Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

January 8, 2010

King County WA Pays $7 M to Woman hit by Metro van

King County WA has agreed to pay $7 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a woman severely injured when a Metro Transit supervisor’s van struck her while she was riding a Vespa scooter to work.

A portion of the settlement cost may be paid by Seattle under a separate indemnification agreement, but no information was immediately available about the terms of the agreement. Seattle was also named as a defendant after King County claimed the Capitol Hill intersection where the accident occurred was unsafe.

January 7, 2010

Judge Approves Settlement for RI Station Fire Victims

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A federal judge approved settlements earmarked for more than 300 victims of the RI 2003 Station nightclub fire and the mechanism through which payments will be made.

The action taken by U.S. District Court Judge Lagueux makes it likely now that the victims of the fourth-deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history will get money from a $176-million settlement fund in a matter of months.

January 6, 2010

Jury Awards $9.5M in Slip-and-Fall on Ship

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A British fitness instructor who alleged he was injured when he slipped and fell on a wet floor at a cruise ship spa, was awarded $9.5 million by a Miami-Dade Circuit Court jury.

January 5, 2010

Pfizer Must Face Menopause-Drug Punitive Award

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A Pfizer Inc. unit must face a $1.5 million damage award over one of its menopause drugs, a Pennsylvania appeals court ruled.

A Philadelphia trial judge erred in throwing out the jury verdict against Pfizer’s Pharmacia & Upjohn unit, the Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled today. The appellate court reinstated the damage award to Merle Simon, who contends Upjohn’s hormone-replacement drug Provera helped cause her breast cancer.

January 5, 2010

Federal Court Limits the Use of Tasers

by Dr. Shezad Malik

In a case that could set the first broad judicial standards for the use of Tasers, a federal appeals court in California has ruled that the police can be held liable for using one of the devices against an unarmed person during a traffic stop.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, based in San Francisco, said the electrically disabling device constituted excessive force when used against an unarmed man who did not pose a threat, and it refused to allow a police officer immunity for its use.

Read the pdf opinion here.

January 4, 2010

VA Woman Sues Pfizer Drug Company Over Breast Cancer

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Tina Griffin says she was never really sick a day in her life, at least not until 2002.

While on a weekend vacation with friends, the Manassas Park resident found a lump in her right breast during her shower. She had been taking Premarin and Prempro, two hormone therapy drugs that have been under scrutiny for potentially causing breast cancer.

January 3, 2010

Patient’s Fall at Mental Hospital Costs Pierce County $1.3 M

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Pierce County WA has agreed to pay $1.3 million to settle a lawsuit involving a mentally disturbed patient who escaped out of a window of a county-owned mental hospital in 2004 and hurt himself jumping onto a concrete fire-escape landing.

According to documents in the case, which was settled Dec. 23 in Pierce County Superior Court, Jeffery Fontinel had been involuntarily committed to the now-closed Puget Sound Hospital in Tacoma.

Fontinel, 27, was in a manic state, court documents say, and was being held in a “seclusion room” on the hospital’s fifth floor.

January 2, 2010

Four Dead After Toyota Car Crashes Into Southlake Pond

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Four people died in December just after Christmas after their car flipped over into a six-foot-deep pond in Southlake.

Just before 11:20 a.m., the Toyota sedan drove through the intersection of Lonesome Dove Road and Burney Lane, crashed into a metal fence, hit a tree, and landed upside-down in a pond on the grounds of a mansion.

Read full story here.

January 2, 2010

Ford Settles Explorer Suit as Jury Considers Damages

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Already on the hook for the lion’s share of a $17.7 million judgment and waiting for a decision from a jury that was out considering punitive damages, Ford Motor Co. decided to settle with a couple who sued following a Christmas 2005 wreck that left the woman paralyzed.

The agreement came after a Clayton County, Ga., jury ordered Ford on Dec. 18 to pay more than $16 million of the judgment to compensate for what the plaintiffs argued were design defects in the 2002 Explorer sport utility vehicle in which the woman was a passenger.

January 1, 2010

N.J. Appeals Court Reverses $260K Wrongful Death Judgment

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Fairleigh Dickinson University is not liable for the death of a junior who fell from a fourth-floor dorm window in 2005 after a night of heavy drinking, and won’t have to pay his parents a prior jury award of $260,000, a state appeals court has ruled.

An appellate decision reversed a Morris County jury verdict last year that found the college and student, Keith Orzech, 21, were equally responsible for his death in 2005. Instead, a three-judge panel ruled the university in Madison-Florham Park has immunity from liability under state law.