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Mealey's Personal Injury

  • December 05, 2024

    Minnesota Supreme Court Issues Warning After Brief Contains AI-Created Fake Cites

    ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Supreme Court denied leave to file an amended petition for review to correct fake citations created by artificial intelligence ChatGPT, saying the attorney failed to file an accompanying motion.  The court went on to decline review of a ruling affirming dismissal of a personal injury action.

  • December 03, 2024

    Estate Of Decades-Long Daily Smoker Wins Nothing For Lung Cancer Death

    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida state court jury returned a defense verdict and awarded no damages to the children of a woman who died from lung cancer in her late 70s after smoking cigarettes for more than six decades, rejecting Engle claims that two tobacco companies concealed the risks of smoking and caused her death. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.

  • December 02, 2024

    Vaper Seeks Rehearing Of Claim For Exploding Battery That ‘Ruined His Hand’

    SAN FRANCISCO — An e-cigarette user has petitioned the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for rehearing en banc after it affirmed the dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction of his lawsuit against a South Korean battery maker for manufacturing and distributing a battery that allegedly exploded in his e-cigarette device, saying the Circuit Court’s decision was based on flawed “new precedent” that requires en banc review.

  • November 26, 2024

    Experts Featured In Mealey's Daubert Report

    Entries are ordered in alphabetical order of the expert in each area of expert testimony.  Experts appeared in the March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October and November 2024 issues of Mealey’s Daubert Report.

  • November 26, 2024

    High Court To Review Delegated Oversight Of Telecommunications Subsidies

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court has granted two petitions for a writ of certiorari and consolidated cases concerning whether Congress violated the nondelegation doctrine by authorizing the Federal Communications Commission to delegate a subsidy program to a private entity, both arising out of the en banc Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling that the program violates the “private nondelegation doctrine.”

  • November 26, 2024

    Judge Limits Experts Who Can Testify On Man’s Future Medical Needs After Crash

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge presiding over a personal injury case stemming from a car accident ruled on three motions to exclude experts retained to opine on a man’s needs for future surgeries and medical care, finding that two experts meet admissibility standards but one is excluded.

  • November 25, 2024

    Panel Reverses Dismissal Of Insurer’s Claim Against Marine Construction Company

    NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed a lower federal court’s dismissal of an intervening insurer’s breach of contract claim against a marine and industrial construction company in a coverage dispute arising from an underlying personal injury claim, finding that the company was obligated to procure a Protection and Indemnity insurance policy that provided coverage for personal injuries that were incurred by the crew/employees.

  • November 25, 2024

    Judge Refuses To Exclude Norfolk Southern’s Expert In Ohio Train Derailment Case

    YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — A federal judge in Ohio has denied a motion by third-party defendant OxyVinyls LP, which sought to exclude the report of an expert for the railway company Norfolk Southern in the litigation over toxic chemical exposure from the derailment of its train in East Palestine, Ohio, ruling that the exclusion of those reports would “unfairly eliminate a critical component of Norfolk Southern’s defense.”

  • November 22, 2024

    COMMENTARY: 2024 Key Insurance Decisions, Trends & Developments & A Look Ahead To 2025

    By Scott M. Seaman, Pedro E. Hernandez and Lisa M. Roccanova

  • November 22, 2024

    Justice: Insurer Has Duty To Defend And Reimburse Costs Of Personal Injury Suit

    BROOKLYN, N.Y. —  A New York justice held that a businessowners insurer has a duty to defend plaintiffs as additional insureds against an underlying personal injury lawsuit and a duty to reimburse the plaintiff insurer for underlying defense costs.

  • November 21, 2024

    Question Of Whether COVID-Era Restroom Door Handle Was Obvious Danger Left For Jury

    TULSA, Okla. — An Oklahoma federal magistrate judge denied a department store’s motion for summary judgment in a lawsuit brought by a customer who injured her arm and hand while trying to open the store’s restroom door using a “hands-free” door handle installed during the COVID-19 pandemic, ruling that whether the door handle presented an open and obvious hazard was a question for the jury, but granted the store’s motion for summary judgment as to punitive damages.

  • November 20, 2024

    Split Panel Rules No Federal Question In Assisted Living COVID Death, Remand Proper

    ATLANTA — A split panel of the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a judgment of a Florida federal court remanding to state court a lawsuit brought by the personal representatives of a woman who died from COVID-19 in an assisted living facility alleging that the facility failed to prevent the spread of COVID-19, finding that the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act was not a complete preemption statute, nor was any other federal question invoked that would confer jurisdiction on the federal court.

  • November 19, 2024

    2 Companies To Pay More Than $23.52M For Silicosis Injury To Quartz Stonecutter

    LOS ANGELES — A California judge has issued a judgment awarding a combined $23,522,788.70 against two makers of quartz countertops, which are among multiple defendants that were sued by a man who developed silicosis from working as a stonecutter who has already won $52 million in a general verdict against all of the defendants.  In the same ruling, the judge granted judgment notwithstanding the verdict to another defendant.

  • November 19, 2024

    Judge: 1 Expert Admitted, 1 Excluded In Medical Malpractice Suit

    HONOLULU — A Hawaii federal judge ruled that because a medical malpractice case is not being heard by a jury, an expert retained by the government can testify as the judge will be able determine the reliability of the expert’s testimony at trial; the judge also ruled that exclusion of a couple’s expert is the proper sanction for disclosing the expert after a deadline.

  • November 19, 2024

    Texas Panel Dismisses Oil Rig Injury Case For Lack Of Jurisdiction

    HOUSTON — A Texas appellate panel has ruled that a trial court could not exercise general jurisdiction over the case of a man who sued an oil rig operator for personal injuries, saying the companies in question were not “essentially at home” in Texas and, therefore, the case is dismissed.

  • November 18, 2024

    Family Drops Appeal After Nonsuit In California Asbestos Case

    LOS ANGELES — A California appeals court entered an order dismissing an appeal after a family that was awarded nearly $9 million in an asbestos case asked to drop the appeal of a ruling granting nonsuit to ExxonMobil Oil Corp. on the heels of the trial.

  • November 04, 2024

    COMMENTARY: Lady Justice May Be Blind, But Her Courts Aren’t: Gender Bias And Barriers To Representation For Female Plaintiffs

    By Sophie Zavaglia

  • November 15, 2024

    Jury Awards $2M In Negligence, Civil Rights Suit Against Decedent’s Care Home

    ALBANY, N.Y. — A New York federal court jury awarded $2 million to a plaintiff who sued her father’s nursing home and related parties for negligence and civil rights violations related to their alleged neglect that resulted in his death after the daughter purportedly found her father at the nursing home on the floor “gasping for breath” with staff not responding to her requests for help.

  • November 14, 2024

    Oregon Judge Finds $200M Punitive Damages Constitutional In Asbestos Case

    PORTLAND, Ore. — An Oregon judge declined to reduce or vacate $200 million in punitive damages awarded in an asbestos-talc case against Johnson & Johnson, saying the jury’s $60 million in noneconomic damages supports finding that the award passes constitutional muster.

  • November 14, 2024

    Judge: Expert Not Qualified To Opine On What Caused Ladder To Collapse

    HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — A mechanical engineer who spent most of his career in the automotive industry is unqualified to testify as to why an extension ladder collapsed and caused injuries, a West Virigina federal judge ruled Nov. 13 while affirming a previous order that the company’s expert may testify.

  • November 12, 2024

    Mother Details Jurisdiction In Suit Alleging Character.AI Led To Son’s Suicide

    ORLANDO, Fla. — A woman who claims that her son committed suicide after interactions with Character.AI filed an amended complaint and response to an order to show cause, further detailing the citizenship of defendant Google LLC after the court issued a sua sponte order saying it couldn’t properly determine whether federal jurisdiction was appropriate without the information.

  • November 12, 2024

    Ohio Train Derailment Defendants Say Their Expert Is Qualified To Testify

    YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Defendants in the litigation over the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, that released toxic chemicals into the air and soil have filed a brief in Ohio federal court arguing that Norfolk Southern Corp.’s arguments to exclude a defense expert do not have merit.

  • November 12, 2024

    Group Outlines Dismissal Arguments In Another Reinsurer’s RICO Lawsuit

    BROOKLYN, N.Y. — As it has done in a similar Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act suit that a different reinsurer filed in New York federal court over purportedly fraudulent workers’ compensation claims and personal injury lawsuits, a group of defendants filed a pre-motion letter outlining plans to seek dismissal.

  • November 08, 2024

    Pa. Federal Magistrate: Rebuttal Witness On Life-Care Needs Can Testify

    PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania federal magistrate judge denied a motion filed by a family injured in an accident to exclude the testimony of an expert hired to rebut the report of the family’s life-care planning experts.

  • November 05, 2024

    5th Circuit Rejects Insurer’s Argument In Coverage Dispute Over LSU Hazing Death

    NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S Court of Appeals on Nov. 4 affirmed a lower federal court’s ruling against an excess homeowners insurer in lawsuit brought by the parents of a Louisiana State University (LSU) freshman who died in 2017 of alcohol poisoning following a fraternity hazing incident, finding that the lower federal court did not err by denying the insurer’s motion for summary judgment on the applicability of its policy exclusions.