Vested Interest - Tort Briefs - May 2004 Issue

Jury Returns Verdict for Family in Snowy Crash

A Cook County jury returned an award for a family in the death of their 4-year-old daughter and the severe injuries of their son in a 1999 chain-reaction crash on Interstate 90 near Rockford. Their son, now 7, suffered permanent brain damage and requires round-the-clock care. The family was in-route to Wisconsin when their vehicle collided with one of three trucks that had been involved in a series of crashes on the snowy highway. The family claimed the defendants failed to slow their vehicles in the snowy conditions, resulting in the crashes. (Chicago Daily Law Bulletin – March 29, 2004)

Liability Lawsuits Galore Dog 3M Over Dust Masks

Minnesota’s biggest manufacturer, 3M, is awash in litigation over a quarter-ounce mask that sold for less than a buck but was advertised as a lifesaver. Suits allege that 3M marketed its disposable respirator for more than 25 years although it was defective and exposed thousands of workers to asbestos, silica and other deadly dusts. One former senior government scientist, who is aiding the plaintiffs, says government testing of the safety of 3M’s and its rivals’ single-use masks was so inadequate in the 1970s and 1980s that the workers may as well have been "guinea pigs." (ATLA Law News Digest – April 22, 2004)

Utah Supreme Court Lowers Punitive Damages in State Farm Lawsuit

The Utah Supreme Court lowered by $136 million the amount of punitive damages State Farm Insurance should pay in a decades-old lawsuit alleging it underpaid insurance claims, cheated customers and destroyed documents. The Court lowered the amount to just over $9 million, significantly higher than State Farm’s suggestion of $1 million. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority, said that "courts must ensure that the measure of punishments is both reasonable and proportionate to the amount of harm" someone suffers. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in her dissent that the large award "indicates why damage-capping legislation may be altogether fitting and proper." But she said, the court should leave that matter to the states. (Insurance Journal – April 28, 2004)

Car Dealer Sued for Failing to Notify Plaintiff of Credit Denial

A woman whose application to finance the purchase of a used car was never submitted to a lender but was deemed not creditworthy by the dealership can sue the dealer under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the 7th Circuit has ruled. (ATLA Law News Digest – April 29, 2004)

Bias of Supervisor may be Imputed to Decision-Makers

A fired Hertz employee can sue for age discrimination under a state statute even if the actual decision-makers were free of bias - so long as they relied on information from a supervisor who harbored discriminatory animus, the 1st Circuit has ruled in reversing a U.S. District Court. (ATLA Law News Digest – April 29, 2004)

Doctor Who Won $6M Sledding Suit Wants Malpractice Caps

The Greenwich urologist who won a $6 million jury award after a sledding accident on town property has lobbied for a cap on the so-called "pain and suffering" damages juries can give victims of medical malpractice. In 2000, Nicholas Stroumbakis was sledding in a Greenwich park with his sons when he hit a drainage ditch, fracturing his back and severely breaking his right leg. Stroumbakis has since returned to work. But, according to his lawsuit, he suffered lost wages, his ability to work has been diminished, he had to pay large medical bills, and he fears he may have a permanent disability. Of the $6.2 million in damages Stroumbakis won on April 14, $1.5 million was for non-economic damages. The state keeps no official records on jury awards, but lawyers said $6 million is almost certainly one of the largest negligence awards ever granted by a jury against a municipality, especially in a case in which nobody died. Stroumbakis, who attended a rally last year in support of a cap on the noneconomic damages patients can collect in malpractice cases, would not talk about his case. (ATLA Law News Digest – April 29, 2004)

$1 Billion Verdict may be Overturned

A Texas jury’s stunning $1 billion award to the family of a woman who died after taking one of the now-banned fen-phen diet drugs is unlikely to stand, say legal experts and drug maker Wyeth, which says the trial was riddled with errors. However, law professors and plaintiffs’ attorneys said the size of the award – the biggest ever in a fen-phen case - could push Wyeth to settle more of the tens of thousands of pending fen-phen lawsuits, rather than risk more huge verdicts. "They had more power until this decision," said Shelby Moore, a professor at South Texas College of Law. Wyeth has set aside $16.6 billion to settle fen-phen cases since it pulled its drugs, Pondimin and Redux, off the market in 1997 as reports rolled in that they had caused heart valve and lung damage in some of the roughly 5.8 million Americans who took them. (ATLA Law News Digest – April 29, 2004)