Personal Injury News: Pick of Last Month: Jun-2019

Greyhound Bus Crash Case: Plaintiff Wins $27M

Ohio’s 8th District Court of Appeals has upheld the verdict passed by Cuyahoga County jury that ordered Greyhound Lines, Inc., a bus company to pay more than $27 million to a Cleveland resident.

As per the court documents, the bus driver fell asleep while driving on a Pennsylvania highway and hit the rear of a tractor-trailer. The victim's lower body was crushed during the accident, and he lost his right leg. He 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.

A Dallas woman was awarded $37.6 million after a Texas jury found that Honda Odyssey's seat belt was poorly designed and caused cervical injuries to the woman.

According to court records, on November 15, 2015, the plaintiff was seated in the third-row middle seat of a Honda Odyssey when a pickup truck hit the minivan, causing it to roll over onto its side and top at the intersection of Fitzhugh and McKinney avenues in Dallas. After the accident, the plaintiff suffered a broken neck and was left a quadriplegic, with restricted use of her arms and hands. She filed lawsuits against American Honda Motor Co. Inc. of Torrance, California, a subsidiary of Honda Motor Co., Ltd., and Uber claiming that Honda's seatbelt in the third-row middle seat is defective. After independent testing, an expert affirmed the jury that less than 10% of people who were not much familiar with the van's two-part seat belt system were able to use it properly.

The jury determined the manufacturer was 63% responsible for the woman's injuries, the driver was 32% responsible, and the plaintiff herself was 5% responsible. The jury award included $8 million for past and future mental pain and anguish, and almost $20 million for future medical expenses, among other damages. Honda was highly disappointed with the massive verdict and plans to make an appeal soon.

Winlock Murder Case: Jury Awards $5.5 Million

According to a lawsuit filed in July 2018, which resulted in a $5.5 million award in favor of the victim’s family is back in court for a hearing regarding a vehicle which is listed in the court document as a part of the deal.

According to the court papers, the victim was playing basketball at the end of his driveway with his teenage son when the guilty fired at him resulting in the victim's death. Authorities claimed that the guilty also fired at the teenager as he ran from the scene. The Lewis County Superior Court jury charged the guilty of first-degree attempted murder, drive-by shooting, first-degree murder, manufacture of marijuana and possession of a controlled substance. Judge James Lawyer awarded $5,509,483.03 with 12 percent interest to the victim's family on August 24, 2018. It covers the amount awarded, attorney fees, and court costs. As a part of the deal, the plaintiffs had also claimed a vehicle that could satisfy a small portion of the debt.

According to the court records, guilty's daughter was unaware of the judgment and took the vehicle to Utah. She has agreed to hand over the vehicle to the proper authorities, as she maintains no interest in keeping it. However, she doesn’t have the ability to transport it back to Lewis County and has asked authorities to either pick up the vehicle from her property within 30 days or be granted the ability to leave it in a public right of way without fear of liability.

Tesla Motors Personal Injury Lawsuit: Janitor Wins $13M

Tesla Motors has agreed to pay an amount of $13 million to settle a personal injury lawsuit filed by a janitor at San Jose, California-based Flagship Facility Services Inc., providing services at Tesla’s Fremont, California.

According to the lawsuit filed, the victim was struck twice by a vehicle being driven by a co-worker employed by West Valley Staffing Group Inc., based in Sunnyvale, California on Aug. 12, 2014. She was pinned between the bumper of the vehicle and another car, resulting in serious and permanent injuries to her lower extremities and body.

The victim filed a lawsuit against Tesla and its employees, alleging that the defendants negligently owned, operated, maintained, controlled, and inspected the premises. She also claimed that they failed to warn about the dangers and failed to take safety measures for the employees. A Tesla spokesperson said the settlement was solely based on the damages and not its safety measures.

Road Rage Battle: Truckers To Pay $27M

The Pendleton jury in Oregon awarded $26.5 million to a family of deceased, who died in a road rage battle.

On June 1, 2016, a driver employed for Utah-based Smoot Brothers Transportation, and a driver employed for IN-based Horizon Transport, were in cat-and-mouse road rage when the victim was driving along in a Ford Focus with her estate. Driver for Utah-based Smoot Brothers Transportation attempted an illegal pass on the two-lane highway and struck the victim's Ford head-on, killing her on the spot and injuring her estate.

Following a nine-day trial, the Pendleton jury granted a verdict in favor of the plaintiffs. The jury awarded the $2.38 million in economic damages and $10 million in noneconomic damages for her death and $600,000 in economic damages and $7 million in noneconomic damages for her estate. The jury also pressed $1.5 million in punitive damages against Smoot Brothers and $5 million in punitive damages against Horizon Transport.

Jury Awards $30.6 Million For Brain Injury Caused At Birth

A 6-year-old kid suffered a brain injury during birth, which left him unable to walk, speak, or eat on his own. The brain injury was allegedly caused due to the negligence in care and treatment during his birth.

The parents of the kid headed to Massachusetts General Hospital in January 2013 for his birth. According to the plaintiff attorney, the kid was not breathing and had almost no heartbeat during his birth. Also, the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck in the birth canal, which resulted in severe brain injuries.

On Wednesday, May 15, a Suffolk County jury awarded $30.6 million to the plaintiffs against the defendants Cross Country Staffing Inc., for being irresponsible in monitoring the child's heart rate, and negligent in the care and treatment.

Earlier, a cook county jury ordered Chicago's Amita Health Saint Hospital to pay $23.6 million to a 4-year-old who suffered brain damage during birth as the doctors failed to perform a cesarean section quickly enough to deliver her in a healthy condition.

After two days of deliberation, the jury awarded the toddler, and her family, for loss of a normal life, pain and suffering, and future medical expenses among other things.

According to the lawsuit filed in 2015, the girl's mother was taken to the emergency room during her pregnancy after she suffered a fall. After conducting certain tests and observation, she was discharged. On December 19, she returned to the hospital after she was kicked in her stomach by a patient she was attending to at her job as a nursing assistant. It was discovered that there was some issue with the baby's heart functioning.

The lawsuit stated, after three hours of arriving in the ER, the woman underwent a c-section. It was later discovered that her daughter, did not receive adequate oxygen and blood for a certain period of time, which caused brain dysfunction. She had extensive mental and motoric deficits, for which a lifetime of ongoing treatment and supervision will be required. 

The family blamed the hospital and the doctors for their negligence. The jury found the hospital responsible for the infant's condition. The award was placed in a fund which will help the kid's family to cope with the cost of lifelong medical treatment and day-to-day care.

Emergency Room Hold-Up, Murder Victim's Family Gets $30M

Murder victim’s family was granted $30 million by Tuscaloosa County jury, who waited for hours in the emergency room to see a surgeon at DCH Regional Medical Center following a shootout.

On Dec. 27, 2013, a gunfight broke out near Ash Street in west Tuscaloosa. The victim was a bystander who got struck by a stray bullet. He was rushed to DCH Regional Medical Center, but the on-call surgeon who was performing an elective surgery did not see the victim. This resulted in the death of the victim in the emergency room. The family of the homicide victim filed a medical malpractice suit against DCH Healthcare Authority and other health care providers.

The trial began on May 6, before Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court Judge James Roberts with the jury granting the verdict in favor of the victim's family.