Personal Injury

June 29, 2010

BP Oil Spill Blowout Documents

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 meeting notes and other documents.

A handwritten log was among hundreds of pages of unreleased documents obtained by The New York Times in which managers describe the desperate bid to control the subsea gusher that has spewed millions of gallons of oil into the gulf. Henry Fountain, The New York Times 06/22/2010
Read Article: The New York Times

June 28, 2010

Enterprise Car Rental Liable for Fatal Crash in Recalled Vehicle

by Dr. Shezad Malik

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 the girls, the lawsuit stated.

The month before the crash, Chrysler had issued a recall of PT Cruisers for a defect that could cause the car to catch on fire, but the company had not returned its PT Cruisers for repairs.

Enterprise admitted in May through a signed statement that “their negligence was the sole proximate cause of the fatal injuries.” Jondi Gumz, San Jose Mercury News 06/21/2010
Read Article: San Jose Mercury News

June 27, 2010

Pfizer Faces Over 200 Lawsuits Over Prempro Menopause Drug.

by Dr. Shezad Malik

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 breast cancer.

Over “8,000 lawsuits over the medicine consolidated in federal court in Arkansas” will be “returned for trial.” Still, “Pfizer…has won dismissals of more than 3,000 cases at either the pretrial stage or after the cases have been set for trials.”

Read full story here.

June 26, 2010

NYC Victim of Dog Attack Settles Lawsuit with City

by Dr. Shezad Malik

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 on a Queens boardwalk when the dogs attacked her, the lawsuit claims.

Her lawsuit stated that the city was responsible because they left garbage in empty lots around the boardwalk, which attracted the packs of stray dogs.

The man who was being attacked, Lev Liberman, settled with the city for $3 million in 2007. Thomas Zambito , New York Daily News 06/23/2010
Read Article: New York Daily News

June 25, 2010

Merck Loses $8 M Verdict in Trial Over Fosamax

by Dr. Shezad Malik

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 claimed she developed osteonecrosis of the jaw, or ONJ, from taking Fosamax. The first Fosamax case resulted in a Merck victory in May.

Recently a link has been found between bisphosphonates and a serious bone disease called osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ aka. Dead Jaw). This important discovery clearly shows that Fosamax side effects may include osteonecrosis of the jaw, aka, dead jaw or jaw death as well as osteomyelitis of the jaw. Fosamax has also been linked to low energy femur fractures (thigh bone fractures).

The case is Boles v. Merck & Co., 06-cv-09455, and the lawsuits are combined in In Re Fosamax Products Liability Litigation, MDL 1789, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

Read full Bloomberg story here.

June 25, 2010

Award Issued in Cruise Ship Slip and Fall Case

by Dr. Shezad Malik

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 oil that leaked out from the on-stage fog machine, according to the lawsuit. Douglas Hanks, Miami Herald 06/23/2010
Read Article: Miami Herald

June 25, 2010

Settlement Reached in PA Guardrail Crash

by Dr. Shezad Malik

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 forced off the road by an oncoming car.

The lawsuit claims that the guardrail was improperly designed and should have absorbed the impact of Anderson’s vehicle instead of snapping off.

Properly designed guardrails were later installed throughout the county. Barbara Boyer , Philadelphia Inquirer 06/18/2010
Read Article: Philadelphia Inquirer

June 23, 2010

GlaxoSmithKline Settles Nearly 200 Paxil Lawsuits.

by Dr. Shezad Malik

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 Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Sandra Mazer Moss last week.” Jamie Sheller, “local plaintiffs liaison counsel for the Paxil pregnancy mass tort program,” estimated “that up to another 100 cases, including cases that have not yet been filed, have settled.”

Read the full story here.

June 23, 2010

Pro Soccer Player Settles Sexual Battery Lawsuit

by Dr. Shezad Malik

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 said that her distress over the alleged assault caused her to leave the university after two years with its women’s soccer team. The terms of the settlement were not released. Joshua Mayers, Seattle Times 06/16/2010
Read Article: Seattle Times

June 21, 2010

Dallas Cowboys Employees Reach Settlements in Building Collapse

by Dr. Shezad Malik

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 sued Summit Structures LLC of Allentown, Pa., and its Canadian parent, Cover-All Building Systems Inc., last year.

One plaintiff was left paralyzed from the waist down, and the second had a broken vertebra. Jon Nielsen, The Dallas Morning News 06/16/2010
Read Article: The Dallas Morning News