Injury & Accident Law

Ski resorts have no liability for avalanches, Colorado Supreme Court rules

Ski resorts in Colorado are protected from liability for avalanches because they are an inherent risk of skiing, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday. The 5-2 decision is a loss for Salyndra Fleury, whose husband died in a January 2012 avalanche at the Winter Park ski area, report the…

Jun 2, 2016 2:40 PM CDT

Couple must pay $572K, plus possible punitives, in 4-year-old son’s fatal shooting of playmate

A New Jersey judge hearing a wrongful death case over the accidental slaying of a 6-year-old by his 4-year-old playmate has ordered the parents of the shooter to pay $572,588.26, plus possible punitive damages. Judge Robert Brenner found Anthony Senatore 90 percent liable and Melissa Senatore 10 percent liable for…

May 25, 2016 2:35 PM CDT

No liability for movie theater owner in Colorado movie massacre, jury decides

A Colorado jury on Thursday found no liability on the part of a movie theater owner in a lawsuit over a shooting massacre at an Aurora premiere of the Batman film The Dark Knight Rises in 2012. Jurors deliberated only three or four hours before rejecting claims that more security…

May 19, 2016 5:00 PM CDT

Jury awards $1.6M to man in supermarket slip-and-fall, including $1M in punitives

A jury in Portland, Oregon, awarded $1.6 million on Friday to an 85-year-old man in a suburban supermarket slip-and-fall case, including $1 million in punitive damages. Attorneys for Christopher Armstrong-Stevenson, who was 84 at the time of the accident, argued to the jury that the Safeway chain that owns the…

May 17, 2016 1:30 PM CDT

Fertilizer plant explosion and fire that killed 15 in Texas in 2013 was intentional, feds say

A 2013 explosion and fire at a Texas fertilizer plant that killed 15 people, injured some 300 more, leveled many of the surrounding buildings and sparked calls for regulatory reform was the result of an intentional act, federal officials say. After an extensive investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms…

May 11, 2016 3:05 PM CDT

First trial of movie theater owner over mass shooting at Batman premiere begins in Colorado

Two months before James Holmes killed 12 people and wounded dozens more in a shooting massacre at a premiere of the Batman film The Dark Knight Rises in suburban Denver, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a warning about the potential for such attacks. But the jury selected this…

May 10, 2016 12:25 PM CDT

Court OKs wrongful death case for child whose father died three months before she was born

A child whose father died before she was born can sue for loss of companionship in a wrongful death case, the Iowa Supreme Court found Friday. The opinion was a matter of first impression for the state, and the court cautioned that the finding should not be used in forthcoming…

May 9, 2016 6:15 AM CDT

Judge rejects Uber’s independent-contractor argument in sexual assault tort claim

Women who claim that Uber drivers sexually assaulted them can go forward with their tort claim against the company, a San Francisco federal judge ruled this week. The court denied Uber’s motion to dismiss the case on the basis that the drivers in question were independent contractors, the Recorder reports.…

May 6, 2016 10:30 AM CDT

Those who knowingly send texts that distract drivers could face liability in Pennsylvania

It isn’t just drivers who text behind the wheel who run the risk of accidents and expensive lawsuits. In an apparent case of first impression in the state, a ruling last month by a Pennsylvania judge says two men accused of texting a driver at the time of a fatal…

Apr 29, 2016 1:45 PM CDT

Death caused by fall on display case wasn’t reasonably foreseeable, appeals court rules

Fatal injuries caused when a woman fainted and fell on a display case were not reasonably foreseeable, a Tennessee appeals court has ruled. In a decision (PDF) on Monday, the Court of Appeals of Tennessee at Knoxville affirmed dismissal of the premises liability suit, the Legal Profession Blog reports. The…

Apr 27, 2016 8:13 AM CDT

Lawsuit filed in US over intentional crash of German flight in French Alps

Lawyers for survivors of some of the 150 individuals who died when a co-pilot intentionally crashed a Germanwings flight in the French Alps last year have found a way to file suit over the incident in the United States. Investigators said privacy laws that allowed co-pilot Andreas Lubitz to conceal…

Apr 13, 2016 4:00 PM CDT

Punitive verdict for carbon monoxide poisoning was ‘excessive and arbitrary,’ 10th Circuit says

A federal appeals court has embraced a 1-to-1 ratio of compensatory-to-punitive damages in a Wyoming renter’s lawsuit over a brain injury due to carbon monoxide poisoning. The April 1 decision by the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cuts the punitive verdict for Amber Lompe from $25.5 million against…

Apr 5, 2016 1:50 PM CDT

Plaintiffs in California asbestos cases feel they’re being questioned to death

Grainy video shot last August shows 75-year-old Nader Kordestani lying in a padded recliner at his home in Calabasas, California, near Los Angeles. Off camera, a defense lawyer asks him whether it's true his health is failing.

Apr 1, 2016 3:20 AM CDT

In first GM ignition-switch case to go to verdict, jury awards zip, saying defect didn’t cause crash

Both sides proclaimed victory Wednesday after the first jury verdict in a General Motors ignition-switch case. That’s because the jury, while finding a 2007 Saturn Sky unreasonably dangerous because of an ignition-switch defect, also found that the defect did not cause the plaintiff driver to lose control on an icy…

Mar 30, 2016 3:20 PM CDT

‘Blown off’ toilet by explosion from sewer work, woman claims physical injuries and PTSD

A Baltimore woman whose lawyer says she was “blown off” the toilet one day in November 2014 due to work that was being done on backed-up sewer lines is suing for damages. Angela Wright says she suffered physical injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder from the incident, which left both her…

Mar 11, 2016 4:00 PM CST