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Mealey's Personal Injury

  • December 22, 2025

    Testimony From Experts For Man Killed In Construction Accident Limited

    PITTSBURGH — Experts retained by the estate of a man who died of injuries from a workplace accident allegedly caused by a faulty cement mixer can testify on how certain design elements “could have caused [the man’s] injury, but not whether they did,” a Pennsylvania federal magistrate judge said in partially granting two motions to exclude.

  • December 22, 2025

    Minnesota Jury Awards $65.5 Million For Talc-Related Mesothelioma

    ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Minnesota jury on Dec. 19 awarded a 37-year-old woman and her husband more than $65.5 million for peritoneal mesothelioma she developed after exposure to asbestos in Johnson & Johnson consumer talc.

  • December 22, 2025

    Ky. High Court: Fact Issue Exists Concerning Whether COVID Immunity Law Applies

    FRANKFORT, Ky. — Finding that evidence of gross negligence in the treatment of a nursing home resident who died during the pandemic that would nullify immunity under the Kentucky COVID-19 immunity statute had been alleged sufficient to create a question of material fact, a split Kentucky Supreme Court reversed the judgment of a state appellate court upholding a trial court grant of summary judgment in favor of a nursing home and staff members.

  • December 22, 2025

    Dietitian Can Testify In Negligence Case On Nutritional Need Standards

    BILLINGS, Mont. — A dietitian retained by the estates of residents who died while at an assisted living facility can testify on how assisted living facilities should monitor residents' nutritional status and needs, a Montana federal judge held, rejecting the facility’s efforts to exclude her testimony.

  • December 19, 2025

    Engineering Expert’s Testimony Limited In Product Liability Case Against Hyundai

    LAKE CHARLES, La. — A Louisiana federal judge agreed to limit testimony from a mechanical engineering expert in a car accident case but largely denied the motion to exclude filed by a car manufacturer.

  • December 19, 2025

    Former Police Officers Sue City Agency For Brain Cancer From Radioactive Waste

    PHILADELPHIA — A former Philadelphia police officer and his wife, as well as the administrators for the estates of two police officers, have individually sued a city agency alleging that it is liable for causing brain cancer because the agency developed a former ammunition arsenal that contained depleted Uranium-238 and radium and made the facility commercial property that housed the office for the Philadelphia Police Narcotics Unit.  Former officer Joseph Cooney contends in his complaint that he is entitled to punitive damages for the agency’s “wanton” conduct that caused his glioblastoma multiforme.

  • December 19, 2025

    Parents Of Deceased Teens Sue Meta, Instagram, Alleging Sextortion Led To Deaths

    WILMINGTON, Del.  — Parents of two teens whose deaths were purportedly related to sextortion on the social media platform Instagram filed a wrongful death suit against Instagram LLC and its owner, Meta Platforms Inc., in Delaware state court, asserting that their teenage sons died after Meta “provided unfettered access” to “predators” on Instagram pretending to be young girls who enticed their sons into sending “compromising pictures” and then threatened to send those pictures to friends and family if the teens did not pay with money or gift cards.

  • December 19, 2025

    Parties Settle In Suit Alleging Uber Breached Duty Of Care To Murdered Driver

    SEATTLE — A rideshare company and the estate and survivors of one of its drivers have reached a settlement in a lawsuit brought as a result of the driver’s murder during a carjacking attempt perpetrated by two people who had signed up for the company’s services with false personal information and a prepaid phone and gift card minutes before being matched with the driver.

  • December 18, 2025

    Insurers, Reinsurers Seek Indemnification From Jet Manufacturer For Fatal Crash

    SAVANNAH, Ga. — An air carrier and its aviation insurers and reinsurers filed a complaint in a Georgia federal court seeking contribution and indemnification, alleging that the manufacturer of a business jet involved in a fatal crash is responsible for millions of dollars in hull, crew and passenger death settlements that the carrier and its insurers and reinsurers were compelled to pay.

  • December 17, 2025

    Alabama High Court Grants Mandamus To Hospital In Birthing Injury Suit

    MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Depositions pertaining to newly alleged acts and omissions in a medical liability suit over a mother and baby’s injuries sustained while giving birth should have been stricken by a trial court because they related to amended claims that were untimely pleaded, an Alabama Supreme Court majority ruled, granting the defendants’ petitions for writs of mandamus to reverse a trial court’s denial of their motion to strike the depositions and dismiss the untimely claims.

  • December 16, 2025

    5th Circuit Grants Rehearing, Says No Jurisdiction Over Battery Maker In Vape Case

    NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Dec. 15 granted a South Korean battery-maker’s petition for rehearing, withdrew its opinion finding jurisdiction over personal injury claims against the company for injuries caused by a vape explosion, and issued a new opinion finding no jurisdiction after a Seventh Circuit opinion in a similar case led it to go “hunting” for previously unreviewed jurisdictional facts.

  • December 16, 2025

    JPMDL Creates Separate Track For GLP-1 Eye Injury Cases In Pa. Federal Court

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation on Dec. 15 agreed to centralize cases alleging that the use of glucagon-like peptide-I receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA) medications caused permanent vision loss in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania but found that the cases should be separated from cases in an MDL alleging gastrointestinal injuries.

  • December 16, 2025

    Disposition For Insurer Affirmed In Dispute With Estate Over Misrepresentations

    DETROIT — A Michigan appellate court affirmed a lower court’s ruling granting summary disposition in favor of an insurer in a dispute with surviving children and the estate of a woman who died in a car accident, finding that the lower court did not err in granting the insurer’s motion for summary disposition because the decedent’s children are ineligible for survivor benefits due to the decedent’s misrepresentations in the policy application.

  • December 16, 2025

    Florida Unfair Practices Claim Not ‘Fraud’ In Zyn Marketing Suit, Judge Rules

    MIAMI — Addressing an issue that was recently a matter of first impression before the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, a Florida federal judge denied a motion by the companies that manufacture and sell Zyn nicotine pouches to dismiss a putative class claim accusing them of deceptively marketing Zyns in violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (FDUTPA), saying the claim doesn’t sound in fraud and is not subject to federal particularity requirements.

  • December 11, 2025

    Judge Finds Experts Can Testify On Injuries, Limitations After Car Accident

    INDIANAPOLIS — An expert who was retained by a man who was injured in a car collision to testify about the man’s disability and limitations cannot opine on medical causation, an Indiana federal judge ruled in finding that most of the expert’s testimony, as well as the testimony of two other experts, is admissible.

  • December 11, 2025

    Man Sues Dupixent Makers, Says Drug Caused Him To Develop Rare Cancer

    NEWARK, N.J. — A man who alleges that his use of Dupixent, a prescription medication used for the treatment of asthma and inflammatory skin conditions, caused him to develop cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL), a rare type of cancer that affects white blood cells called T cells, or T lymphocytes, sued the manufacturers in a New Jersey federal court.

  • December 10, 2025

    Vanderbilt Challenges Causation, Damages After Environmental Asbestos Verdict

    CANTON, N.Y. — A woman never adequately established that her mother would have been environmentally exposed to talc from a Vanderbilt Minerals LLC mine, let alone that the talc contained asbestos or that the injury was foreseeable, the company says in a post-trial motion challenging a $12.25 million verdict.

  • December 10, 2025

    Experts Connecting Metal In Baby Food To ASD/ADHD Out In California Case

    LOS ANGELES — A California judge agreed to exclude two experts retained by a boy who alleges that exposure to toxic heavy metals in baby food led to neurological injuries after finding that one expert failed to meet the admissibility standard set in California in Sargon Enterprises, Inc. v. University of Southern California and that the other based his conclusions on that expert’s findings.

  • December 09, 2025

    Panel Affirms Ruling In Insurers’ Favor In Bad Faith Suit Over Factory Work Death

    CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Dec. 8 affirmed a lower court’s ruling in favor of insurers in a plastics manufacturer’s breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit seeking indemnification for the settlement of an underlying lawsuit brought by the family of the insured’s factory employee who was killed on the job, holding that the policies bar coverage for the underlying claim that the insured violated Ohio’s employer intentional tort statute.

  • December 08, 2025

    Smoker With Lung Cancer Says Tobacco Company Suit Belongs In State Court

    SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — A 58-year-old smoker with lung cancer on Dec. 5 filed a motion in Massachusetts federal court to remand his suit against three tobacco companies and two retailers to state court, arguing that the defendants improperly removed the suit based on the claim that he fraudulently joined a local retailer in his suit for compensatory and punitive damages based on consumer law violations.

  • December 05, 2025

    Tobacco Company Urges Florida Supreme Court To Skip Voir Dire Appeal

    MIAMI — A tobacco company in a Dec. 5 brief tells the Florida Supreme Court it should not find jurisdiction over a petition challenging an appellate court’s affirmance of a jury verdict finding the company not liable for a smoker’s death from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), writing that the smoker’s estate failed to preserve its challenge to the trial court’s “random jury box method” and cannot join a pending appeal on that issue.

  • December 05, 2025

    Medical Expert’s Opinions Are Reliable, Relevant, Judge Says In Allowing Testimony

    CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge rejected efforts by a prison health care provider and three of the provider’s staff members to exclude testimony of an expert retained by the estate of a man who died in custody that the medical treatment the inmate received breached the standard of care.

  • December 04, 2025

    Panel Questions Evidence Of Smoker’s Reliance On Ads In $1M Verdict Appeal

    MIAMI — During oral arguments in a tobacco company’s appeal of a $1 million verdict in favor of a smoker’s estate, a Florida appellate panel quizzed attorneys for both sides as to whether jurors could infer that the smoker relied on tobacco company statements that filtered cigarettes were safer based on a conversation with his brother or whether such evidence is insufficient in light of Florida Supreme Court precedent.

  • December 04, 2025

    Claims Against CooperSurgical Trimmed In Bellwether Paragard IUD Cases

    ATLANTA — The Georgia federal judge overseeing the Paragard intrauterine device (IUD) multidistrict litigation partially granted CooperSurgical Inc.’s motion for summary judgment, finding that the company had no control over the design of the IUD during the time period that the three bellwether plaintiffs allege that they underwent a procedure to implant the device, but the judge deferred ruling on the failure-to-warn claims until after supplemental briefing on causation is submitted.

  • December 02, 2025

    Massachusetts Court Enters Judgment Exceeding $803,000 For Smoker’s Cancer Death

    WOBURN, Mass. — A Massachusetts court on Dec. 1 entered judgment worth more than $803,000 in favor of a smoker’s estate after a jury awarded the estate only medical expenses for the smoker’s death from lung cancer after smoking for approximately 55 years and awarded no further compensatory or punitive damages against two tobacco companies or a local retailer.