In the first frantic days after the blowout of the oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, crisis managers in Houston, concerned about the potential for an even greater catastrophe, weighed the risks of using more aggressive methods to try to control the well or leaving it alone, according to…
A jury has ruled that Enterprise Rent-A-Car must pay $15 million to the family of two girls who died in a fiery car crash in 2004 in one of the company’s rental cars. Raechel and Jacqueline Houck were riding in a rented Chrysler PT Cruiser when the car crashed, killing…
Bloomberg News (6/18, Feeley) reported, “Pfizer Inc. faces a Texas trial over its hormone-replacement drugs after a court overseeing lawsuits over the medicines sent 200 cases back to their home courts.” At issue in the suit is whether “the Prempro [conjugated estrogens and medroxyprogesterone] menopause drug helped cause” the plaintiff’s…
The city of New York has agreed to a $750,000 settlement with a Queens woman who was mauled by a pack of wild dogs in 2001, leaving her with severe scarring and post-traumatic stress disorder. Marlene Fils-Aime was trying to rescue a man who was being attacked by the dogs…
Merck & Co. lost the second trial to reach a verdict over claims its osteoporosis drug Fosamax causes so-called jaw death. The jury set damages at $8 million. A jury in New York ruled against Merck today in the case of Shirley Boles, 72, of Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Boles…
A former cruise ship trumpet player was awarded $1.7 million from a Miami jury after he slipped and fell while on stage on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship. Steven Pavone claimed that the fall injured his shoulder and ended his trumpet-playing career. The accident was caused by a bit of…
Camden County, Penn., has agreed to a $15 million settlement with a man who lost his leg and part of his arm when his car crashed into a guardrail and the railing snapped off, cutting through the vehicle. In 2004, Nicholas Anderson was driving on Raritan Road when he was…
The Legal Intelligencer (6/23, Elliott-Engel) reports, “Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to settle almost 200 cases in which plaintiffs allege the use of the antidepressant Paxil caused birth defects.” GSK “decided to settle Kilker v. SmithKline Beecham Corp. d/b/a GlaxoSmithKline along with another 190 cases, according to an order signed by…
American professional soccer player Nate Jaqua has settled a sexual battery lawsuit with a female University of Oregon soccer player. The lawsuit, filed by Leigh Quinlan last summer, claimed that Jaqua “subjected her to a brutal, forcible sexual assault” outside a bar on the Oregon campus in 2007. Quinlan had…
Two Dallas Cowboys employees injured when the team practice facility collapsed on them during a storm last year reached confidential settlements with the bankrupt companies that built the tent-like structure. The terms of the out-of-court agreement reached last week were not disclosed. A Cowboys team scout and special teams coach…