$13.5M settlement in girl’s E. coli-related death

July 16, 2008

Eight years after a 3-year-old girl died from exposure to tainted meat at a Sizzler restaurant, her family reached a $13.5 million settlement with the company’s meat supplier and others, according to court records.

The settlement is among the largest in the nation involving a food-borne illness, according to William Cannon, a lawyer for the family.
Brianna Kriefall and her family had eaten at a Sizzler in South Milwaukee in July 2000. While Brianna didn’t eat meat during the meal, lawyers argued that the watermelon she ate had touched tainted meat.

She died a week later after battling E. coli-related hemolytic uremic syndrome, which causes kidney failure and low blood-cell counts. Another 140 people fell sick in the outbreak at two Sizzler restaurants.

Read Article Yahoo news

Posted By Phoenix AZ Wrongful Death Lawyer

$2.3 Million Settlement Reached in ‘07 Accident

Metro has agreed to pay $2.3 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a man whose wife was struck and killed by a Metrobus last year.

Gregory Schoenborn said he wanted to hold the agency accountable for the Feb. 14 accident that killed his wife, Martha Stringer Schoenborn, 59, and her friend Sally Dean McGhee, 54. The women, co-workers at the Federal Trade Commission, were struck by the bus while in a downtown crosswalk.

Holding up two poster-sized photographs of his wife and her friend, Schoenborn called the settlement “blood money.” But he said he hoped that it would lead to better training and safer driving by Metro.

“Today is not a day of closure but the closing of one of the chapters towards healing,” he said.

The Metrobus driver, Victor Kolako, pleaded guilty in September to two felony counts of negligent homicide. In December, he was sentenced to a year in jail.

Read Article Washington Post

Posted By Phoenix AZ Wrongful Death Lawyer.

Chicago and police officers lose case and $7.7 million for false arrest

A trained nurse, Rachelle Jackson immediately ran toward the sound of the crash. A Chicago police car had collided with another vehicle and was starting to smoke, two officers still inside. Fearing an explosion, she quickly pulled one officer from the passenger side.She never imagined her act of kindness nearly six years ago would land her in jail for more than 10 months on charges that she robbed, battered and disarmed a peace officer.

Jackson filed a lawsuit, and on Thursday a federal jury found against the city and several Chicago police officers, awarding Jackson $7.7 million for false arrest, malicious prosecution, coercive questioning and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Read Article Chicagotribune.com

Posted By Phoenix Personal Injury and Accident Attorneys

Taser lawsuit allowed to go to trial

A federal judge says a civil-rights lawsuit against three Seattle police officers can go to trial next month, ruling that the officers used excessive force when they Tasered a pregnant woman who refused to sign a traffic ticket in 2004.

U.S. District Judge Richard Jones ruled that a lawsuit filed against the officers by Malaika Brooks can go to trial July 7. The judge, however, dismissed the city, the Police Department and Chief Gil Kerlikowske from the lawsuit, saying there is insufficient evidence to show the incident sprang from improper training or the negligence of policymakers.

Jones noted in his ruling that he must consider the evidence in a light most favorable to Brooks but points out that there is little dispute about the facts surrounding the November 2004 traffic stop that led to the incident: Brooks, 34, was stopped for speeding in a school zone. When she refused to sign the citation the officers decided to arrest her. When voice commands didn’t work, court documents show, they used a “pain compliance” hold on her arm. When that didn’t work, Officer Donald Jones jolted the woman with a Taser three times “in rapid succession.” Brooks was seven months pregnant at the time.

Read Article The Seattle Times

Posted By Phoenix Personal Injury and Accident Attorneys

6 More States Report Illnesses From Tomatoes

The tainted-tomato outbreak has spread to six more states, federal health officials said on Thursday, even as they acknowledged to lawmakers that they had yet to nail down major aspects of a food-safety plan released seven months ago.

A total of 228 people in 23 states, now including New York, have been reported sickened by salmonella-tainted tomatoes, Dr. David Acheson, associate commissioner for foods at the Food and Drug Administration, announced.

Read Article New York Times

Posted By Phoenix Personal Injury and Accident Attorneys