According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the family of the trucker who was killed when his big-rig crashed through the railing from the upper deck of the Bay Bridge last November has filed a wrongful death action against Caltrans.
The claim, filed by attorneys for the family, asserts that the warning signs regarding the bridge’s S-curve were inadequate.
According to the San Francisco paper, the attorney for the trucker’s family has stated that the driver was an experienced truck driver but that when the accident took place it was the driver’s first time across the bridge with the new curve.
The wrongful death lawsuit also asserts that the design of the curve was defective. Since the trucking accident that caused this death, officials have installed new warning signs and other safety measures
by brettb on April 28, 2010
According to Bloomberg News, a jury in Florida ruled against Philip Morris USA and two other tobacco companies yesterday in a wrongful death lawsuit.
The case is Putney v. Philip Morris USA, Florida Circuit Court (Fort Lauderdale) and the jury found the tobacco companies to be responsible for the death (cancer) of Margot Putney. Ms. Putney was from Lighthouse Point, Florida, and began smoking in 1953. She died in 1995.
The jury deliberated for approximately four hours before reaching its decision. The jury also awarded the family $2.5 million in punitive damages against Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds (one of the other tobacco companies found liable).
by brettb on April 16, 2010
According to the AP, a wrongful death lawsuit has been filed by families of two miners who were killed in a 2007 western Maryland coal mine disaster.
The lawsuit asserts that the mining company was negligent in its operations, safety training, and maintenance of the mine. The wrongful death action filed in Allegany County seeks $4 million for each family of the deceased miners.
The plaintiffs complaint further alleges that the miners and their families were told by the mining company that the mine’s highwall was safe even though on the day of the accident, there had been an incomplete examination of the site.
The personal injury attorney representing the families stated that this disaster was but another example of how mine operators ignore safety requirements and put workers at peril.
by brettb on April 8, 2010
A wrongful death lawsuit came to a close yesterday when a Philadelphia jury ordered a plane engine manufacturer to pay $89 million to the families of injury victims that died, and one survivor, in a 1999 plane crash in Youngstown, Ohio.
The lawsuit claimed that a faulty carburetor caused the crash and that Lycoming Engines knew of the defect but failed to notify the Federal Aviation Administration.
The jury awarded $25 million in compensatory and $64 million in punitive damages. More on the case can be read at the Philadelphia Inquirer
