A Sacramento jury awarded an Oregon girl $24.3 million who was run over by an 18-wheeler six years ago driven by her father. The judge in the case ruled that the fact that her father was driving the truck was irrelevant, because he had been hired by the trucking company, Freeway Transport Inc., who the jury found liable. Diana Yuleidy Loza-Jimenez got accidentally caught under the back wheels of the truck, suffering severe injuries to her entire lower body. She will need an untold amount of surgeries that will affect her the rest of her life, an attorney said.

A jury has ordered New York City Transit to pay $7.5 million to two women injured in a bus crash. A jury found that the department was liable after a city bus ran a red light and crashed into a car in which Brenda Whaley and Amanda Wade were riding, causing them both to suffer severe injuries. The Transit Authority had the opportunity to settle with the women for $3 million out of court, but declined to do so.

Alabama resident Audrey Singleton was awarded $9.45 million yesterday by a Philadelphia jury in a lawsuit against drug maker Pfizer, Inc., after she claimed that the company’s hormone-replacement drug gave her breast cancer. Singleton began taking the drug Prempro in 1997 and was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004. A 2002 study linked the drug to cancer. Pfizer has lost seven of 10 similar cases that have gone to jury.

A New Jersey jury has awarded a man $25.16 million in a lawsuit against Swiss drug-maker Roche Holding AG in which he claimed that taking the drug Accutane caused his inflammatory bowl disease. Andrew McCarrell claimed that when he got sick in 1995 after taking Accutane, an acne drug, he needed five surgeries and had to have his colon removed. The verdict was the largest of six for Accutane users who won awards totaling $56 million.

The family of an Arizona boy killed by a drunken driver in 2008 was awarded $40 million last week by a Pima County jury. Jose Rincon Jr. was killed in January 2008 by a woman who crashed into him after a night drinking at a local Chuy’s restaurant. The jury divided up the settlement payments equally between the driver, the restaurant and the city of Tucson. The lawsuit claimed that certain repairs that had been planned for the road the accident occurred on by the city could have prevented the accident, but the city had scrapped the plans earlier the previous year.

A California jury awarded a man $16.5 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit in which a California neurosurgeon was accused of delaying an operation on the man’s spinal injuries, leaving him a paraplegic. According to the lawsuit, Trent Hughes was rushed to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs in November 2003 with a spine injury. The suit claimed that doctor Christopher Pham failed to examine Hughes until the following afternoon, and put off the surgery to decompress his spine until almost 48 hours after his arrival at the hospital. By the time the surgery was performed, the damages were irreparable, the lawsuit stated.

A Boulder County jury awarded a Colorado woman $37 million in a lawsuit after her health insurance company canceled her coverage following a serious car wreck. Time Insurance Co. had refused to pay Jennifer Latham’s $185,000 in medical bills after the accident because they claim she failed to report a previous visit to an emergency room for shortness of breath. Latham’s lawyer said he was hoping the jury would award her around $7 million and was shocked and pleased to receive such a high verdict.

A Pennsylvania jury has ordered the Mercer County Housing Authority to pay $1.6 million to the widow of man killed in a 2007 accident with a truck owned by the agency. In the verdict, jurors found the agency and the driver of the truck were negligent in the crash. PennDOT and other defendants previously agreed to pay $400,000 to settle separate claims related to the crash.

A Galveston County jury has ordered Maxime Crane Works to pay $1.72 million to Ernesto Tamez after he was severely injured in an accident at BP America Inc. oil refinery in Texas City. Tamez was struck by an oil burner being lifted by a Maximum Crane Works crane operator while at the plant in January 2006. According to the lawsuit he filed, his neck, back, ribs and shoulder were crushed, forcing him to endure extensive surgery to fix the damage. The crane operator had begun lifting the oil burner before the area was clear, trial evidence indicated. The verdict includes $300,000 in lost wages, $550,000 in medical expenses and $170,000 to the injured worker’s wife.

A Boston jury awarded $15 million to the parents of a 3-year-old Pennsylvania child whose 2004 death at Children’s Hospital Boston was the focus of a malpractice lawsuit. The jury found that former physician-in-chief at Children’s Dr. James Lock and anesthesiologist Dr. James A. DiNardo were negligent in the death of Jason Fox during treatment him for congenital heart disease. The lawsuit claims that the doctors lied to the Fox family about the treatments Jason was receiving at Children’s. The actual damages received will be less, due to an agreement reached while the jury was deliberating, but the exact number has not been specified.