Personal Injury

December 20, 2009

Miami Beach Wrongful Death Drowning Victim Gets $5M

The family of a New York jazz musician who drowned trying to save a rabbi’s wife in treacherous riptides off Miami Beach has won $5 million in damages in a decade-old case that had raised serious liability issues for seaside communities that don’t provide lifeguards at public beaches.

U.S. District Judge Gold ordered Delaware-based Monticello Insurance Co. to pay damages to the wife of Zachary Breaux. The insurance carrier had refused to pay, even though the family’s lawyer and the city of Miami Beach had negotiated a settlement.

Gold also ordered the insurance company to pay $750,000 in damages to the husband of a New York school secretary, Eugenie Poleyeff, whom Breaux tried to save during a midwinter vacation in 1997. The city also negotiated that settlement, but the insurer had refused to pay.

December 18, 2009

Prempro Litigation and Menopause

by Dr. Shezad Malik

American women in the 1990s were told they could help their bodies ward off major illness by taking menopausal hormone drugs. Some medical associations said so. Many gynecologists and physicians said so. Respected medical journals said so, too.

Along the way, television commercials positioned hormone drugs as treatments for more than hot flashes and night sweats — just two of the better-known symptoms of menopause, which is technically defined as commencing one year after a woman’s last menstrual cycle.

One commercial about estrogen loss by the drug maker Wyeth discussed research into connections between menopause and heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease and blindness.

December 17, 2009

Santa Rosa Winery to pay $3 M to Teen Injured in DUI

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A Santa Rosa winery has agreed to pay $3 million to settle a lawsuit brought by a Sebastopol man who was permanently disabled in an alcohol-related car crash in 2006.

Paradise Ridge Winery was sued by Joshua Apodaca, the passenger in a car driven by a 19-year-old classmate, Sean Bradley, who allegedly was served beer at a wedding reception hosted by the winery.

A crash early the next morning left Apodaca with a serious brain injury and his family sought damages from Paradise Ridge, Bradley and the owners of a Sebastopol 7-Eleven store where Bradley bought additional alcohol.

December 16, 2009

Glaxo Said to Have Paid $1 Billion in Paxil Suits

by Dr. Shezad Malik

GlaxoSmithKline Plc has paid almost $1 billion to resolve lawsuits over Paxil since it introduced the antidepressant in 1993, including about $390 million for suicides or attempted suicides said to be linked to the drug, according to court records and people familiar with the cases.

As part of the total, Glaxo, so far has paid $200 million to settle Paxil addiction and birth-defect cases and $400 million to end antitrust, fraud and design claims, according to the people and court records.

December 13, 2009

Columbia City Reaches Settlement With Man Injured by Taser

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The city has agreed to pay $300,000 to a man who was critically injured in July 2008 after being shocked with a Taser by Columbia police.

As part of a settlement agreement finalized last month, the city will pay $233,544.63 to Phillip Lee McDuffy and $66,455.37 to the Family Support Payment Center to cover McDuffy’s overdue child support payments, according to Sarah Perry, the city’s risk manager.

December 13, 2009

Dallas Fort Worth Texas Slip and Fall Premises Liability Attorney

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Premises liability cases cover a wide range of situations in which people are injured or suffer a wrongful death on a commercial or residential property. Slip and fall injuries such as back, hip or spine injuries when a customer slips on a wet floor that lacks signage to warn customers of slippery conditions at a store, club, salon, restaurant, etc.

Trip and fall injuries such as bone fractures when a hotel guest trips on cleaning supplies left in a hallway or a rug that is frayed or bunched up in front of a door.

Dog bites from a dog that is not adequately restrained on its owner’s property.

Head and body injuries by falling merchandise at a warehouse or store.

Suffering a bodily injury from a malfunctioning elevator or a door with a broken closing device.

Being sexually assaulted because a hotel did not provide adequate security.

Dram Shop liability because a restaurant or Bar served its customer drinks until he was intoxicated and then the customer drove and injured a person.

December 12, 2009

Daughter Awarded $3 M After Death of Mom Who Had Do-Not-Resuscitate Order

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Janie Vinson was apparently so ill with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease that the 79-year-old woman’s family told the medical staff at Albany, Ga.’s Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital not to try to cure her, but to simply keep her comfortable until she died.

A Dougherty County jury awarded her daughter $3 million for medical malpractice claims resulting from Vinson’s death in March 2002 after she was given what a plaintiff’s expert said was too much morphine too quickly.

Vinson had been in the hospital for more than a week when she suffered respiratory arrest on March 18, 2002. Vinson had stopped breathing by the time a nurse arrived to her room. The nurse called a “code” and the emergency pulmonary team, led by Dr. Thomas Ungarino, responded, but by the time they arrived, Vinson was breathing again.

December 10, 2009

Florida Man Paralyzed in Motor Veicle Accident Awarded $44.9 M

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A Lee County jury awarded $44.9 million to a Cape Coral man who was paralyzed in a 2006 motor vehicle accident.

The verdict, one of the largest in the county’s history, was awarded to Gerald Aloia. Aloia was riding on his motorcycle on Oct. 22, 2006, when he was struck by a Chevrolet Corvette driven by Deborah Veilleux. Veilleux, 45 at the time, died in 2007.

December 8, 2009

Man Hurt by Falling Tree Limb in NY Central Park

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A 33-year-old man who suffered brain and spinal injuries in July when a heavy limb fell from a tree in Central Park and struck him has sued the city and the Central Park Conservancy for negligence.

The man, Mr. Goldensohn, a computer scientist who works for Google, remains hospitalized from his injuries and has undergone several operations, said his lawyer, Nicholas Papain.

December 7, 2009

Fort Worth Texas Yaz Yasmin Birth Control Lawsuit Update

by Dr. Shezad Malik

After 13 hours of intensifying pain, two trips to the emergency room and two CT scans, doctors finally found what was ailing Lottie Green.

In her left lung, the pulmonologist told her, was the largest blood clot they had ever seen and there were others in her right lung as well, she said.

Soon after the 41-year-old Bethesda, Md., resident was released from a hospital last month, Ms. Green joined hundreds of other women in lawsuits against Germany’s Bayer AG, the maker of the popular oral contraceptive Yaz.