Return to main website

Settlement reached in sauna death suit

April 10, 2009

A woman whose husband died two years ago after being found unconscious in the men’s sauna at the Lafayette Family YMCA has settled a lawsuit she filed against the organization.

 

 Berma L. Johnson recently accepted payment from the YMCA’s insurance provider, said her attorney, Jeff Cooke. He declined to release the amount because it was handled outside of court.

 

Johnson filed the civil complaint in February 2008 in Tippecanoe Superior Court 2, alleging that the YMCA failed to properly monitor the sauna and that employees may have removed or modified its timers.

 

Her husband, James “Jimmy” Johnson, 61, died at St. Elizabeth Medical Center on Jan. 21, 2007, two days after he was found. “Berma is satisfied. … We are pleased with the way it ended,” Cooke said. “We worked through the issues and came to a reasonable result that Mrs. Johnson approved.

 

Read Article: Journal & Courier Online

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

Family widens lawsuit over grate that hit car

The family of a man permanently disabled when an iron storm grate dislodged and crashed through his windshield in 2007 has expanded a lawsuit to include companies that allegedly sold or manufactured equipment that was not intended to be used on state highways.

 

The amended lawsuit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, alleges that E.J. Prescott of Middleton sold risers to a state highway contractor, SPS New England, knowing that they were unfit for use on a highway project.

 

E.J. Prescott then failed to warn SPS that the risers were not meant to be used to elevate catch basin grates to the height of the highway surface in spots where they would be exposed to repeated impact by traffic, the suit contends. The suit also names the manufacturer of the risers, Quality Water Products of South Barre, as a third-party defendant.

 

Read Article: Boston Globe

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

Woman files lawsuit against Tulsa-based toolmaker

A woman has filed a federal class action lawsuit against a Tulsa-based construction industry toolmaker, claiming gender discrimination.

 

Plaintiff Ronica Tabor alleges in a complaint filed Tuesday that a district manager at Hilti North America told her that women had to work harder than men to learn how to use and sell tools, “because tools are like guns, which come natural to men.”

 

Tabor also alleges the manager told her to discuss the position she was interviewing for with her husband because “she had a young child.” Susie Wellendorf, a spokeswoman for the company, said Tabor’s claims were without merit and that Hilti would “vigorously defend itself against these false allegations.”

 

Read Article: Forbes

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

Jury awards soldier, government $2M

A soldier formerly based in Casper had no choice but to sue three Casper doctors in federal court for medical malpractice that nearly killed him, he said Tuesday.

“First, it was for my family,” former U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Edward Poche, 39, said in an interview from his home in Byron, Ga. “I lost my career over what happened, and [the family] had to come first,” Poche said.

He and his wife, Cynthia, also wanted Wyoming residents to know they have the right to take action in similar cases, he said. “I survived; the next guy might not.” Poche’s attorney, Steven Shapiro, said he partly framed the case with a public perspective. “We told the jury, ‘Is this the kind of care you want in the state of Wyoming?’”

 

After a four-week trial ending Friday, the jury in U.S. District Court in Cheyenne awarded the Poches $1.6 million in damages — about half of what they were demanding — after finding Dr. Raoul Joubran 60 percent negligent and Dr. Mary MacGuire 40 percent negligent. The jury did not find Dr. James Anderson negligent.

 

Read Article: Casper Star Tribune

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

F.D.A. to Check Safety of Old Devices

Federal regulators said Wednesday that that they would ask makers of some of the riskiest medical devices to prove that their products were safe and effective — a step that critics have said was long overdue.

 

In January, the Government Accountability Office issued a report scolding the Food and Drug Administration for failing for decades to fix its system for reviewing categories of devices that have been on the market since before the enactment of the medical device law in 1976.

 

Such legacy devices, as they are known, were originally allowed on the market with minimal testing. But in the 1976 law Congress told the F.D.A. to gradually reclassify these older devices and decide which ones needed extensive testing before approval of new versions and which ones did not.

 

Read Article: New York Times

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

Newer Posts »