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

Mealey's Personal Injury

July 31, 2025
Split Panel Reverses $8.1M Verdict For Smoker’s Kids Over Jury Instruction Error

MIAMI — A split Florida Third District Court of Appeal panel on July 30 reversed a trial court’s final judgment worth $8.1 million in compensatory damages in favor of the children of a dead smoker, finding that the court’s instructions on fraud-related findings from the Engle trial were improper and remanded for a new trial.
July 30, 2025
Massachusetts Jury Awards $42 Million In Asbestos Case Against Johnson & Johnson

BOSTON — A Massachusetts jury on July 29 found Johnson & Johnson negligent and that it breached the implied warranty of merchantability and awarded a couple $42,608,300 for the husband’s mesothelioma caused by exposure to asbestos in Johnson & Johnson consumer talc in what sources said is believed to be the largest asbestos verdict in state history.
July 29, 2025
Delaware Jury Awards $9 Million In Asbestos Shotgun Shell Case

WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware jury awarded $9 million to a farmer’s estate and family in what is believed to be the first asbestos-related shotgun shell mesothelioma case to go to a verdict.
July 29, 2025
Hearing Set To Confirm Satisfaction Of $9.3M Judgment For Smoker’s Death

A Florida state court judge on July 28 set a hearing on an unopposed motion by tobacco company R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (RJR) to confirm the satisfaction of a more than $9.3 million judgment awarded against it by a second jury for causing the death of a smoker from coronary artery disease (CAD) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), while on the same day a pending appeal of the judgment was stayed.
July 28, 2025
Split N.Y. Panel Dismisses Tort Claims Against Meta In Grocery Store Shooting Suit

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — In four consolidated appeals, a split New York appeals court on July 25 reversed a lower court ruling denying dismissal to Meta Platforms Inc. and other social media companies sued for various tort claims by survivors and family members of victims killed in a 2022 grocery story shooting in Buffalo, N.Y., finding that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act provides immunity to these defendants for the tort claims against them.
July 28, 2025
Los Angeles Jury Awards $48.8M To Man Struck By City Garbage Truck In Crosswalk

LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles jury awarded a man who has been in a coma since he was struck by a city garbage truck almost $49 million in damages after the city stipulated to its liability and a trial was conducted solely on the question of damages.
July 25, 2025
Florida Panel Revives Smoker With Lung Cancer’s Nicotine Defect Lawsuit

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The First District Florida Court of Appeal reversed a trial court’s dismissal with prejudice of a second amended complaint against two tobacco companies filed by a smoker with lung cancer, writing that the smoker deserves a chance to plead additional facts in support of her strict liability claim.
July 18, 2025
6th Circuit Affirms Hip Implant Device Manufacturer’s Summary Judgment Award

CINCINNATI — A lower court properly granted a manufacturer of a hip implant device summary judgment after finding that a man’s expert witnesses to support his claim that the device was defective were properly excluded under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc., the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held.
July 15, 2025
Judge Limits Some Experts In Case Alleging Defective Gas Container Caused Fire

PENSACOLA, Fla. — A federal judge in Florida agreed to limit testimony from certain experts retained by a woman who alleges that a faulty gas container caused a gas vapor to ignite, causing serious burn injuries.
July 15, 2025
Family: AI Output Speech Questions Interesting, But Not Appeal Worthy

ORLANDO, Fla. — First Amendment questions surrounding artificial intelligence outputs may be “controversial, important, or potentially influential for courts” but do little to further negligence and wrongful death litigation tying a child’s suicide to use of specially created AI characters and do not rise to the level requiring interlocutory appeal, a family told a federal judge in Florida in opposing immediate appeal on a ruling covering the First Amendment and aiding and abetting claims.
July 15, 2025
Monsanto Seeks Missouri High Court Review Of $549.9M Roundup Damages Award

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Monsanto Co. has filed a petition with the Missouri Supreme Court seeking review of an appellate decision that upheld a combined $549.9 million punitive damages award for three plaintiffs who argued that exposure to the herbicide Roundup caused their cancers. Monsanto contends that review is warranted because there are “fundamental separation of powers concerns” with respect to a statute that is designed to ensure that a defendant is not forced to pay repeated punitive verdicts arising from the same alleged misconduct.
July 14, 2025
7th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Suit Against Battery Maker For E-Cig Explosion

CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of personal injury claims brought by a minor against a Korean battery maker for injuries suffered when lithium-ion batteries intended for use with an e-cigarette device exploded in his pocket, finding that the Korean company did not purposefully avail itself of the Indiana market for batteries while noting that other courts around the country addressing exploding vape cases have split on the issue.
July 11, 2025
1 Expert In, Another Excluded In Case Filed By Former Inmate Over Medical Care

CHICAGO — An Illinois judge ruled on a pair of motions to exclude expert testimony in a case filed by a former inmate who alleges that the deliberate indifference by the staff at a correctional center caused him to suffer permanent liver damage.
July 11, 2025
Judge Tosses Police Chase Personal Injury Suit Against Guaranty Association

NEWARK, N.J. — A New Jersey federal judge dismissed with prejudice a suit against the New Jersey Property-Liability Insurance Guaranty Association (NJPLIGA) and other parties filed by a pedestrian who claims that she was hit and injured as a result of a police chase that allegedly violated “all standard . . . procedures.”
July 11, 2025
Cook County, Ill., Jury Returns Defense Verdict In Zantac Injury Case

CHICAGO — An Illinois jury returned a verdict for Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc., rejecting arguments from a man who alleged that his prostate cancer was caused by ingesting over-the-counter Zantac.
July 11, 2025
Depo-Provera MDL Judge: Disclose All Third-Party Litigation Funding Deals

PENSACOLA, Fla. — The Florida federal judge overseeing the Depo-Provera multidistrict litigation, a group of cases alleging that a long-lasting injectable contraceptive caused women to develop intracranial meningiomas, a type of brain tumor, ordered all plaintiffs and their counsel to disclose any third-party litigation funding agreements.
July 10, 2025
Ky. Federal Judge Denies Series Of Motions To Exclude Experts In Pelvic Mesh Case

LEXINGTON, Ky. — The Kentucky federal judge presiding over a long-running case against a pelvic mesh manufacturer denied three separate motions to exclude experts filed by the manufacturer and a woman who says she was injured by the mesh.
July 10, 2025
Wash. Federal Judge Rules Experts Can Testify For Worker In FELA Injury Case

TACOMA, Wash. — Experts retained by a man who says he was injured after years of strenuous work on the railroad can testify, a Washington federal judge ruled, rejecting the railroad’s arguments that the expert’s testimony is inadmissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.
July 08, 2025
Expert’s Exclusion Dooms Design Defect Case Alleging Faulty Blender Exploded

NEWARK, N.J. — A New Jersey federal judge granted a motion to exclude an expert’s testimony in a woman’s case alleging that a defectively designed blender exploded and caused injuries, further ruling that without expert testimony to prove causation, the manufacturer is entitled to summary judgment.
July 08, 2025
Judge Won’t Consider Amicus Briefs In Deciding AI Speech Appeal Certification

ORLANDO, Fla. — Amicus curiae briefs are unhelpful in determining whether to certify an immediate appeal on the question of whether artificial intelligence chatbot outputs are protected speech, a federal judge in Florida said in a docket-only order denying a quartet of motions for leave to file amicus briefs in a case alleging that use of Character.AI led to a child’s suicide.
July 07, 2025
California Jury Returns Defense Verdict In Asbestos Pipe Case

OAKLAND, Calif. — A California jury returned a verdict for a company battling an asbestos-pipe case, finding that while the company’s product contained potentially knowable risks, an ordinary customer would have recognized them and that the defendant’s failure to warn about them was not a substantial factor in the man’s mesothelioma.
July 03, 2025
Plaintiffs Cross-Appeal As Monsanto Challenges $75M PCB Punitive Damages Award

SEATTLE — Plaintiffs who won a $75 million punitive damages award that was part of a combined verdict of $100 million for injuries from exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls(PCBs) at a Seattle area school have filed notice of a cross-appeal in Washington state court, seeking cross-review of the final judgment and other rulings, in response to Monsanto’s appeal of the verdict.
July 02, 2025
Magistrate Judge: Testimony Limited To Facts Disclosed In Expert Report, Deposition

MIAMI — A Florida federal magistrate judge ruled that experts retained by a man who alleges that he was rendered paraplegic due to a fall aboard a Carnival Corp. cruise ship cannot offer testimony based on opinions that were not disclosed in their expert witness reports or depositions but refused to exclude their testimony.
June 27, 2025
Nondelegation Doctrine Not Violated By FCC Funding Scheme, Supreme Court Says

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 27 ruled 6-3 that a Federal Communications Commission subsidy program does not violate the doctrines of nondelegation or “private nondelegation,” finding that the FCC’s delegations were properly guided by an “intelligible principle” set forth by Congress and reversing the en banc Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
June 27, 2025
Widow Defends $34M Verdict For 38-Year-Old Smoker’s Death As ‘Not About Race’

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The widow of a dead 38-year-old smoker urges a Florida appellate court in her answer brief to affirm the verdict and disregard a tobacco company’s arguments that the jury was inflamed by improper argument about “racial targeting,” writing that her case properly emphasized “fraudulent conduct” not “racism.”