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Mealey's Personal Injury

  • 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 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 23, 2025

    Expert Testimony Limited In Suit Over Carbon Monoxide Death After Vehicle Left On

    ATLANTA — A Georgia federal judge ruled in a pair of orders that certain experts retained in a suit against Toyota Motor Corp. cannot testify in a design defect case filed by a woman whose husband died of carbon monoxide poisoning after leaving his vehicle running in a garage but denied a motion for summary judgment filed by the car maker.

  • June 20, 2025

    Judge: Expert Did Not Show Reliable Methodology In Calculating Economic Losses

    SHERMAN, Texas — A retained expert’s “entire opinion is based on his own ipse dixit,” a Texas federal judge held, finding that a woman who was injured in a car accident cannot offer the expert’s testimony that her injuries will result in a lifetime economic loss of $643,513.

  • June 20, 2025

    Massachusetts Jury Awards $8 Million In J&J Talc Case

    MIDDLESEX, Mass. — A Massachusetts jury awarded a woman $8 million for her mesothelioma, finding Johnson & Johnson and a related entity negligent and liable for breach of the implied warranty of merchantability with regard to two of its consumer talc products.

  • June 19, 2025

    Agency To Allocate $10M For Research Into Health Impact Of Ohio Train Derailment

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In the aftermath of the chemical releases in East Palestine, Ohio, following the derailment of a train operated by Norfolk Southern Railway Corp., the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) on June 19 announced a plan to allocate up to $10 million over five years to fund awards to organizations to conduct a research study of long-term health concerns related to the chemical exposure in the community.

  • June 19, 2025

    Connecticut Judge To Hold Additional Argument On J&J Successor Liability Question

    BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A Connecticut judge considering punitive damages and motions for a new trial and judgment notwithstanding the verdict in the wake of a $15 million asbestos-talc award ordered parties to come up with dates for additional argument on the issue of successor liability for Johnson & Johnson, choice of law and the status of LLT Management LLC as a defendant.

  • June 19, 2025

    N.Y. Federal Judge Grants Gunmaker Summary Judgment After Excluding Expert

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge excluded testimony from an expert retained by a man who suffered an eye injury while shooting a Smith & Wesson revolver and granted the manufacturer summary judgment, finding that without that testimony, the man’s claims fail.

  • June 16, 2025

    10th Circuit Affirms Experts Properly Excluded In Gun Design Defect Case

    DENVER — The 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 13 affirmed summary judgment for a gun manufacturer after finding that the experts retained by a man who accidentally shot himself while removing a handgun from its holster based their causation opinions on speculation and were properly excluded as inadmissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 702.

  • June 16, 2025

    $46.4M Jury Award To Jiu-Jitsu Student Stands As State High Court Denies Review

    SAN FRANCISCO — A $46,475,112.33 California jury award to a man who suffered a spinal cord injury that rendered him paraplegic while training at a jiu-jitsu studio, which will become some $56 million with postjudgment interest due, will stand after the California Supreme Court denied a petition for review of the state appellate court decision upholding the verdict.

  • June 13, 2025

    Distributor Of Authorized Generic Drugs Dismissed From Depo-Provera MDL

    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, on June 12 signed a stipulated order dismissing a generic drug distributor from all cases.

  • June 13, 2025

    Couple Seeks Damages For Kids’ Lead Poisoning Caused By Living In National Park

    CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A that couple has sued the U.S. government in Wyoming federal court contending that while they were living in government housing related to the husband’s employment at Yellowstone National Park, their two children developed lead poisoning.  The couple says the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) is liable for money damages for personal injury under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA).

  • June 12, 2025

    Experts On Firearms, Suicide Risks Can Testify In Suit By Walmart Employee’s Family

    GREENBELT, Md. — A Maryland federal magistrate judge agreed to limit testimony from experts retained by the family of a Walmart employee who killed himself with a gun he purchased at the Walmart where he worked, finding that the experts cannot offer legal conclusions or use specialized legal terminology in their testimony.

  • June 11, 2025

    Monsanto Appeals Denial Of Its Bid To Reduce $75M PCB Punitive Damages Award

    SEATTLE — Monsanto has filed a notice in Washington state court that it is appealing a state court judge’s denial of its motion to reduce 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.  In addition to the trial court’s final judgment on the ruling, Monsanto is appealing other decisions, including rulings on its bid for a new trial.

  • June 10, 2025

    Washington Supreme Court Lowers Deliberate Injury Standard For Latent Diseases

    SEATTLE — A divided Washington Supreme Court overturned precedent requiring actual knowledge that a disease will arise, saying that in latent disease cases such as mesothelioma, employees need only show that it was a virtual certainty that a disease would arise to sue employers under the deliberate injury exception to the workers’ compensation system.

  • June 09, 2025

    Texas Jury Awards $9.45 Million For Fall Into Unlit Empty Hotel Fountain

    DALLAS — A Texas jury awarded a man $9,451,000 in compensatory and exemplary damages after finding a hotel he had been staying in liable for injuries he suffered falling into an empty fountain that was level with surrounding ground but concealed by darkness and a lack of illumination.

  • June 09, 2025

    Dead Smoker’s Husband, Philip Morris Settle Wrongful Death Suit

    WOBURN, Mass. — The widower of a smoker, tobacco company Philip Morris USA Inc. (PM) and local retailers that sold the smoker Marlboro Lights entered a notice of settlement just days into a wrongful death trial in Massachusetts state court where the widower had told jurors his wife smoked light cigarettes because she thought they were healthier before dying from lung cancer at age 64. VIDEO OF THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.

  • June 06, 2025

    New York Jury Awards $117M For World Trade Center Asbestos Exposures

    NEW YORK — A justice adopted a stipulated post-trial schedule that will see post-trial briefing wrap up in September after a New York jury awarded a couple $117 million for a man’s exposure to asbestos during construction of the World Trade Center, sources told Mealey Publications.

  • June 03, 2025

    Panel Affirms $475K Judgment For Personal Injury Plaintiff In Wire Fraud ‘Scam’

    SAN DIEGO — In what it said was a case of first impression, a California appellate court affirmed a lower court’s judgment for a personal injury plaintiff in a dispute with a restaurant and its employees over who bears the risk of loss when an “imposter” caused a $475,000 personal injury settlement to be wired to an unknown third party instead of the plaintiff, finding that evidence shows that “red flags should have alerted” the restaurant and the employees “to the fraud, and that there were none that should have alerted plaintiff.”

  • May 30, 2025

    Unsafe Marlboros Lights Made Smoker Increase Habit Before Cancer, Jury Told

    WOBURN, Mass. — The widower of a smoker told a Massachusetts state court jury during opening arguments in a wrongful death lawsuit against tobacco company Philip Morris USA Inc. (PM) and local retailers that the defendants sold defective Marlboro Lights that the decedent thought were healthier but which kept her hooked on smoking until she developed fatal lung cancer and died at age 64. VIDEO OF THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.

  • May 30, 2025

    Michigan Supreme Court: Attorney Fee Sanction Allowed Under Then-Court Rule

    LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Supreme Court has reversed dismissal of a $169,512 attorney fee sanction in a dental malpractice case, saying the trial court correctly applied a court rule allowing such an award that was in effect during the pendency of the case.