a trial court grant of summary judgment in favor of a nursing home and staff members.

  • December 22, 2025

    Dietitian Can Testify In Negligence Case On Nutritional Need Standards

    BILLINGS, Mont. — A dietitian retained by the estates of residents who died while at an assisted living facility can testify on how assisted living facilities should monitor residents' nutritional status and needs, a Montana federal judge held, rejecting the facility’s efforts to exclude her testimony.

  • December 19, 2025

    Engineering Expert’s Testimony Limited In Product Liability Case Against Hyundai

    LAKE CHARLES, La. — A Louisiana federal judge agreed to limit testimony from a mechanical engineering expert in a car accident case but largely denied the motion to exclude filed by a car manufacturer.

  • December 19, 2025

    Former Police Officers Sue City Agency For Brain Cancer From Radioactive Waste

    PHILADELPHIA — A former Philadelphia police officer and his wife, as well as the administrators for the estates of two police officers, have individually sued a city agency alleging that it is liable for causing brain cancer because the agency developed a former ammunition arsenal that contained depleted Uranium-238 and radium and made the facility commercial property that housed the office for the Philadelphia Police Narcotics Unit.  Former officer Joseph Cooney contends in his complaint that he is entitled to punitive damages for the agency’s “wanton” conduct that caused his glioblastoma multiforme.

  • December 19, 2025

    Parents Of Deceased Teens Sue Meta, Instagram, Alleging Sextortion Led To Deaths

    WILMINGTON, Del.  — Parents of two teens whose deaths were purportedly related to sextortion on the social media platform Instagram filed a wrongful death suit against Instagram LLC and its owner, Meta Platforms Inc., in Delaware state court, asserting that their teenage sons died after Meta “provided unfettered access” to “predators” on Instagram pretending to be young girls who enticed their sons into sending “compromising pictures” and then threatened to send those pictures to friends and family if the teens did not pay with money or gift cards.

  • December 19, 2025

    Parties Settle In Suit Alleging Uber Breached Duty Of Care To Murdered Driver

    SEATTLE — A rideshare company and the estate and survivors of one of its drivers have reached a settlement in a lawsuit brought as a result of the driver’s murder during a carjacking attempt perpetrated by two people who had signed up for the company’s services with false personal information and a prepaid phone and gift card minutes before being matched with the driver.