A Georgia jury has awarded a local woman $1.2 million in a lawsuit filed against QuikTrip convenience stores after she burned her hand on one of the convenience store’s cappuccino machines in 2007. The woman claimed she was using the machine when 190-degree water shot out of it, scalding her hand. The company said the incident was a freak accident and has since replaced the cappuccino machines in all its stores.

A Central Texas jury awarded $6.2 million to a man who was paralyzed after diving into an under-filled pool at an apartment complex after a 2005 party. The jury determined the owner of Longhorn Landing Apartments was 51 percent liable for the accident for failing to warn swimmers about the water level or closing the pool. While the jury also deemed the plaintiff responsible for his own actions, it was also determined that “swimmers should be able to expect that an open pool is safe to use.”

Three sons of a couple who were killed in a 2006 auto accident have been awarded $14.5 million, and the San Diego car dealership who sold them the Ford E350 Sportsmobile van they were driving, will pay between $8.5 and $11 million of the settlement. According to the suit, the couple was driving in Arizona when a tire-tread separation caused the driver to lose control of the vehicle and roll over. The plaintiff’s lawyers argued that Mossy Ford performed a defective tire repair instead of removing the tire from service.

A Puerto Rico jury has ruled that Pfizer Inc. must pay $1.5 million in damages to a pharmacist who allegedly developed breast cancer from the company’s menopause drug. The jury found that Pfizer did not “properly warn the woman and her doctors about the health risks of its Prempro menopause medicine.” This is the eighth case Pfizer has lost since 2006 regarding Prempro.

A California jury has awarded an Oakland man more than $11.7 million in a lawsuit filed by a man who suffered injuries in 2007 while working at the Extended Stay hotel in San Rafael, Calif. The plaintiff had complained about the dark and litter-strewn area and hit his head multiple times on low-hanging crossbeams while working in the hotel, the lawsuit stated. He suffered herniated discs which caused near-paralysis corrected by surgery.

A Virginia jury has awarded $10.5 million to the family of a woman who died in 2007 after a concrete mixer truck fell onto her car on the freeway. Local experts say the verdict might be the largest award ever in a wrongful death suit in Virginia.

A New York jury has awarded a Buffalo woman $66 million for injuries she suffered on a Cybex weight machine. The plaintiff, a former physical therapist, had her vertebra crushed when the 500-pound machine fell on her in 2004, rendering her a quadriplegic. “The verdict in New York state Supreme Court was one of the largest personal injury awards ever in Erie County,” the Boston Herald reports.

A Florida jury has awarded a local woman $80 million over the death of her father from lung cancer after 60 years of smoking cigarettes. The R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. will be responsible for paying the damages. The verdict is another in a long line of rulings in Florida against the tobacco companies since 2006. Since early 2009, Florida jurors have awarded close to $310 million to smokers and their families.

A Harris County, Texas, jury awarded $19.9 million to three men who were badly burned in a pipeline explosion in 2008. During demolition work on a pipeline near Vanderbilt, Texas, the men hit a pocket of hydrocarbons with a blow torch, causing the explosion. The jury found Hilcorp Energy and A&R Demolition partially negligent in failing to protect the workers and providing a safe working environment.