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

Mealey's Personal Injury

June 14, 2024
Panel: Lower Court Wrongly Found Arbitration Binding In Suit Against Care Home

CLEVELAND — An Ohio appellate court on June 13 reversed and remanded a lower court’s ruling that found an arbitration agreement binding for a survivorship claim in a suit filed against a nursing home by the administrator of the estate of a former resident, finding that the lower court erred in requiring arbitration of the claim because the administrator lacked authority to enter into the arbitration agreement.
June 14, 2024
Florida Jury Awards $16M To Dead Smoker’s Widow And Son

MIAMI — A Florida state court jury in a June 13 Phase 2 verdict awarded $10 million in punitive damages against a tobacco company, which will be added to its previous compensatory damages award of $6 million, for causing a smoker’s addiction to nicotine and death from lung cancer. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
June 14, 2024
Trial Court Erred In Excluding Experts In Design Defect Case, 11th Circuit Says

ATLANTA — The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals held that a trial court “applied an incorrect legal standard in excluding portions of the experts’ testimony and that this error infected its summary judgment decision,” reversing and remanding a design defect and injury case stemming from a fall out of a climbing tree stand while hunting.
June 13, 2024
Quartz Countertop Defendant Denies Liability In Silicosis Case Brought By Worker

SANTA ANA, Calif. — One of the defendants sued by a worker with silicosis who says he was injured by exposure to crystalline silica while cutting quartz countertops has filed an answer in California state court denying all allegations and asserting 42 affirmative defenses, including that the complaint fails to state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action.
June 13, 2024
Philip Morris Urges Panel To Reduce $1M Award To Smoker’s Estate

MIAMI — A tobacco company in a June 12 brief to the Florida Third District Court of Appeal argues that a smoker’s estate didn’t present evidence that the smoker relied on tobacco company statements to support the jury’s finding of intentional tort liability and urges the court to reduce the estate’s $1 million verdict to $240,000.
June 12, 2024
Massachusetts AG Announces $4M Understaffing Settlement With Care Home Operator

BOSTON — Following an investigation into understaffing at nursing homes operated by Next Step Healthcare LLC, the Massachusetts attorney general announced that specified state agencies and her office, in its largest nursing home settlement, resolved allegations of nursing home neglect regarding Next Step’s failure to protect residents at the 16 nursing homes it operates, requiring Next Step and related parties to pay $4 million and to fund and participate in compliance monitoring to improve staffing levels.
June 11, 2024
Gilead Agrees To Pay $40M To Settle Claims It Held Back Safer HIV Drug

OAKLAND, Calif. — Gilead Sciences Inc. has agreed to pay up to $40 million to settle the claims of more than 2,600 plaintiffs who allege that they suffered injuries to their kidneys and bones while the company withheld a safer alternative to an HIV medication, the company announced.
June 10, 2024
$25M Settlement Between Flint Residents, Engineering Firm Gets Initial Approval

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — According to a note on the docket in the litigation for the water crisis in Flint, Mich., a federal judge in the state has granted preliminary approval to a $25 million settlement for the claims of residents and businesses that sued an engineering firm that was involved in making the decision to switch the local water supply to the Flint River, which precipitated the lead-contaminated water crisis.
June 07, 2024
Fla. Supreme Court Lifts Stay On Husband’s Appeal Of Reversed $157M Engle Verdict

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — After issuing a recent opinion in a tagged case, the Florida Supreme Court on June 6 lifted a two-year stay on an appeal filed by a dead smoker’s widower of an appellate panel’s reversal of a $157 million Engle verdict and ordered two tobacco companies to show cause why it should not quash the reversal and remand the case in light of new precedent.
June 07, 2024
Smoker’s Daughter Can Pursue Punitives Despite Past Verdicts, Florida Panel Says

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Florida appellate panel affirmed a trial court’s ruling allowing a dead smoker’s daughter to add a claim for punitive damages to her wrongful death complaint against two tobacco companies, rejecting the companies’ argument that her claim is barred by Florida’s punitive damages statute because they have previously paid “hundreds of millions” of dollars in punitive damages for similar claims.
June 05, 2024
Florida Jury Awards Smoker’s Daughters $9.3M After Retrial

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida state court jury awarded more than $9.3 million to the three daughters of an addicted smoker who died after contracting coronary artery disease (CAD) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), one decade after an earlier verdict for one-third of the damages against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (RJR) was set aside by the trial judge. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
June 05, 2024
Judge Cuts $2.25B Award In Philadelphia Roundup Case To Just Over $404.3 Million

PHILADELPHIA — A judge in Pennsylvania state court on June 4 drastically reduced a $2.25 billion damages award against Monsanto Co. to $404,308,904.11 in a lawsuit brought by a man who said exposure to the herbicide Roundup caused him to develop cancer; the judge did not elaborate on his reasoning for reducing the award. In an official statement, Monsanto said that despite the reduced award, it will appeal the verdict because it was “marred by significant and reversible errors.”
June 04, 2024
Oregon Jury Awards Couple $260 Million In J&J Asbestos-Talc Case

PORTLAND, Ore. — An Oregon jury on June 3 awarded a couple $200 million in punitive damages and $60 million in compensatory damages for a South Korean immigrant’s mesothelioma caused by her lifelong asbestos exposure to Johnson & Johnson (J&J) talc products. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
June 04, 2024
Judge Says Expert Can Opine On Trucking Company’s Driver Logs In Crash Suit

SAN ANTONIO — Expert testimony on driver logs related to a trucker’s collision is reliable and will help a jury, a Texas federal judge ruled in denying a man’s motion to exclude; the judge also denied the man’s motion to reconsider a previous grant of partial summary judgment.
May 29, 2024
COMMENTARY: Review Of Expert Causation Testimony Under Federal Rule Of Evidence 702: An Early Assessment Of The 2023 Amended Rule

By William L. Anderson and Mark A. Behrens
May 31, 2024
Federal Judge: Expert Can Testify That Dangerous Railroad Crossing Led To Crash

ST. LOUIS — A Missouri federal judge on May 30 denied a joint motion filed by a railroad company and Amtrak to exclude an expert who opined that a railroad crossing was extrahazardous and that its condition led to a collision.
May 31, 2024
Michigan Appeals Court: No Error In Expert Exclusion, Summary Judgment Award

DETROIT — A Michigan trial court did not err in finding that a medical expert failed to meet the admissibility standards under state law and that without that testimony, a woman failed to “advance a viable claim of medical malpractice,” a state appeals court held in affirming summary judgment in a medical malpractice suit.
May 31, 2024
Magellan To Plead Guilty, Agrees To $42M Settlement For Faulty Lead Tests

BOSTON — A Massachusetts medical device company has agreed to pay $42 million and plead guilty in a deferred prosecution agreement to resolve claims that it misled consumers and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by concealing a malfunction in the company’s lead tests that produced inaccurately low test results.
May 30, 2024
Defendant In Quartz Countertop Case Denies Liability, Says Claims Barred By Law

SANTA ANA, Calif. — One of the defendants sued by a worker with silicosis who says he was injured by exposure to crystalline silica while cutting quartz countertops has filed an answer in California state court denying allegations that it fraudulently concealed the toxic hazards of the stone products and asserting 31 affirmative defenses, including that the claims are barred by the California Code of Civil Procedure.
May 29, 2024
Tool Firm To Nevada Supreme Court: No Strict Liability For Trademark Licensor

CARSON CITY, Nev. — Filing a May 28 brief responding to a question certified to the Nevada Supreme Court by a federal judge, a tool company that licensed its trademark for use on a tool at the heart of a products liability suit asks the high court to find that strict liability applies under the apparent manufacturer doctrine only if a licensor is substantially involved with the product beyond merely providing the trademark.
May 23, 2024
California Court Affirms Strict Liability For Nonhousehold Asbestos Exposure

SAN FRANCISCO — Nothing in California precedent precludes holding a pipe manufacturer strictly liable for nonhousehold asbestos exposure a man experienced when he visited his brother after work, a California appeals court said May 22 in a partially published opinion affirming a jury verdict.
May 22, 2024
New York Federal Judge Rejects Motions To Exclude Experts In Ski Crash Suit

ALBANY, N.Y. — A judge ruled on dueling motions to exclude experts retained in a lawsuit stemming from a woman’s injuries suffered while she was skiing, ruling that both the woman’s experts on medical injuries and snow sports and the ski resort’s biomechanical engineering expert can testify.
May 22, 2024
Experts Who Say Defectively Designed Honda Accord Led To Fatal Crash Can Testify

BURLINGTON, Vt. — A Vermont federal judge denied a motion for summary judgment filed by American Honda Co. Inc. (AMH) after finding that whether a defectively designed Honda Accord led to fatal car accident is in dispute and that the woman’s experts are admissible.
May 14, 2024
Illinois Federal Judge Won’t Revisit Her Ruling That Causation Experts Are Out

CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge on May 13 denied a woman’s request that the judge reconsider her ruling that causation experts in a suit against Home Depot for injuries sustained in a store are inadmissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 because the experts were unaware of the woman’s “highly salient medical history prior to issuing their causation opinions.”
May 14, 2024
Philips Says SoClean Should Chip In For Settlement Of CPAP Injury Claims

PITTSBURGH — SoClean Inc., a manufacturer of equipment that uses ozone to clean and disinfect continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) sleep apnea devices and respirators, should contribute to the $1.1 billion settlement reached between Philips Respironics and the plaintiffs in the multidistrict litigation involving personal injuries caused by deteriorating sound insulation in Philips’ CPAP devices, Philips argues in a third-party complaint filed in the MDL.