Vested Interest - Tort Briefs - May 2002 Issue

Six Flags to pay $1.9 million in death of asthmatic

The family of a man who died after suffering an asthma attack at Six Flags Great America has settled a wrongful-death lawsuit for $1.9 million. The 18-year old man had an asthma attack at the park north of Chicago, and park paramedics did not follow standard operating procedure. He died at a nearby pharmacy about five minutes after he left the park. The paramedics had instructed him to fill his empty Albuterol inhaler. (Chicago Daily Law Bulletin – March 13, 2002)

$1.45 million following train accident

A $1.45 million settlement was reached in a lawsuit by a woman injured when a car driven by her ex-boyfriend struck a train. She suffered knee, leg, wrist and head injuries and underwent several surgeries. The plaintiff argued her ex-boyfriend either fell asleep at the wheel or was too intoxicated to see the train. The two had gone with other mourners to a local tavern following a funeral. (Chicago Daily Law Bulletin – March 19, 2002)

Jury awards $5.8 million after head-on collision

A Cook County jury has awarded nearly $5.8 million to a man injured in a head-on collision between a van and a dump truck. He had 41 surgical procedures due to his severe injuries and amassed nearly $500,000 in medical expenses. He was able to return to work and retained his old job title, but because of a pronounced limp, he is restricted to office duty rather than the field work he preferred. (Chicago Daily Law Bulletin – March 19, 2002)

$5.5 million in birth-injury suit

A $5.5 million settlement has been reached in a lawsuit alleging that a doctor failed to notice or react to signs of fetal distress during the delivery of a child. The child was born with permanent brain damage because a doctor did not perform a C-section when fetal monitors showed the baby was being deprived of oxygen. Today, at age 8, the child is confined to a wheelchair with cerebral palsy. (Chicago Daily Law Bulletin – March 20, 2002)

$6.8 million wrongful death verdict

A family in Poland will receive $6.8 million for the wrongful death of a man who was given medication meant for another patient. The man, a Polish citizen working in the U.S., was taken to the emergency room after a 30-foot fall at a construction site. An anticoagulant that was meant for a cardiac patient treated earlier in the same area of the emergency room was mistakenly administered to him. The result was that bleeding in his brain, caused by the fall, was not stopped. (Chicago Daily Law Bulletin – March 21, 2002)

Family to receive $15 million after childbirth death

The family of a 22 year-old woman who died 4 days after delivering her only child will receive $15 million from Cook County Hospital. A nurse failed to clamp off an IV line which pumped magnesium sulfate into the woman. She suffered cardiac arrest during childbirth as a result of the overdose. The child was diagnosed with birth asphyxia after doctors used forceps and vacuum extraction in the delivery. At age 8, the child suffers from cerebral palsy. (Chicago Daily Law Bulletin – March 22, 2002)

City of Chicago to settle stroke victim case

The City of Chicago will pay $400,000 to compensate the family of a 54-year old stroke victim who died after police mistook him for a drunk. The man was driving home and incoherent when he struck two parked cars. Two police officers questioned him and others for nearly an hour before taking him to an emergency room but not until after his wife and son told the officers he did not drink. He died two days later. The officers were suspended and disciplined for their "improper treatment." (Chicago Sun-Times – March 22, 2002)

$10 million award for boy hurt in birth

A Chicago boy who sustained permanent brain damage during childbirth will receive $10 million from the hospital. Of the settlement funds, $5 million was used to buy an annuity which could pay a total of $54 million if the now 4-year old lives to age 71. Attorneys for the boy said the doctors should have performed a C-section instead of letting labor go on for 24 hours, which caused the boy permanent brain damage. (Chicago Daily Law Bulletin – March 25, 2002)

Illegal workers Have no restitution

Immigrants who work illegally in American plants, restaurants and fields do not have the same rights to restitution as U.S. citizens who are mistreated on the job, a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled. The Court ruled that a plastics company owed nothing to a Mexican man who used a friend’s identification to get a job. The Bush administration argued that without the threat of punishment for employers, some of the millions of undocumented workers in the U.S. might be exploited. Justices split 5-4 along ideological lines on whether companies can be forced to give back pay to illegal workers wrongly fired or demoted. "Awarding back pay to illegal aliens runs counter to policies underlying" federal immigration laws, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote in the court’s opinion. (AP – March 28, 2002)

Joliet-area plant settles racial harassment complaints

Federal officials announced thirty-two current and former employees of a Joliet-area factory will share a $1.8 million settlement to resolve complaints that they suffered racial harassment, including the frequent display of hangman’s nooses. The victims, all black men, said factory management failed to address a pattern of harassment dating to the late 1980s. The EEOC filed the suit. As part of a consent decree, the company must install surveillance cameras outside common areas, prohibit racial harassment, provide anti-discrimination training and report to the EEOC any harassment that persists. (Chicago Tribune – March 28, 2002)

London judge rules coffee and tea meant to be hot

A British judge ruled that McDonald’s customers should know that coffee and tea are served hot and can burn them if spilled, in a ruling against 36 people who claimed they were scalded by drinks bought at the fast food chain. The judge said McDonald’s has no obligation to warn customers about the risk of scalding. A lawyer for the plaintiffs argued that McDonald’s served drinks that were too hot, used inadequate cups and did not warn customers of the risks. (Chicago Sun-Times – March 28, 2002)

Six Flags closes ride after injury

The family of a young girl who suffered a severe toe injury after her foot was caught in a Six Flags Great America ride reached a settlement with the theme park, and the ride has been closed. The amount of the settlement wasn’t disclosed. While on the Cajun Cliffhanger two years ago, the girl caught her foot in the ride due to "a mistake made by the operator." (Chicago Sun-Times – March 29, 2002)

Oregon jury finds Philip Morris liable

In the fifth consecutive west coast ruling against Philip Morris Co's., an Oregon jury has found the cigarette maker liable for $150 million, mostly in punitive damages, to the estate of a woman who died of lung cancer. The jury found that Philip Morris made false claims that its light cigarettes were less harmful than regular cigarettes. The punitive award broke down to $25 million for negligence, $10 million for liability and $115 million for fraud. Jurors found the company liable for $168,500 compensatory damages. (Liability & Insurance Week – April 1, 2002)

Neuroblastoma award upheld

The Illinois Supreme Court refused to revisit its Feb. 21 ruling upholding a $3.2 million award to four Christian County families whose children developed a rare cancer in the years following the cleanup of a former coal gasification plant. Attorneys for CIPS had petitioned the high court claiming some of its Feb. 21 rulings were in conflict with past decisions of the court as well as decisions from other jurisdictions. The suit was initially filed in 1991, alleging that cleanup of the plant, which manufactured coal gas for use in lighting from 1912 to 1932, stirred up cancer-causing coal tar and contaminated the community through dust and fumes. In March 1998, at the end of a four month trial, the jury found solely against CIPS and ordered it to pay the families $3.2 million. (The State Journal-Register – April 2, 2002)

Ford loses bid seeking review of jury verdict

The Illinois Supreme Court let stand a $14 million jury verdict against Ford Motor Co. in a product liability case brought on behalf of a Chicago woman who was rendered a paraplegic resulting from an auto accident. Ford had asserted, in its petition seeking review, that the automaker was denied a fair trial essentially because the trial judge refused to give its' jury instruction on the subject of manufacturer’s duty. The woman was rear-ended when stopped at a red light by an SUV going 60 mph in 1991. She was thrown into the rear seat and fractured two vertebrae and is now permanently paralyzed from the waist down. (Chicago Daily Law Bulletin – April 3, 2002)

Residents file suit against Verizon

Residents of Westbury, NY, have filed a $1.6 billion lawsuit against Verizon claiming the company’s nuclear waste site in nearby Hicksville caused them to develop cancer. The 25 families who filed the suit said each of them has had a member who has suffered or died from cancer since the 1970s and contend the deaths were caused because of nuclear waste being released in the air and getting into the town’s water supply. Verizon purchased the nuclear site when it bought Sylvania and GTE. The site was used to produce nuclear fuel rods during the 1950s and 1960s. A Verizon spokesman said air and soil at the dormant nuclear site have tested below federal standards for radioactivity. (Liability & Insurance Week – April 8, 2002)

Mother of suicide pilot blames drug

The family of a 15-year-old boy who crashed a stolen plane into a Tampa high-rise is suing the maker of the acne drug Accutane for $70 million, accusing the medicine of prompting the boy’s suicide. The lawsuit claims the drug caused severe psychosis in her son. The boy’s mother said "the only conclusion we have been able to draw is the Accutane poisoned him." The drug company does not believe the drug is dangerous. (AP – April 17, 2002)

$3.5 million accord reached in death of medical van crash

Defendants agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit filed on behalf of an elderly woman who died eight months after a medical van she was in collided with a beer truck. The woman was a dialysis patient riding in a medical van when the driver lost control and struck a parked beer truck. She suffered multiple fractures in the crash and later suffered a heart attack. She died eight months later of heart failure. (Chicago Daily Law Bulletin – April 12, 2002)

U.S appeals court upholds cap on Title VII punitive damages

The Ninth U.S. Court of Appeals held that the change Congress enacted in 1991 authorizing punitive damages in employment discrimination cases but capping the amount is constitutional. The court wrote "In sum, what Congress can create, Congress can define," in upholding the amendments to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. "Title VII’s damages cap does not interfere with the proper exercise of authority by the judicial branch, nor does it offend the Seventh Amendment," the court wrote in Hemmings and Lamphiear v. Tidyman’s Inc. (99-35932). (Liability & Insurance Week – April 15, 2002)

Police board lacks immunity in family leave case

The Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners lacks immunity and must face a lawsuit brought by a former employee with Grave’s disease who claimed her rights under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act were violated when she was cited for excessive use of unpaid sick leave. It said the Commissioners was not an "arm of the state" for the purposes of the Eleventh Amendment immunity. The woman established a prima facie case of retaliation in violation of the Family and Medical Leave Act because she showed she was told upon returning to work she would not be promoted because of her use of 60 days of unpaid sick leave under the FMLA. (Liability & Insurance Week – April 15, 2002)

Ironworker injured in fall awarded $3.5 million

A Cook County judge approved a $2.5 million settlement against three defendants for their contribution to an ironworker’s injuries in an 18-foot fall onto a concrete slab during construction of a drugstore in Round Lake Beach. He was on a steel beam when a crane lowered a joist that struck and knocked him on the concrete with joists landing on him. He was not provided with any form of fall protection and suffered multiple serious injuries. A Cook County jury also awarded a $1 million verdict to the same man finding his employer 40 percent responsible for the injuries he sustained. He initially came to the U.S. as a Bosnian immigrant to make a better life for his family. Since the accident, his wife has worked as a night-time cleaning person in an office building. (Press Release – April 17, 2002)

Girl X will settle with CHA for $3 million

Girl X, the 9-year-old who was raped, beaten, strangled, poisoned and left for dead in a public housing project stairwell, will get a $3 million settlement from the CHA and two of its security contractors to settle a suit filed on behalf of the girl. The suit alleged that the CHA and its guard services failed to protect the girl when she was attacked in a housing complex in 1997. Today, at age 15, the girl is blind, paralyzed and unable to speak. She communicates with others by blinking her eyes and will need around-the-clock care for the rest of her life. The settlement will go into a trust fund to help pay her medical expenses and living expenses for her family. (Chicago Sun-Times – April 18, 2002)