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Broward jury awards widow of smoker $1.5 million

June 5, 2009

A Broward jury awarded a Hollywood widow about $1.5 for million for the death of her husband, who died of lung cancer at the age of 69 in 1996 after smoking three to four packs of Winston cigarettes a day.

 

The jury on Friday decided in R.J. Reynolds Tobacco’s favor on four of five counts, but on the fifth count found that John Sherman’s death was caused by the company concealing information about the health effects of cigarettes. The jury assigned equal responsibility between Sherman and the company for his death. Gary Paige, attorney for widow Melba Sherman, said she is “very grateful.”

 

R.J. Reynolds vowed to appeal.

 

Read Article: Miami Herald

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

Doctor Falsified Study on Injured G.I.’s, Army Says

A former surgeon at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, who is a paid consultant for a medical company, published a study that made false claims and overstated the benefits of the company’s product in treating soldiers severely injured in Iraq, the hospital’s commander said Tuesday.

 

An investigation by Walter Reed found that the study cited higher numbers of patients and injuries than the hospital could account for, said the commander, Col. Norvell V. Coots.

 

“It’s like a ghost population that were reported in the article as having been treated that we have no record of ever having existed,” Colonel Coots said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “So this really was all falsified information.”

 

The former Army surgeon, Dr. Timothy R. Kuklo, reported that a bone-growth product sold by Medtronic Inc. had much higher success in healing the shattered legs of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed than other doctors there had experienced, according to Colonel Coots and a summary of an Army

 

Read Article: New York Times

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

Suit dismissed in ’05 tour boat capsizing

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against the company that modified the Ethan Allen tour boat that capsized in upstate New York in 2005, killing 20 passengers.

Nineteen of the 20 who drowned in Lake George were seniors from southeastern Michigan on a fall sightseeing tour in the Adirondack Mountains.

 

One of the victims was Trenton resident Earl Hawley, 76. Anna May Hawley, who was pulled from the water by a family on a passing boat, was dismayed by the ruling.

“I’m very disappointed, but I guess there’s nothing we could do,” she said Monday, declining further comment.

 

U.S. District Judge Thomas McAvoy ruled Monday that there is no evidence to determine whether the vessel was rendered unstable by the replacement of a canvas-and-metal canopy with a canopy made of wood. The modified canopy was installed by Scarano Boat Building Co.

 

Read Article: Detroit Free Press

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

Vioxx Class Action Suit in California Rejected

A California state judge has rejected a proposed class action lawsuit brought on behalf of state residents who took the painkiller Vioxx before it was pulled from the market in 2004.

 

Lawyers for former Vioxx users and health insurance plans wanted to sue the drug’s maker, Merck & Co., to recover at least part of what they paid for the medicine. The plaintiffs lawyers argued patients would have taken other pain relievers, had they known that Vioxx doubled risk of heart attack and stroke.

 

However, Judge Victoria Chaney of Los Angeles Superior Court ruled that the patients and insurers cannot sue as a group. She wrote that patients paid varying amounts for Vioxx and had too many other differences to sue jointly, including their medical histories and how long they took the anti-inflammatory medicine.

 

Read Article: Law.com

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

Seattle home for suicidal children sued over death

The suicide of a teenager in a home for suicidal children in Seattle has resulted in a lawsuit against the program.

 

The case for unspecified damages was filed Thursday by Steven Bunch, father of the late Ashlie Bunch, against the McGraw Residential Center, a program of the Seattle Children’s Home.

 

The 15-year-old girl hanged herself on Jan. 29, 2008, with shoelaces she had been given by a staff member. According to the lawsuit, she was not supposed to have shoelaces because she had previously attempted suicide. State investigators also determined that she had not been checked by a staff member every five minutes as required.

 

Gena Palm, executive director of the children’s home, says her organization has not been served with the lawsuit and she won’t comment on it.

 

Read Article: Seattle Times

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

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