Personal Injury News: Pick Of Last Month: Sep-2020

A $3 million settlement has been approved by the Luzerne County Council over a lawsuit brought by the estate of a former county jail inmate who died two years ago when county corrections officers restrained him during an altercation.

According to the lawsuit filed in December 2019, the 41-year-old man from Berwick was incarcerated for an alleged violation of a protection from abuse order. He suffered a severe seizure in his cell at the county correctional facility on June 6, 2018. He was rushed to the hospital after five hours, where he died two days later.

The lawsuit alleges that the officers restrained and brutalized the man after they failed to recognize he was suffering from a seizure and used Tasers multiple times to subdue him. The suit further claimed that the corrections officers violated the man's civil rights during a “chaotic and out-of-control” situation.

The settlement was approved after a unanimous decision by the Council, and the settlement amount will be covered by the county’s insurance policy. It has been reported that a surveillance video of the incident played a role in the settlement.

Two councilmen proposed the council to terminate the county Manager and county Director of Corrections over the incident. County correctional officers were cleared of any wrongdoing in the man's death by the Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office. The incident is now a part of recent Black Lives Matters protest rallies in the area.

A similar incident took place at Hampton Roads Regional jail on August 19, 2015, which sparked outrage throughout the nation. Jail's former medical provider and the state paid a settlement amount of $3 million to the family of a 24-year-old inmate who died in the jail due to the ill-treatment from the officials. The victim's family said that the boy suffered from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and the officials starved and beat him, which resulted in his death.

A $17.5 million medical malpractice lawsuit filed by a veteran is being considered to be dismissed. The federal government is seeking the dismissal on the grounds that the complaint was filed a year too late.

According to the lawsuit, the veteran first went to the White River Junction VA Medical Center in 2013 after having intestinal issues. Doctors informed him that he had irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) without any tests. The pain did not reduce till 2016, and he again went to the facility, where he was given the same diagnosis. In February 2017, he suffered rectal bleeding, following which he was taken to the emergency room (ER) of the VA Medical Center and was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer.

The veteran was referred to a physician with the Gastrointestinal Cancer Center of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, who in a letter dated June 2018, noted that the IBS symptoms were early signs of cancer that the plaintiff developed due to exposure to burn pits while on tours with the National Guard. A lawsuit was filed against the VA, claiming negligence in improperly diagnosing the disease, which delayed appropriate treatment and left cancer to become terminal.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Julia Tori, representing the VA, argued in her July motion that the lawsuit was filed too late as per the Federal Tort Claims Act, which states that a claim should be filed within two years of the injury. In the motion, she wrote that the plaintiff should have filed the lawsuit within two years of getting the colonoscopy at the ER.

The veteran's attorney in response to the motion, argued that the plaintiff got to know that the IBS diagnosis was incorrect in June 2018, after receiving the letter from the physician, until which he was in the assumption that he had both IBS and colon cancer.

The final date to hear the motion and objection has not been scheduled.

Medical malpractice lawsuits are on the rise throughout the United States in recent years. A Baltimore city jury reversed a $5.8M verdict against the University of Maryland Medical System ("UMMS") on January 14, 2020. The settlement amount was awarded to the family of the woman who died post the heart valve replacement surgery due to cardiac arrest.

A wrongful death lawsuit involving a now-former police officer who is facing a murder charge for choking a man to death settled for $6.5 million.

According to the lawsuit, in February, a 40-year old chokehold death victim fought and fled from a traffic stop when officers, who had a warrant for his arrest for a parole violation, tried to detain him. A then-Las Cruces Officer applied a chokehold after a chase, which resulted in the man's death.

The asphyxial injuries from the chokehold and the presence of methamphetamine in the man's body contributed to the death as per the state medical investigator. Following the incident, the officer was fired and is now facing a second-degree murder charge.

In August, the City of Las Cruces agreed to pay $6.5 million to the family as a part of the settlement. Along with the cash payout, other parts of the lawsuit agreement include the city to adopt racial bias training for police and requires officers to intervene in possible excessive force episodes.

Under the agreement, Las Cruces police agreed to ban all chokeholds and fire and will adopt a warning system involving officers who use excessive force and forge a policy so officers can undergo yearly mental health exams.

In August, Michigan Attorney General announced (AG) in a press release that the Flint water crisis reached an agreement and a deal of $600 million as part of a preliminary settlement with Flint residents is expected to be finalized within about 45 days.

Flint city's water crisis started in April 2014 when it switched from the Detroit Water System to water from the Flint River. Soon after the change, the residents complained of cloudy and foul-smelling water and also reported developing skin lesions and rashes from the exposure to the water.

The water source change was done by an unelected emergency manager appointed by the former Michigan Governor to manage the city’s financial affairs. But the change exposed the residents to heightened levels of lead, resulting in an unknown amount of children to suffer permanent developmental damage. The city's drinking water problems have not yet been resolved.

According to the preliminary settlement, around 80% of the $600 million agreement is secured for the children who were minors and suffered lead exposure due to the contaminated water supply, which includes a larger share for children aged 6 and younger. Two percent of the settlement will go to special education in Genesee County. The remaining 18% will go to claims filed by adults for injuries and property damage, along with another one percent allotted to claims for business losses.

To resolve the city's water crisis, the state indicates that it has spent $409 million, which includes $97 million allocated to replace the city’s lead water service lines. According to the press release, the state will have spent more than $1 billion if the settlement agreement is approved.

The preliminary settlement should be approved by U.S. District Court Judge Judith Levy, Michigan 1st District Court of Appeals Judge Christopher Murray, and Genesee County Circuit Court Judge Joseph Farah. The settlement, if approved, will likely be the largest in Michigan state government history.

In August, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced that people who are incarcerated in Missouri prisons would receive Hepatitis C treatment and education as a part of a settlement in a federal class action lawsuit.

In December 2016, the ACLU of Missouri and the MacArthur Justice Center filed the lawsuit, which was later certified as a federal class action lawsuit in July 2017. The court documents indicate that Hepatitis C is common in Missouri prisons. Due to the lack of routine testing, the exact number is not known, but it is estimated that 10 to 15 percent of those under the supervision, care, and custody of the Missouri Department of Corrections (MDOC) and its medical provider Corizon Health are infected with HCV.

Hepatitis C, a liver infection, is caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) and spreads through the blood of an infected person, leading to life-threatening conditions, including cirrhosis and liver cancer. A new class of drugs known as direct-acting antiviral (DAA) medications was approved to treat HCV. These drugs are expensive and were routinely refused to incarcerated people in Missouri, which lead to lifelong injuries and deaths.

As per the settlement, MDOC and Corizon will have spent approximately $50 million over the next eight years to treat incarcerated people in Missouri with chronic HCV. Corizon medical staff will receive HCV-related training and educational materials regarding the risks of HCV, the benefits of testing, and their policies relating to the treatment will also be made available. A quarterly report to the Plaintiffs’ counsel regarding the progress of treatment is also included in the plan.

MacArthur Justice Center, Wilkinson Walsh LLP, and ACLU of Missouri reached the settlement with the MDOC and Corizon Health. Final approval from the federal District Court is still pending, and it is anticipated to happen this fall.