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

Iowa will pay $5.7 million to settle eight separate discrimination and negligence claims at its public universities.

The settlements will include a $3.5 million compensation to a couple who sued UI Hospitals and Clinics doctors for medical negligence during the birth of their daughter that resulted in permanent brain damage to the infant.

A Massachusetts sound technician who got hurt while working on a musical concert at the University of Northern Iowa in 2018 will also get $1.8 million as a settlement. Three former UI police officers who accused the institution and its administrators of age and disability discrimination in 2018 will get a total of $150,000.

A student of the University of Iowa who slipped from her motorized scooter on diesel fuel spilled over from a campus bus will get $25,000. The accident resulted in the neck, shoulder, and hand injuries for the student and even damaged her vehicle.

The UI physician group will pay $2.7 million of the total $5.7 million settlement as the court has held UI Hospitals and Clinics responsible for the medical negligence. The remaining $3 million will be funded by the state general fund.

A federal jury has settled a lawsuit with a $2.2 million settlement in favor of a jogger who was struck and killed in the crosswalk of a Silverdale intersection in 2017.

The 50-year-old victim was a Central Kitsap School District teacher. The incident happened early morning when the lady was jogging along with her friend, which she did as a routine. The victim's friend witnessed the crash and filed a lawsuit against the culprit.

According to the court documents, the crosswalk was not safely designed for pedestrians during low light, which resulted in the mishap. The county denied that the crosswalk's design was faulty, but the officials installed stop signs at the three-way intersection and have even planned to install a roundabout in 2023.

The driver who killed the lady pleaded guilty to the crime, and the jury sentenced him to a verdict of seven years in prison. The driver was penalized for speeding, and a sheriff notified he was driving with a suspended license.

A similar incident took place on 15 January 2016, where the plaintiff, who was catastrophically injured and became a quadriplegic after the accident, won $13.1 million in settlements.

The van driver, ECCTA, and Contra Costa County are blamed for the accident. The court documents stated that the driver's negligence and dangerous conditions created by ECCTA and Contra Costa County resulted in the mishap. Contra Costa County and the van driver settled the lawsuit for $11.1 million, and ECCTA settled for the insurance policy limits for $2 million.

The family of a man who was shot by police in Louisiana has agreed to receive a $4.5 million settlement after five years of his death.

The deceased man was a 37-year-old father of five who got killed on July 5, 2016, outside a convenience store by Baton Rouge police officers. The man's death resulted in nationwide protests. Attorneys for the man sued the city, its police department and former police chief, and the two officers for the incident.

The officer who shot the man was fired in March 2018. Another officer was suspended for three days who wrestled the deceased to the ground. 

The lawyers of the family said that the settlement would provide financial stability to the man's family. Earlier, three settlement offers were rejected by East Baton Rouge Metro Council, and the final agreement was approved in February.

The family has even alleged that the shooting was a part of racist behavior and excessive force by Baton Rouge police. The Mayor of the city said that the settlement is important for the community and will also ensure that no such offense takes place with any other family in Baton.

East Baton Rouge Parish’s insurance reserve funds will be used to pay $1 million to the deceased children, whereas the remaining money will be paid in installments from the annual operating budget over the next four years.

Airbnb paid a female tourist $7M for maintaining silence on the settlement of a rape case that happened at the New York property in 2016. In return for the payout, the woman agreed on not suing the company or implies responsibility or liability on the host of the property or Airbnb.

As per the report, an Australian traveler was attacked on New Year’s Eve in 2015 in New York City. The victim took the keys of the property from a nearby shop that evening, and the report suggests that the suspect had made duplicate keys to the apartment.

Before the female traveler arrived at the apartment, the suspect hid inside the bathroom. The suspect allegedly held the woman at knifepoint and raped her. The man who raped the Airbnb guest has been charged with predatory sexual assault. The police found the man guilty after they found the keys of Airbnb property in his possession.

A spokesperson for Airbnb told VICE News in an email that their company immediately reached out to the New York Police Department after the incident and helped them in the investigation. Airbnb also got the woman a hotel and arranged a flight for her mother from Australia. The spokesperson in her mail also stated that in sexual assault cases, survivors could freely speak about their experiences which include the NYC case.

Later Airbnb also flew both the woman and her mother back to Australia. They also offered to cover health care and counseling, while the settlement was made two years later. The man who was charged with sexual assault has been deemed mentally unfit and has also pleaded not guilty but is still in custody.

A man from the Bronx will be paid $11M by the New York City (NYC) for the wrongful conviction of murdering his mother, for which he had to spend 19 years behind the bar.

New York Police Department (NYPD) used pressure tactics on the man that led him to wrongly confess the fatal stabbing of his mother. The incident took place in the year 1989 when he was a 16-year-old teenager. 

As per the authority, the man, who was wrongfully accused of stabbing his mother, was a cracked-crazed teen at that time who committed the crime to pay off a drug debt. He was charged with second-degree murder and had to spend 19 years in jail. The man was released from jail in the year 2009.

Ten years later, the District Attorney of Bronx vacated the man's conviction because NYPD police used forceful technique to get the confession from mam, which was wrongful. The man filed a lawsuit in October 2020 for the wrongful conviction, and the letter filed in the federal court of Manhattan verified that the state had reached a deal with him.

The spokesman of the City Law Department, while making his statement on June 17, said that NYPD officers were using standard practices at that time to obtain a confession; many of these techniques are no longer used by the department. The Bronx man has accused the other man, who was his fellow tenant, of the crime. The man who used to live at that time just below the plaintiff's family had a violent criminal history and was on parole at the time of the murder.

At that time, the man who was on parole told police that he and the plaintiff had plotted the crime scene to look like a rape and robbery case. The man on parole was caught driving the victim's stolen car a week later, and he was murdered before the plaintiff went on trial.

The Bronx man wrongful conviction is not a unique occurrence. A non-profit organization, The Innocence Project, which focuses on getting a fair judgment for wrongful convictions, had more than 365 DNA exonerations in its record alone in the U.S. itself as of January 2020.

CITGO Petroleum Corporation will have to pay approximately a $19.7M fine as a settlement for the 2006 oil spill n Louisiana. The announcement was made by the Department of Justice on Thursday, June 17, 2021.

The Houston-based petroleum company was sued for damages caused to the natural resources. The damages were caused due to its refinery discharging oil in the nearby waterways of Lake Charles.

The Justice Department mentioned in its press release that around 54,000 barrels of slop oil breached the faulty secondary containment berm along with unknown gallons of wastewater, which were oily. This oil and oily wastewater flowed in the waterways, which include the Indian Marais waterway, the Calcasieu Estuary, and the Calcasieu River.

Due to the spill, around 150 miles of shoreline got polluted, which led to the deaths of aquatic life, fishes, and birds. Out of $19.7 million, $19.18 million will be used by state and federal trustees for the restoration project.

The complaint filed by Louisiana and the United States concurrently seeks damages under the Louisiana Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act and the Oil Pollution Act. The attorney representing the Justice Department said in a statement after the verdict that oil companies are responsible to take care of aquatic life, wildlife, people, and diverse habitats. Those oil companies which violate their duties of environmental protection will be held accountable for it.

CITGO, in its press release, stated that they are pleased with the settlement, especially when the major part of their fine is used for nature restoration that was harmed due to the oil spill in 2006. The petroleum company also stated that protecting natural resources is the core value of their company, and after the unfortunate incident of spill in 2006, they have made significant improvements in their plant and operational procedures to avoid this type of event from happening again.