The mother of University of Colorado student Lynn “Gordie” Bailey, who died of acute alcohol poisoning in September 2004 after a fraternity-initiation ritual, has settled her lawsuit with the fraternity on the eve of the trial. According to the lawyer who represented Leslie Lanahan, Bailey’s mother, said a settlement was…
A judge has awarded $45 million in damages to a San Mateo woman who was paralyzed when a wrecking and demolition company’s truck ran a red light and hit her car. Tricia Roth, now 41, a former software developer for Microsoft Corp., suffered a broken neck and spinal injuries in…
A jury awarded a 21-year-old Florida woman $65 million for her injuries in a 2007 crash. The verdict is considered to be one of the largest by a Polk County jury. The verdict stemmed from a traffic crash in Zolfo Springs that left Kendra Lymon in a coma and hospitalized…
A Miami Beach woman left bedridden and in excruciating pain following spinal surgery in 2003 at Mount Sinai Medical Center was awarded $38 million by a Miami-Dade Circuit Court jury. The six-person jury deliberated nine hours over two days before finding that neurosurgeon Mario Nanes, Mount Sinai and the hospital’s…
The family of a woman mauled by a chimpanzee filed a lawsuit seeking $50 million in damages against the primate’s owner, saying she was negligent and reckless for lacking the ability to control “a wild animal with violent propensities.” The suit also alleges that Herold had given the chimp medication…
Medtronic said that at least 13 people might have died in connection with a heart device that it recalled in 2007 but was still in widespread use, including four patients whose deaths were related to efforts by doctors to surgically remove the product. The new data reflect the first fatality…
The family of UCF football player Plancher, a 19-year-old freshman wide receiver who died March 18, 2008, filed a wrongful death lawsuit after an offseason conditioning workout on the UCF campus. An autopsy found that the extreme stress of the workout triggered Plancher’s sickle-cell trait, a blood disorder that caused…
A former Seattle High School wrestler who was paralyzed at a practice two years ago was awarded $15 million in a settlement with Seattle Public Schools. Mac Clay, then a senior, was at wrestling practice in the school cafeteria when he was driven backward into two wrestlers going in the…
A Maryland jury awarded more than $150 million to the neighbors of a northern Baltimore County service station, finding Exxon Mobil Corp. liable for the damage caused when thousands of gallons of gasoline seeped into the groundwater from a leaking pipe. The Baltimore County jury’s verdict — delivered after five…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued safety guidelines for companies that use peanut products today and said it may seize products that test positive for salmonella bacteria. While heat-sensitive, salmonella bacteria become heat-resistant in high-fat environments such as peanut butter, according to the FDA guidance. The U.S. Centers for…