Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

April 30, 2009

Shell Settles Texas Air Pollution Claims

The oil company Royal Dutch Shell said Thursday that it had reached a $5.8 million settlement over claims of air pollution at its Deer Park refinery near Houston.

The proposed settlement would require Shell to reduce emissions from air pollutants from its plant by 80 percent within three years, upgrade chemical units and reduce gas flaring.

The agreement is subject to review by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department. It must also be approved by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, where the complaint was filed.

April 29, 2009

Raising Alarm at Cheerleading’s Dangers

by Dr. Shezad Malik

It has been a year since Lauren Chang collapsed during a cheerleading competition and died, leaving behind her smiling portrait as a grim testament to the dangers of her sport.

That tragedy, as well as another death and a serious injury suffered by cheerleaders in recent years, has placed Massachusetts in a pivotal point in the crusade to make cheerleading safer.

Last fall, the mother of Ashley Burns, a Medford 14-year-old who died in a 2005 cheerleading accident, filed a lawsuit in her death. In addition to seeking damages, Ruth Burns is also asking a judge to force national groups that sanction cheerleading competitions and oversee the sport to adopt more stringent safety rules.

April 28, 2009

Bayer Settles Gadolinium Contrast Agent Injury Lawsuits

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Bayer AG has begun the process of settling medical injury lawsuits regarding its Magnevist contrast agent; Magnevist contains gadolinium.

The company is one among several, including General Electric Company and Tyco International Limited, being sued over complaints that the gadolinium-containing contrast agent was responsible for causing a potentially fatal organ hardening disease, called Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis (NSF). Since May 2007, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has required that gadolinium-containing contrast agents carry a black box warning.

April 28, 2009

Wyeth Must Face Woman’s Prempro Lawsuit, Appeals Court Rules

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Wyeth, the drugmaker being acquired by Pfizer Inc., must face a lawsuit by a woman who claims her breast cancer was caused by the menopause medicine Prempro, a Texas appeals court ruled.

The state appeals court in Houston said that Susan Brockert’s “failure-to-warn” claims aren’t preempted by federal drug-labeling regulations, overturning a district judge’s finding from February 2007. The case was sent back to the lower court for further proceedings.

The appeals panel cited last month’s U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding a $7 million award to a musician who lost her arm after being injected with Wyeth’s Phenergan nausea treatment. The high court said patients can sue drugmakers for failing to provide adequate safety warnings, even when a treatment and its packaging are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

April 27, 2009

$13.7M Awarded in Illinois Car Crash Lawsuit

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A Illinois Cook County jury has found in favor of the family of a BMW salesman in its wrongful death suit against a man who took a test drive and crashed the car, killing the salesman.

The jury awarded Roger Czapski’s family $13.7 million, concluding that Christopher Maher was liable for Czapski’s death Aug. 4, 2004 in South Barrington, Illinois.

April 26, 2009

Lawsuit Blaming Tannery for Missouri Brain Cancer

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The investigation into the cause of brain tumors near Cameron, Mo., lead to the filing of a lawsuit which accused a tannery of being at fault.

Sludge from Prime Tanning Corp., in St. Joseph contains high levels of hexavalent chromium, a known carcinogen, the lawsuit filed in Clinton County alleged.

For years, farmers in at least four counties in northwest Missouri have gotten the sludge for free to use as an agriculture fertilizer for their crops, according to the lawsuit.

April 25, 2009

Routine Removal of Ovaries is Questioned by New Research

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Women who have their healthy ovaries removed when they have a hysterectomy face a higher risk of death — including death from coronary heart disease and lung cancer — than women who keep their ovaries, according to new research.

The finding from a study published in the May issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology challenges conventional wisdom that removing ovaries along with the uterus offers the best chance for long-time survival.

April 24, 2009

Companies Settle Lawsuit Over Seattle Crane Collapse

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Two Seattle companies involved in erecting a construction crane that collapsed in Bellevue in 2006 have settled with the parents of a man who was killed when the crane crushed him as he sat in his apartment.

April 23, 2009

Popcorn Lung Lawsuits on the Increase.

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Dozens of plant workers who claim their health was damaged by exposure to a chemical used to give a buttery flavor to microwave popcorn have filed lawsuits in Cincinnati against makers of the flavoring.

At least 43 workers filed lawsuits claiming their lungs were irreversibly damaged by inhaling fumes from the chemical diacetyl, which provides the buttery taste. Some work at a local plant of Cincinnati-based Givaudan Flavors Corp. Many others are from a plant in Marion owned by Omaha, Neb.-based ConAgra Foods.

Givaudan supplies flavorings to food manufacturers, including popcorn makers. ConAgra and other leading makers of microwave popcorn removed the flavoring chemical from their products after it was linked to cases of bronchiolitis obliterans, a rare life-threatening disease often referred to as “popcorn lung.”

April 22, 2009

Man Sues Debt Collector’s Lawyers And Wins Lawsuit

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A man with a disabling brain injury and no money told debt collector lawyers that the time limit for seeking payment had expired and that a suit had been dismissed before. But a North Dakota law firm sued him anyway, trying to collect a credit card debt on behalf of the creditor.

This time Timothy McCollough got mad. He hired a lawyer, got the suit dismissed and then sued the North Dakota law firm for violating debt collection laws.