Personal Injury News: Pick Of Last Month: Apr-2021

On March 2, a logistics company in the U.S., which operates 14 facilities nationwide, reached a $1 million settlement with the Charleston Waterkeeper and the Coastal Conservation League who alleged the company for polluting South Carolina waterways.

According to the federal lawsuit filed, the company’s Union Pier location spilled millions of plastic pellets into the Charleston Harbor. Plastic resin pellets, commonly referred to as nurdles, are used to make plastic products in all sorts of shapes and sizes. These nurdles are a major contributor to marine debris.

The Executive Director & Waterkeeper of Charleston Waterkeeper was completely involved in the litigation, and he along with his team collected tens of thousands of pellets from numerous locations to document the extent of the pollution.

The settlement will end the federal lawsuit and as a part of it, the company has agreed to allow an independent auditor, accompanied by a nurdle-pollution expert, to visit its new facility located in North Charleston to make recommendations on preventing the plastic pellets from getting into the environment.

The settlement news was announced the next day by the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), and the settlement fund will be used for water-quality improvements in the Charleston Harbor watershed, according to SELC.

On March 4, Louisiana's Attorney General (AG) signed a $100 million settlement agreement with a Phoenix-based mining giant over lawsuits claiming the oil and gas company of damaging the state's coast.

The lawsuits were filed by seven parishes on behalf of all the coastal parishes claiming 42 energy companies for damaging wetlands and marshes through drilling and other projects.

According to the settlement agreement, the company is expected to pay $23.5 million in cash and $76.5 million through selling environmental credits. Out of the total, $15 million of the cash settlement would be deposited into a trust, which will be followed by $4.25 million in 2023 and 2024.

The settlement will release the company from liability for any current claims and all the lawsuits from the coastal parish against the company would be dismissed.

The payments will only be distributed after the state Legislature creates an oversight board to hold and manage the money. The money will be used for the state’s Coastal Master Plan, with 60% for state projects and 40% for local projects.

The former executive director of Cardiff 101 Main Street who was was struck by a pickup truck while cycling in Leucadia will receive an $11 million settlement from the City of Encinitas over a personal injury lawsuit filed against the city.

According to the lawsuit filed, the former director, a longtime cycling advocate, was riding her bicycle in a lane on North Coast Highway 101 on December 8, 2018. A truck, which was heading southbound struck her from behind near the Phoebe Street intersection in front of the Leucadia Post Office, throwing her a significant distance away.

The impact of the collision was severe despite wearing a helmet. The woman was critically injured and briefly unconscious. She suffered catastrophic injuries, including traumatic brain injury, fractured skull, spinal and facial fractures, nine broken ribs, a broken clavicle and sacrum, subdural hematoma, and impaired mobility and cognition. She was also placed into a medically-induced coma and the injuries are reported to impact her for the rest of her life.

She underwent many emergency surgeries in the trauma center at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla and also had an operation to replace a missing portion of her skull that was previously removed.

Thousands of people contributed to help her with rehabilitation and transition from the hospital and according to her attorney, she is working daily with her doctors and family to improve her medical condition.

On March 12, the Minnesota city of Minneapolis agreed over a $27 million settlement with the family of a black man who died during an arrest made by a white police officer.

A 44-year old Minneapolis police officer is held liable for the man's death, and the officer is facing murder and manslaughter charges. Three other police officers are also facing charges over the death that happened on May 25, 2020.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in July against the city of Minneapolis by the family of the man, and according to a video the police officer was found kneeling on the neck of the 46-year-old handcuffed man for nearly nine minutes. The family is waiting for justice in the criminal courts as the trial against the former officer moves forward.

The civil rights wrongful death case sparked mass protests for racial justice across the U.S., and the pre-trial settlement is considered to be the largest in the nation's history over a wrongful death case.

The settlement includes $500,000, which would be used to improve the historically African-American business district in Minneapolis where the man died.

Additionally, the Minneapolis Police Department agreed to keep body-worn cameras on at all times, to de-escalate non-threatening encounters with citizens by disengaging or walking away, and other measures.

On March 11, Minnesota Attorney General (AG) announced that two major tobacco companies, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and ITG Brands, LLC, have agreed to pay $81 million over a lawsuit brought against them by the state.

According to the lawsuit filed, problems started rising in 2015 after Reynolds transferred four cigarette brands to ITG Brands. Following the transfer, Reynolds stopped including sales and profits on the transferred brands in its settlement calculations.

As ITG Brands wasn't part of the original agreement and had not joined the agreement, the state sued both companies in 2018. A year later, the Ramsey County District Court ruled in favor of the state, and this settlement would put an end to the lawsuit over the companies' failure to make annual payments as per the state's 1998 tobacco agreement.

The AG stated that the companies cannot avoid accountability by selling off cigarette brands and the state will make sure to fight and win to see that the companies keep the commitment made to the people of Minnesota.

As per the terms of the settlement, the companies will pay for the unpaid obligations from 2015-20. ITG Brands will consider the obligation to make payments on the transferred brands going forward and the money will go into the state’s general fund.

The United States Of India's largest chicken producers is penalised with $205 million due to the disposal of wastewater and sludge from its Delaware plant that polluted nearby waterways, private water wells, and the surrounding air.

The company will deposit $65 million into a fund for residents whose properties were affected by the company's plant at Sussex county. The amount is a part of the class-action settlement of the company with Mountaire Corp.

Mountaire will even pay $140 million to upgrade its treatment system as per a separate action lawsuit. The company faces two separate lawsuits, one filed in Delaware Superior Court on behalf of residents and the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) filed another civil lawsuit in the U.S. District Court.

One of the residents said that settlement is the best possible outcome as he and his wife were hospitalised in 2017 because of gastrointestinal issues. The couple is still suffering from the painful conditions caused due to the contamination.

Mountaire Farms plant is located along Swan Creek and the Indian River in Millsboro, Delaware where the company slaughters and processes about two million chickens a week. The company treats two million gallons of water in a day by spraying it across 13 fields and sending it to a lined lagoon instead of discharging it into waterways.

As per an investigation by the state, the company applied two million gallons of sludge to fields without submitting required documents to DNREC, which eventually resulted in nitrate contamination of the groundwater. This resulted in most of the wells were tested for excess nitrates.

A spokesperson for DNREC stated that Mountaire is already working on a major upgrade to its wastewater treatment plant.

Victims of wildfires linked to PG&E Corp. in California obtained $141.3 million of payments from the utility’s bankruptcy, but the concern is that the process of payout is very slow.

The wildfires drove PG&E into bankruptcy in 2019. The Fire Victim Trust wrote a letter to the 2018 Camp Fire and other wildfire victims claiming that 7,547 victims have been paid.

The fund's trustee declared that the payments are capped at $25,000 and two-thirds of the disbursed money has been done as preliminary payments towards the victims who are struggling because of fires and the current COVID-19 crisis.

The first round of “pro-rata payments” has been paid to fewer than 200 victims, as per the amount of their claims. The total amount of the payments is almost $46 million and represents 30% of each victims’ claims.

The trustee even said that validating the claims will take months as the trust is supposed to pay $13.5 billion as compensation to the victims for the damages which are not covered by their insurance.

The trust started rolling out the payments last November, but victims have criticised it for the delay in issuing cash. Trustee acknowledged the critics in his letter. PG&E is not liable to pay the victims of the fires, as it has already filed for Chapter 11 in early 2019.

A settlement agreement and release between Hartford and the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) is finalised after years of legal dispute. Considering the policies mainly issued in the 1970s, the insurer would pay $650 million (before tax) for sexual abuse claims against the BSA. Even though the settlement is declared, the final court approval will be issued in the third quarter of 2021.

The agreement outlines that BSA and its local council will fully release the insurer from any more obligation under policies in exchange for Hartford's payment.

BSA filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which resulted in the agreement. Other conditions such as BSA’s global resolution plan, executed releases from the BSA local councils, and approval from the abuse claimants and bankruptcy court are the reason behind the settlement.

The lawyers of abused victims picked apart the previous bankruptcy reorganization plan of BSA. This resulted in BSA drafting a new plan which increases the contribution of local BSA councils towards child sexual abuse victims' trust fund. It also has provisions to cut out local councils from the fund, asking them to pay for the lawsuits out of their own pockets.

The new plan has been criticized by an attorney acting as a fiduciary in the bankruptcy case for all abuse victims by stating that it will downplay the liability exposure of insurers.

The family of an Ohio teenager who died in an unfortunate accident on April 10, 2018, received a $6M settlement from the city of Cincinnati.

The boy died on April 10, 2018, after being trapped in the third-row seat of the Honda Odyssey minivan. The 16 years old boy drove to Seven Hills School for a tennis match tournament and while collecting his gear he got trapped under the seat of a minivan. The teen then called on 911 emergency number twice by voice activating his phone.

The teen had asked for help and clearly stated to the operator available on the helpline that he is stuck in the van outside the Seven Hills Hillsdale parking lot. The boy also mentioned that he does not have much time left and told the operator to tell his mom that he loved her a lot.

The lawsuit filed by the parents clearly outlines the operator's failure in providing complete information to the officers on the field. Also, the body cam footage shows those police officers never took the effort of getting down from their patrol car while searching the teenager who was trapped in a minivan. It was hours later in the night when the boy’s father found his son's body.

The family of the teenager got justice after three long years. It is the second-largest settlement in the history of Cincinnati after a $6.5M settlement of 2006, which was awarded to a man's family who died in police custody in 2000.

The jury even allocated $250,000 for hiring a better professional staff at a 911 call center. The verdict even stated some changes in the operation of the emergency helpline center that should be evaluated in the next five years and a six-month report should also be generated for the public. The city manager of Cincinnati said that the officials will thoroughly coordinate with the 911 call center team and the police department to make sure that Cincinnatians never come across any such tragedy in the future.

The lawsuit was filed in the year 2019 on behalf of a disabled woman in her 50s who was allegedly raped repeatedly by a male worker of the facility care. Foss Home and Village, the nursing home in Seattle where the woman was sexually assaulted, has agreed to pay $8M to settle the sexual assault lawsuit.

The insurer of the Seattle nursing home has agreed to pay the said amount after accepting that the health care center failed to provide proper security to the plaintiff. Also, Foss Home and Village was negligent in their process of hiring.

In the year 2019, when the 50-year-old woman who was suffering from multiple sclerosis informed her relatives that she was being sexually abused. One of the relatives placed the hidden camera in the room to expose the accused. According to King County prosecutors, the video proved that male employee, Nshimiyiana Hamzat repeatedly raped the woman. Hamzat has been charged with rape and indecent liberties, he is currently in jail awaiting trial.

The plaintiff's attorney stated that an investigation conducted by the police department, Foss Home, and the Department of Social and Health Services’ Adult Protective Services, all concluded that the woman was raped repeatedly and the healthcare was not keeping an accurate check on the practice.

The president and CEO of Foss Home and Villagen stated in an email that the authorities are shocked and fully broken after the incident. He also added that the authorities would have reported the crime to the cops immediately if they would have learned about it earlier.

On March 31, 2021, the Secretary of State in the United States (US), Tony Blinken announced that the US has received $335M as settlement for victims of 1998 terrorist attacks at the US Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.

Sudanese government's compensation amount also includes settlement for the suicide bombing of USS Cole and the assassination of American diplomat John Granville in Khartoum in 2008. In addition to the $335M settlement, Sudan has also separately paid $72M to the family of 17 American service members who died in the USS Cole bombing.  

Sudan has agreed to resort to this multimillion-dollar settlement after getting the state sponsor of terrorism designation lifted. After this payment for damage caused due to terrorist attacks, Sudan has received a shield from being sued in American courts. Furthermore, the State Department has also restored Sudan's sovereign immunity.

In December 2020, the US Congress under Trump’s administration passed a law to restore Sudan’s sovereign immunity. In October 2020, Sudan transferred $335M as compensation for the terrorist attack in an escrow account after getting lifted from the terrorist designation as well as normalizing relations with Israel. On March 11, 2021, the money was released from the escrow account as confirmed by State Department spokesperson to CNN.

Sudan, during the rule of President Omar al-Bashir, has been accused to shelter Osama bin Laden, the founder of al-Qaeda and the nation was also found to support the terrorist organization in its operation. Al-Qaeda is responsible for killing 200 people and injuring thousands in 1998 in twin al Qaeda bombings on US Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The militant organization also claimed the USS Cole suicide bombing, which led to the death of 17 American service members. Sudan sentenced four people to death in the murder of Granville in Khartoum in 2008.

The settlement by Sudan for victims of terrorist attacks has indeed paved a way for a healthy bilateral relationship with the US. The US government has also authorized aid to Sudan of approximately $1 billion, which includes debt relief. The two nations have also mutually agreed for the first time in 20 years to exchange ambassadors.

The family of a Holyoke woman who died in a crosswalk in 2017 after getting hit by a driver has been awarded $7M in a wrongful death suit. In addition to this amount, the compounded interest will also be added, which makes the settlement amount to be more than $9.5M.

The plaintiff at the time of her death on November 27, 2017, was 52 years old, working as a teacher with The Literacy Project.

The victim's daughters filed the lawsuit where they alleged that the driver who struck their mother with his motor was negligent while entering the crosswalk by taking a left turn. The driver who was then 63 years old hit the woman at the intersection of Lyman and Canal streets.

According to an ophthalmologist who is one of the witnesses, the driver struggles to see in his left and this is the reason why he was unable to see the woman while taking a left turn into the Lyman/Canal street intersection. After this fatal accident, the driver’s driving license was suspended indefinitely by the authorized body.

As per the statement given by the law firm of the plaintiff, the verdict given by the jury of the Hampden Superior Court includes $3M each for two surviving daughters of the woman, $1 million for the suffering that the woman and her family went through and more than $2.5M as compounded interest.

The driver’s automobile insurance company was initially offering far less than what the woman’s family was seeking. However, just after three days of trial, the company admitted to the driver’s negligence after eyewitnesses were brought in this case. Hampden District Attorney’s office stated that the driver was available at the time of the accident and he did not run away, also he fully cooperated with police, therefore no criminal offense was applied to him.