08.15.11
Posted in Wrongful Death at 12:31 pm by kevin
Canadian conservatives are threatening to sue a widow who lost her husband to lung cancer because of his contact with asbestos. The widow has now turned into an anti-asbestos activisit.
According to the National Post, “In 2007, Ms. Keyserlingk’s husband, Robert, was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a cancer that attacks the internal walls of the lungs. As a non-smoker and marathon runner, Mr. Keyserlingk doctors soon traced the illness to a string of summers he had spent as a naval cadet. Living on a ship in close-quarters with asbestos-insulated pipes, Mr. Keyserlingk had inhaled enough of the fibers to lay the seeds of an asbestos-linked disease 40 years later. He died of the disease in December, 2009.”
The widow, Michaela Keyserlingk, states that Canada is the only country in the G8 that continues to mine and export asbestos even when it has been proven on numerous occasions to cause cancer. One only has to check out the numerous mesothelioma lawsuits and verdicts to see that this is true. If you follow the link I’ve posted you can see a picture of an open pit mine in the city of Asbestos, Quebec. Enough said.
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07.26.11
Posted in Wrongful Death at 9:50 am by kevin
Massachusetts gun-maker Kahr Arms settled a wrongful death lawsuit for $600,000. According to the lawsuit, Danny Guzman who was 26-years-old at the time was killed outside of a Worcester nightclub in 1999 after a gun was smuggled out from the company by an employee who was a known criminal.
According to Star News Online, “In a 2002 wrongful death suit against Kahr Arms, of Worcester, Guzman’s family alleged that the gun was stolen and later sold by a Kahr employee with a criminal record.
“The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence announced the settlement in Washington, D.C., calling it the largest damages payment ever made by a gun manufacturer accused of negligence leading to the criminal use of a gun.”
The family of Danny Guzman said that Kahr Arms should have done more to protect the public such as run background checks on their employees and install metal detectors at the doors of the facility.
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03.25.11
Posted in Wrongful Death at 2:46 pm by kevin
On March 25 every year the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire is memorialized in New York City. People leave flowers around the Brown Building at 29 Washington Place and write the names of the deceased on the sidewalk regarding the event that happen in 1911.
Known as the deadliest industrial disaster of modern times, the fire killed 146 workers who were trapped by their bosses on 8th, 9th and 10th floors of the building. The managers had locked the garment workers inside the floors, forcing mostly women immigrants to work long hours for low pay.
Many people regard this event the beginning of the organized labor movement inside the U. S. Two of the company owners who survived the fire by going on top of the building to be later rescued while their employees burned below were the company owners Isaac Harris and Max Blanck.
Both men were acquitted of criminal charges for the offense. They were, however, found guilty in a 1913 wrongful death lawsuit and were forced to pay $75 per deceased victim as compensation. The insurance company paid Harris and Blanck around $400 per victim for the fire, so each profited from the loss of their employees.
If you think this has gone away then you should check out the list of companies today taking out dead peasant life insurance on their own employees.
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01.20.11
Posted in Wrongful Death at 12:23 am by kevin
When New York City officials ignored blizzard warnings then failed to call for a snow emergency this lead to direful consequences. At least this is the contention of a family who lost their 75-year-old mother due to a heart attack and an ambulance that was 3 hours late in arriving due to the snow.
Because the streets were not plowed and because it took 45 minutes for 911 operators to answer the phone calls for help, the family of Yvonne Freeman is suing for wrongful death. The $20 million lawsuit is the first blizzard related wrongful death suit in America’s largest city.
The Freeman family is suing multiple agencies within NYC stating severe negligence in this case. The family also wants the city to make policy changes so that no one else will ever die again because of inaction of city officials to call a state of emergency when obviously necessary.
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11.21.10
Posted in Products Liability, Wrongful Death at 4:28 pm by kevin
Recently a couple of lawsuits have been raised against the drink Four Loko or “blackout in a can” by the family of a Florida man who committed suicide and a woman who lost her hand in a car accident. In addition, the Attorneys General of several states including Washington and California have asked the FDA to ban Four Loko.
Four Loko comes in a 23.5 ounce can and contains 12-percent alcohol with a high dosage of caffeine (three times as much as a cup of coffee). The FDA has already issued warnings to Phusion Projects, Inc. the makers of Four Loko stating that a beverage containing both alcohol and caffeine is unsafe.
The family of the Florida man is suing Phusion Projects (the makers of Four Loko) for wrongful death of their son, a 20-year-old college student who binged on the drink, then later shot himself in the head. The 20-year-old woman in Florida who lost her hand said that she wouldn’t have gotten into her friend’s car if she had known how drunk her friend was before the car crash.
The effects of Four Loko and other similar drinks that combine alcohol and caffeine are reported to mask the effects of the alcohol, so the person drinking the concoction and the people around them may not immediately be aware of the impairment.
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09.20.10
Posted in Wrongful Death at 6:33 pm by kevin
They may be the happiest places on earth for the visitors who go to Disney World or Sea World in Florida. But, two recent high profile death concerning employees at both places are leaving the families of the departed wondering if and how much each facility will be held accountable for the deaths of their loved ones.
Austin Wuennenberg, a Disney World monorail driver was killed July 5, 2009. Wuennenberg’s mother has served Disney World with a wrongful death lawsuit.
On February, 24, 2010, Sea World Orca trainer, Dawn Brancheau was killed by the largest of the whales, Tilikum. Brancheau’s husband has sought legal representation but has not filed a lawsuit yet.
According to lawyers and lawmakers in Florida, both cases are either likely to fail or come up short in regard to compensation compared to employees in other states. Laws favoring businesses against employees have been strengthened over the past 10 years in regard to caps on damages and standards of evidence that need to be presented by plaintiffs in order to win their cases.
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03.24.09
Posted in Wrongful Death at 6:14 pm by kevin
The wrongful death lawsuit involving a 7-year-old boy at the Playland Amusement Park has been settled for $1.25 million. Playland, in Westchester County, NY is also required to set up and enhance continual safety training in the amusement park.
In addition, as part of the settlement, a scholarship fund in the name of the deceased Jon-Kely Cassara will be setup for use by one Playland employee. The employee must have a good customer service and safety record in the park.
Jon-Kely Cassara was killed on the Ye Old Mill ride, which is the third death in the park since 2004. In that year a 7-year-old girl was killed when she was thrown from the Mind Scrambler ride.
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01.18.09
Posted in Wrongful Death at 6:44 pm by kevin
A nationwide salmonella outbreak in peanut butter products is responsible for killing two elderly patients in Minnesota according to a lawsuit that has been filed. The lawsuit filed by a Minnesota law firm states that nursing home patients Shirley Mae Almer and Clifford Tousignant both died because of salmonella poisoning.
The two resided in two separate Good Samaritan nursing homes in Minnesota. The wrongful death lawsuit is being filed against King Nut of Ohio and Peanut Corporation of America in Lynchburg, Virginia. Several companies including Kellogg and Keebler have recalled products using the peanut products.
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12.28.08
Posted in Wrongful Death at 5:25 pm by kevin
A year after Carlos Sousa, Jr., a 17-year-old was mauled by a Siberian tiger at the San Francisco Zoo, his family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit. On Christmas Day 2007, a 243-pound tiger, Tatiana, mauled the youth and injured his two friends, Paul and Kulbir Dhaliwal.
Police investigators at first said that taunting may have been involved in the case, but have brought no charges against the youths. The family of the Dhaliwals have claimed their was a smear campaign by police and have filed claims for personal injury and character defamation.
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06.08.08
Posted in Police Misconduct, Products Liability, Wrongful Death at 8:15 am by kevin
In San Jose, California a federal jury awarded the family of Robert Heston, Jr. $6 million after the man died due in part to being repeatedly tasered by police. Taser International of Scottsdale, Arizona the maker of the taser guns were found to be responsible in the death of Heston.
According to the jury, Taser International failed to inform police that its product could be dangerous when used upon someone who was on drugs or in combination with chest compressions. Heston was tasered as many as 30 times after police were called to the scene.
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