Vested Interest - Tort Briefs - October 2004 Issue

Ford Settles Explorer Rollover Suit

Ford Motor Co. settled a rollover-death case involving its Explorer SUV as a Florida jury considered whether to award $48 million in punitive damages to the victim’s family. A federal jury awarded the victim’s family compensatory damages and was considering punitive damages when lawyers settled for an undisclosed amount. (ATLA Law News Digest – August 26, 2004)

Four Insurers Ordered to Honor Broad Discovery Requests

A federal judge in Pennsylvania has ordered insurers to comply with broad discovery requests on their "business practices, procedures and policies" after concluding nearly all of the plaintiffs inquiries are relevant to his argument that his disability payments were cut off as part of a "pattern and practice" of terminating valid claims to boost profits. The judge flatly rejected arguments that the plaintiff was on a "fishing expedition." (ATLA Law News Digest – August 26, 2004)

Court Vacates Damage Award Against Ford Motor Co.

The Kentucky Supreme Court vacated a $15 million judgment against Ford Motor Co. in the case of a man who was crushed by his pickup. The judgment was for punitive damages. The justices ordered the case back to the circuit court for a new trial on punitive damages and a warning that the jury should not try to "punish" Ford for its conduct outside Kentucky. Ford already paid nearly $5.6 million in compensatory damages, plus interest. The victim was killed when a parked Ford pickup slipped into reverse and crushed him. At trial in Manchester, the jury heard testimony that Ford sold perhaps 7 million vehicles with defective transmissions and had 23,000 reports of vehicles slipping from park into reverse. (ATLA Law News Digest – September 2, 2004)

Huge Settlement Ends Record-Setting Overtime Class Action

California-based claims adjusters for Farmers Insurance Exchange, one of the country’s largest insurance companies, were rewarded for all their overdue overtime labor. An Alameda County Superior Court judge approved a settlement plan that will top $200 million. The settlement resolves the largest overtime pay class action ever tried in the United States. (ATLA Law News Digest- September 9, 2004)

Class-Action Status Upheld for Doctors Suing Insurers

An appeals court upheld class-action status for a lawsuit brought on behalf of at least 600,000 doctors contending that six of the nation’s largest health insurers regularly reduce payments for medical services. A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta, ruled that the defendants - WellPoint Health Networks, UnitedHealth Group, Prudential Insurance, PacifiCare Health Systems, Health Net and Humana - must stand trial on charges of violating the federal RICO act. Health insurance lawyers had said that the appeals panel ruling would be crucial to the case’s outcome. A California lawsuit, which was not appealed, retains its class-action status. In their suit, the doctors argue that the companies wrongfully underpaid them in various ways, including the use of computer programs that routinely denied parts of their fees. After reviewing the accusations, the appeals panel said, "It is ridiculous to expect 600,000 doctors across the nation to repeatedly prove these complicated and overwhelming facts." (ATLA Law News Digest- September 9, 2004)

Experts Predict Litigation over Lax Cybersecurity

With the threat from computer viruses and hackers constantly on the rise, legal experts say it’s inevitable that lawsuits will be filed against companies for inadequate cybersecurity. Although there are not yet any reported cases, John P. Hutchins, a technology litigator in Atlanta, believes that common law theories of negligence will be applied to cybersecurity issues in the near future. (ATLA Law News Digest – September 16, 2004)

Florida High Court Overrules Governor in Schiavo Case

Florida’s highest court ruled unanimously that Gov. Jeb Bush violated a "cornerstone of American democracy" when he overrode a court decision and ordered doctors to resume tube-feeding a severely brain-damaged woman. Chief Justice Barbara J. Pariente of the Florida Supreme Court called Bush’s actions in the case of Terri Schiavo "an encroachment on the judicial branch" that undercut the constitutionally protected separation of powers among the executive, legislative and judicial branches. The decision does not mean that Schiavo, who has been in a vegetative state since going into cardiac arrest 14 years ago, will be immediately removed from life-support systems, lawyers involved in the case said. But the emphatically worded opinion leaves a dwindling field of options for Bush, who has sided with Schiavo’s parents in a bruising legal battle to stop her husband from having her disconnected from the feeding tubes that are keeping her alive. (ATLA Law News Digest – September 30, 2004)

No Escaping Oxycontin Fee Frenzy

Due to Purdue Pharma’s "take no prisoners" stance in hundreds of OxyContin product liability suits across the country, the company has yet to pay 1 cent to plaintiffs. But now, at least one insurer is trying to litigate a way out of paying the multimillion-dollar legal bills created by those aggressive defense tactics. In a first-impression ruling in Connecticut, Judge Taggart D. Adams has blocked Steadfast Insurance’s bid to limit damages related to suits over the controversial painkiller. (ATLA Law News Digest – September 30, 2004)

Courts to Determine Release of Vehicle Safety Data

Pleasing automakers and frustrating consumer advocates, the government is keeping the public in the dark about vehicle safety data. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration officials compiled extensive data on deaths, injuries, consumer complaints, property damage and warranty claims following demands from Congress stemming from the 2000 recall of Firestone Tires. Now, the NHTSA is waiting for a court ruling that will determine exactly what type of data should be made public. (ATLA Law News Digest – September 30, 2004)

Poll Finds Most Illinoisans Reject Caps

A poll for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and KMOV-TV shows that a strong majority of Illinois residents oppose the notion that "pain-and-suffering" monetary awards in malpractice suits should be "capped" at a set amount as a means of controlling insurance costs and stopping the exodus of doctors. The telephone poll of 800 likely Illinois voters found that 55 percent of respondents reject the concept of caps on such awards, while just over a third of them support the idea. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 19,2004)