Mealey's Personal Injury : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Personal Injury

October 13, 2025
Derailment Class Counsel: Plaintiffs’ Motions Objecting To Settlement ‘Improper’

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — The class counsel in a lawsuit against railroad company Norfolk Southern Corp. related to the 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, filed a response brief on Oct. 10 in Ohio federal court arguing that the court should deny motions filed by two groups of plaintiffs seeking relief from an order granting final approval to a $600 million settlement, contending that the motions are “nothing more than an improper repetition of objections already overruled by the Court.”
October 13, 2025
Couple: New Trial Motion Coming After Defense Verdict In Asbestos-Pipe Case

OAKLAND, Calif. — A couple whose asbestos-pipe case a California jury rejected earlier this year filed notice on Oct. 10 stating that they intend to move for a new trial, citing irregularities in the proceedings and errors of law that led a jury to find that a company’s product performed as a consumer would expect and that the company was not negligent.
October 13, 2025
Dead Smoker’s Estate Wins $12M After Massachusetts Jury Trial

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — A jury in Massachusetts state court awarded $1 million in compensatory damages and $11 million in punitive damages, split between two tobacco companies, after rejecting the widow’s defective design claims but finding in favor of the widow on fraud-based claims relating to the tobacco companies’ material misrepresentations that her late husband relied upon before switching to filtered cigarettes, later being diagnosed with lung cancer and dying at age 55.
October 13, 2025
Hawaii Jury Awards $350K To Estate Of Dead Smoker

KONA, Hawaii — A jury in Hawaii state court on Oct. 10 awarded $350,000 in compensatory damages to the estate of a smoker who died at 68 from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) after smoking for nearly 50 years, split fault between the smoker and tobacco company R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (RJR) and rejected claims that retailers were in the “chain of distribution.” VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
October 13, 2025
Finding ‘No Coverage,’ Florida Panel Affirms Judgment For Insurer In Collision Row

MIAMI — A Florida appellate court affirmed a lower court’s judgment for an insurer in a dispute over coverage for injuries its insured purportedly sustained in an auto accident, finding that there was “no coverage” because evidence in the lower court showed “that the Insured made a material misrepresentation” regarding his address on his policy application.
October 10, 2025
Los Angeles Seeks New Trial After Jury Awards $48.8M To Man Struck By City Truck

LOS ANGELES — After a trial conducted solely on the question of damages because the city of Los Angeles stipulated to its liability, the city moved for a reduction of a $48.8 million verdict or, in the alternative, a new trial after the jury found in favor of a man who has been in a coma since he was struck by a city garbage truck.
October 10, 2025
Judge: Man Injured By COVID Vaccine May Not Sue HHS To Put Shot On Injury Table

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Finding that a man claiming to have suffered a blood clotting disorder as a consequence of receiving the COVID-19 vaccine could achieve redress only via an act of Congress and, therefore, had no standing to sue the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to force it to add the vaccine to the Vaccine Injury Table (VIT), a District of Columbia federal judge granted the federal government’s motion to dismiss.
October 09, 2025
Judge: Expert Can Testify On Certain Topics In Construction Site Injury Case

MONROE, La. — An expert can opine on what caused a scaffolding system to collapse at a construction site, leading to an injury, a Louisiana federal judge held, but the judge limited his testimony to topics beyond a juror’s understanding.
October 07, 2025
High Court Won’t Address Whether Uber Had Duty Of Care Toward Driver Or Customer

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 6 denied the petition for writ of certiorari of a rideshare company seeking review of a pair of Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decisions reversing federal district court rulings that the company did not owe a duty of care to two victims, one a victim of rape by someone posing as a rideshare driver and the other a victim of murder by rideshare customers.
October 07, 2025
Woman Says Dupixent Caused T-Cell Lymphoma, Death Of Her Mother, Sues Drugmakers

NASHVILLE — A daughter has sued the manufacturers of Dupixent, a prescription medication used for the treatment of asthma and inflammatory skin conditions, in a Tennessee federal court, alleging that her mother died of T-cell lymphoma that was caused by the injection of the drug and that the drugmakers failed to warn about the risk.
October 03, 2025
Hawaii Smoker May Seek Punitive Damages For Personal Harm Only, Judge Says

LIHUE, Hawaii — A Hawaii state judge granted in part and denied in part two tobacco companies’ motion to dismiss a personal injury lawsuit filed against them by a smoker with bladder cancer and his wife, dismissing the smoker’s claim for fraud and partly dismissing his claim for punitive damages, writing that the smoker may seek punitives for “harm to himself,” but not harm to “society.”
October 02, 2025
Judge Awards $10 Million In Punitive Damages In J&J Asbestos-Talc Case

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A Connecticut judge on Oct. 1 added $10 million in punitive damages to a $15 million verdict, saying the evidence showed that the company employed sub-standard testing and choose to accept only evidence that supported the conclusion that its products were free of asbestos.
October 01, 2025
Insurer Argues 7th Circuit Should Affirm Judgment, Find Exclusion Applies

CHICAGO — An insurer asked the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to affirm a lower court’s grant of judgment on the pleadings to the insurer in its suit seeking a declaration that it has no duty to defend or indemnify a roofing contractor in an underlying suit alleging that the contractor’s negligent repair work contributed to the collapse of a building’s façade, which killed two people, arguing that a Prior Work Exclusion applies to bar coverage for the underlying action.
September 25, 2025
Oral Arguments Held In Appeal Of $475K Punitive Award For Smoker’s Estate

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Attorneys representing a tobacco company urged the Fourth District Florida Court of Appeal during oral arguments on Sept. 24 to reverse or order remittitur of a $475,000 punitive damages verdict awarded in favor of the estate of a dead smoker, arguing that the award is excessive because it is 11 times greater than the compensatory damages the estate was awarded.
September 25, 2025
Character Technologies Facing 3 More Suits Over Chatbots’ Harm To Minors

Character Technologies Inc., its founders and related companies were hit with a trio of strict liability and negligence lawsuits claiming that the company’s artificial intelligence chatbots caused mental and physical harm to minors. The suits, filed in federal courts in Colorado and New York federal courts, bring to six the number of known suits claiming harm to minors from the company’s chatbots.
September 24, 2025
Plaintiffs With Cancer Say Monsanto Misrepresented Evidence Of Roundup’s Toxicity

WILMINGTON, Del. — Individuals who have cancer sued Monsanto Co. and one of its affiliates in Delaware state court alleging that the companies are liable for causing their injuries because they negligently misrepresented the evidence regarding the genotoxicity and carcinogenicity of the herbicide Roundup.
September 23, 2025
Motorists Struck By Speeding LAPD Officer Receive $18M Settlement From City

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles and two motorists injured in a collision with a police car driven by a city officer, who was driving 80 miles per hour in a 45 mile per hour zone without lights or sirens “trying to catch up” to a speeder, reached an $18 million settlement several days after the start of a trial on their state court lawsuit.
September 22, 2025
Appellants Argue Reinsurer Was ‘De Facto Insurer’ In $844M Crash Coverage Appeal

MIAMI — Survivors of a 2016 plane crash and representatives of the deceased filed a brief in a Florida appellate court, arguing that a reinsurer acted as a “de facto insurer” and that state law accordingly permits them to pursue independent bad faith and coverage claims despite a trial court’s dismissal of their amended complaint that sought to enforce approximately $844 million in consent judgments.
September 22, 2025
Illinois Federal Judge Agrees To Limit Life Care Planning Expert’s Testimony

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A life care planning expert retained in a medical negligence case can opine on the costs associated with the future care of a woman who alleges that her medical treatment was inadequate but cannot base that testimony on her selection of necessary medical codes, an Illinois federal judge ruled Sept. 19.
September 19, 2025
Prison Doctor Wins Summary Judgment After Expert Out In Deliberate Indifference Case

RICHMOND, Va. — An expert retained by a former inmate who alleges that delayed medical care worsened his injuries cannot testify after a federal judge in Virigina found that his report does not comply with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26 and that his medical opinions are inadmissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 702.
September 19, 2025
Tobacco Defendants Object To Opening Statements In Widow’s Wrongful Death Suit

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Two tobacco companies and a local retailer filed objections to certain allegedly improper comments in the opening statement of a smoker’s widow after her wrongful death trial kicked off in Massachusetts state court, where the widow claims that her husband was deceived by the tobacco companies into believing filtered cigarettes were safer before he died from lung cancer at age 55. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
September 19, 2025
Experts Out In Gun Design Defect Case; Manufacturer Wins Summary Judgment

RALEIGH, N.C. — A North Carolina federal judge granted summary judgment to a gun manufacturer after excluding two experts retained by a man who claims that his firearm accidently discharged and caused injuries.
September 18, 2025
Case By Prisoners Alleging Prison Mismanagement Of COVID-19 Settles

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Having been informed that the parties settled the case, a Michigan federal court dismissed with prejudice a lawsuit by prisoners alleging civil rights violations by prison officials stemming from their management of the prison in response to COVID-19.
September 18, 2025
Arizona High Court Strikes Down Limited Immunity For COVID-19 Treatment Providers

PHOENIX — A divided Arizona Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of a state appellate court, which held that a state statute enacted to grant medical providers immunity for ordinary negligence in treating patients with COVID-19 was unconstitutional as violative of Arizona’s anti-abrogation clause.
September 17, 2025
California Bill Seeks To Curb Harm To Minors From AI Chatbots

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As the number of lawsuits alleging that minors were harmed by the use of artificial intelligence chatbots continues to grow, the California State Legislature passed a measure designed to ensure AI companions will not promote self-harm.