A Boston jury will decide the fate of a lawsuit filed against cigarette manufacturer Lorillard Inc. on behalf of a woman who died after smoking for 40 years. The lawsuit claims the manufacturer is responsible for seducing young people such as her to smoke by giving away free cigarettes when the woman was as young as 9 years old. The suit is seeking unspecified damages.
Lowe’s Cos. has announced a recall of 11 million Roman shades and roll-up blinds due to the risk of strangulation of young children. There have been two reports of young children becoming caught in the blinds and almost suffocating, the company said. Lowe’s joins a Consumer Product Safety Commission recall that began in 2009 and has covered more than 50 million units.
A Kentucky nursing home must pay $42.75 million to the family of a man who died at the home, allegedly due to the center’s neglect. According to the suit, filed in 2009, “the nursing home staff neglected [the man], causing him to suffer severe dehydration, malnutrition, bedsores, infections and, ultimately, death.” Reportedly, an investigation following the death substantiated the claims of neglect, the family’s lawyer said.
A Florida man who was beaten inside an ABC Fine Wine & Spirits store last month has filed a lawsuit against ABC. According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff was trying to stop an attack on the store manager, who was being hit with hammers after refusing to sell someone beer. The plaintiff alleges the store “failed to maintain all surveillance cameras in working condition” in a high-crime area. The suit is seeking unspecified damages.
A lawsuit has been filed on behalf of two Ohio children who were kept in cages by their former adoptive parents. The suit claims the company that preformed an adoptive assessment of the parents should not have granted them approval. The father was an admitted child molester, the suit alleges. The children were two of 11 that were found to be locked in cages at the home during a 2005 raid of the home by law enforcement. The suit is seeking damages for future psychological care.
A lawsuit is to be filed against the Jacksonville, Fla., Mayo Clinic over the death of a transplant patient who allegedly contracted hepatitis C while in the hospital. It was revealed in August that at least three patients at the hospital contracted the disease from a radiology technician who was stealing pain injections and contaminating syringes. The patient’s widow claims her husband contracted the hepatitis C in a similar fashion while at the hospital. The suit is seeking unspecified damages.
An Army hospital in Tennessee has agreed to a $6 million settlement in a lawsuit filed by a local woman whose daughter developed cerebral palsy shortly after birth. The suit claims a contract doctor at Blanchfield Army Community Hospital at Fort Campbell failed to “perform a cesarean section in a timely manner to prevent oxygen loss to the brain” of the child. The child developed breathing problems shortly after birth and was placed on an incubator for more than a month.
A settlement has been reached between Harley-Davidson Inc. and a Chicago firefighter who was paralyzed from the chest down after crashing his motorcycle in 2004. The suit alleged that a defect in the motorcycle caused it to wobble on the highway, leading to the crash. The terms of the settlement remain confidential.
A Pennsylvania jury awarded $12.7 million to two local men who were injured in an industrial explosion a few years ago. The men suffered severe burns when the specialty metals furnace they were overseeing exploded in 2003. The furnace manufacturer, Ametek Specialty Metal Products, will be responsible for paying the damages.
A California jury awarded a total of $9 million to two people who were injured in a car accident in April 2008. A man driving a refrigerator truck had made a sudden lane change on the highway and rear-ended one plaintiff’s pickup, slamming her into the rear of the other plaintiff’s van. The wreck left both plaintiffs with severe injuries, including paralysis.
