Personal Injury News: Pick Of Last Month: Oct-2019

On Thursday, August 29, a jury awarded $7.5 million to the mother of a victim who was killed in an Aug. 10, 2016, crash.

According to the court documents, the plaintiff was driving his motorcycle on Route 12 when the defendant tried to make a left turn and crashed.

The defendant was sentenced to 5 years in prison by a McHenry County judge in February. The defendant even made a settlement of $425,000 for medical bills, funeral bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering before the trial. The final offer the defendant made was $400,000, whereas the plaintiffs made a demand of $2.825 million.

The jury returned a record-setting verdict where the damages were assessed at $3 million for past and future loss of society for the victim’s mother, father, and sister, along with another $4.5 million for past and future grief, sorrow and mental suffering for the family.

In a similar lawsuit, in Kansas, Wesley Medical Center was fined $6 million. The plaintiff is a woman who was 35 weeks pregnant when she got a panic attack that urged her to go to Wesley's emergency room (ER). The doctors performed a C-section surgery on her, which resulted in choked fluids for her post the child's birth.

The woman's husband claimed that the ER was in complete chaos during the surgery and the lady was finding it difficult to breathe. The husband claimed the authorities are at the fault for being careless in treatment as the lady eventually died.

On Sept. 6, 2019, the plaintiff who was hit in the crosswalk by a New Jersey Transit bus, won $12.75 million.

Plaintiff lived in Springfield, Union County and was hit by a New Jersey Transit bus, in the crosswalk at the intersection of Summit Avenue and Union Place on Nov. 2, 2016. The strike left him with a permanent brain injury, multiple brain hemorrhages, skull fractures, a right clavicle fracture, and multiple rib fractures leaving him no longer work or care for himself.

NJ Transit argued during the trial, which was underway before the settlement was reached, that the plaintiff was high at the time of the crash and should have not made the agency liable. However, the attorney representing the plaintiff presented evidence against the argument, leading to the settlement. The state Office of the Attorney General agreed to the settlement on September 6.

In a similar bus crash case, where the Cuyahoga County jury ordered Greyhound Lines, Inc., a bus company to pay more than $27 million to a Cleveland resident. The verdict passed in Ohio’s 8th District Court of Appeals.

The court documents stated that the bus driver fell asleep while driving on a Pennsylvania highway and hit the rear of a tractor-trailer. The crash resulted in the victim's crushed lower body and losing his right leg. The victim underwent more than 30 surgeries to repair his heart, crushed bones in his foot, pelvis, arms, and torn muscles in his shoulder.

The jury granted $23 million for pain and suffering, medical expenses and other monetary losses along with $4 million in punitive damages — adding up to $27 million in total. The trial judge further added nearly $1.6 million in prejudgment interest and attorney fees in addition to the jury’s award of compensatory and punitive damages.

On Sept 11, the Cobb County State Court jurors awarded a $5 million verdict to an 18-year-old Campbell High School senior over a brain injury suffered during a bubble soccer game.

A Campbell High soccer player was injured during a May 2016 party hosted by the Smyrna, Georgia School. The school hired Game Truck for the event who also supervised the game, in which players wear inflatable “bubble suits" that extend above their heads and below their waists. The victim crashed into another student, which left him with brain damage affecting his memory, decision-making, and mood, among other issues.

A lawsuit was filed against Game Truck for providing inadequate safety warning and requesting $15 million in damages. After deliberating for about two, the jury found Game Truck Georgia, LLC, 93% responsible and the victim 7% liable, thus reducing the post-verdict award to $4.65 million.

The estate of the victim was awarded over $8 million against the Northville Moose Lodge and Leonard's Syrups for a wrongful death lawsuit by a Wayne County jury.

According to the lawsuit filed, the victim was a Moose Lodge volunteer and had gone to the basement of the Moose Lodge to change soda pop syrup cartons, which were connected to the malfunctioning pump. The pump discharged an entire tank of carbon dioxide into the basement, leading to the death of the victim five days later of severe brain damage from lack of oxygen.  

The police and MOISHA investigated and found that the pump was negligently installed without venting C02 outside of the building by a hose and was responsible for this preventable tragedy.

On September 24, 2019, Universal Logistics Holdings, Inc. agreed to pay $36 million, besides the amount already paid, to settle the lawsuit arising from a 2011 accident involving Universal Am-Can (UACL), a subsidiary of Universal Logistics Holdings.

According to the court documents, the company's driver was driving a truck above the speed limit on a suspended license, crashed into a jeep driven by the victim, pushing his vehicle into the fuel tank of another tractor causing him to incur severe injuries. The mishap occurred in 2011.

Earlier, UACL was found negligent in its hiring and retaining of the driver who never completed a truck driving course while he held a commercial driver’s license (CDL) in South Carolina, thereby the jury ordered to pay $19.2 million. Other charges for which the driver had been earlier terminated from four of his prior seven employers included tailgating a motorist, a felony conviction, too many points on his license, and crashing into a vehicle after refusing to let it merge onto an interstate ramp.

The company said “the final settlement does not constitute an admission by the Company of any fault or liability, and the Company does not admit any fault or liability,” in its filing. Universal Logistics Holdings, Inc. reported that it had resolved the litigation by agreeing to pay this additional amount.

Recently, a jury in Muscogee County, Georgia awarded $280 million for a Louisiana family in a fatal 2016 truck crash. As per the court documents,  the accident took place on U.S. Highway 80 between Ladonia and Crawford in Alabama when the plaintiffs' family was traveling in their 2014 Nissan Rogue. A Schnitzer truck hit the vehicle in which the family was travelling, resulting in the death of five people.

Following the accident, the plaintiff's family filed a lawsuit in 2017, in Muscogee County, Ga. The lawsuit alleged that the driver of the truck was fatigued and had fallen asleep that resulted in the mishap. It is considered as one of the largest verdict handed over in Muscogee County. The truck company has even indicated its plans to appeal the decision. 

Hon. Laura Salinas converted a $59.8 million verdict into more than $60 million verdicts, to include prejudgment interest in the case. The message was sent across by a San Antonio jury over a lawsuit involving drunk driving.

According to the court documents, in May 2016 the plaintiff was hit by a speeding drunk driver, who admitted that she was intoxicated and was distracted by her child in the backseat at the time of the accident. The plaintiff underwent surgery for a broken jaw, spleen repair, and other injuries for his facial and abdominal injuries.

The jury, after 3 hours of deliberation, awarded $7,500,000 in Past and Future Physical Pain and Mental Anguish; $550,000 in Past and Future Disfigurement; $1,625,000 in Past and Future Physical Impairment; $81,223.22 in Past Medical Expenses; and $50,000,000 in Punitive Damages. Post the pre-judgment interest, the final verdict amounted to $ 60,086,578.32.

The case is presided by Hon. Laura Salinas in the 166th District Court in Bexar County.

A jury awarded $7.5 million to the mother of a victim who was killed in a similar crash on August 10, 2016. The settlements came after three years of the accident on August 29, 2019.

As per the court document, the plaintiff was driving his motorcycle on Route 12 when the defendant tried to make a left turn and crashed. In February 2019, McHenry County judge sentenced the defendant to 5 years in prison. The defendant paid $425,000 for medical bills, funeral bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering before the trial, but the plaintiff additionally demanded $2.825 million.

The jury assessed the damages and offered a record-setting verdict of $3 million for past and future loss of society for the victim’s mother, father, and sister, along with another $4.5 million for past and future grief, sorrow and mental suffering for the family.