Negligence

March 4, 2015

Ebola Nurse Sues Hospital

Nina Pham, a nurse who contracted Ebola while treating a fatally infected patient, has sued the Dallas hospital where she worked, according to her attorney.

Pham and another Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas nurse, Amber Vinson, developed Ebola after caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian who died in October from the disease that causes severe hemorrhaging and organ failure.

Almost 10,000 people have died from Ebola in the past year in the western African nations of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization.More than 14,000 people who were infected have survived. On average, the disease is fatal to about 50 percent of those who get it, according to the WHO.

February 18, 2015

GNC sued for false claims in PA

by Blady Workforce Law Group, APC

Health product retailer GNC was sued on Feb. 5, 2014 for mislabeling one of its products, according to The Pennsylvania Record

Stacey Wright sued the company in Pennsylvania federal court, alleging that its ginkgo biloba product doesn’t actually contain ginkgo biloba.

The suit comes after New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman conducted DNA tests on the product, and found no ginkgo biloba in it. The attorney general issued a cease-and-desist letter to GNC, ordering the company to stop selling the product in the State of New York.

February 4, 2015

Trainer Not Liable for Horse-Show Accident

by Blady Workforce Law Group, APC

In 2006, Karan and Stan Eriksson’s 17-year-old daughter Mia was competing in an equestrian event. Kristi Nunnink was Mia’s riding coach. The horse struck a hurdle during the cross-country portion of the event at Galway Downs in Temecula, CA. Mia fell off her horse and the horse then fell on Mia, killing her. The Erikssons sued Nunnink for wrongful death and negligent infliction of emotional distress. They alleged that Nunnink substantially increased the risk Mia reasonably assumed by allowing her to ride a horse that ‘was unfit to ride because of prior falls and lack of practice” and concealing this condition from the Erikssons.
In an earlier appeal, the Court of Appeal reversed an order granting summary judgment for Nunnink. The case was then tried, and the court granted Nunnink’s motion for entry of judgment. The court relied, in part, on a release of liability entered into between Nunnink and Mia about six months prior to Mia’s death. The Erikssons appealed. They argued that the release of liability was ambiguous and did not apply to their claims and that, based on the evidence presented and the applicable law, the court erred in granting Nunnink’s motion for entry of judgment.
In the published Court of Appeal’s opinion, it held the release was enforceable and could be asserted by Nunnink as a defense to the Erikssons’ wrongful death and NIED claims and Nunnink can therefore be liable only if Mia’s death was caused by Nunnink’s gross negligence. In the unpublished portion, the Court concluded that the Erikssons failed to establish that Nunnink was grossly negligent. The Court therefore affirmed the trial court’s judgment.

November 12, 2014

Pedicure Gone Bad Results in Lawsuit

by Blady Workforce Law Group, APC

According to The Louisiana Record, a Louisiana nail salon is being sued by a woman who claims that she received an E. Coli infection during a pedicure.

Ruby Condol filed suit against Le Solar Nails, Solar nails and their insurer in the 24th Judicial District Court on Sept. 3, 2014.

Condoll asserts she was a customer at the salon in Marrero in February when a nail technician used an unknown tool on her foot, puncturing the skin on the joint of her left big toe. The plaintiff claims the employee then placed her cut foot into a foot bath and that she later she developed a massive E. Coli infection. Condoll alleges that she has had to have two surgeries following the infection, including one to remove several deteriorating bones. In addition, the plaintiff contends she was subjected to a prolonged hospital and nursing home stay and continues to seek medical treatment due to the incident.

October 15, 2014

HVAC Co. Sued for Carbon Monoxide Leak

by Blady Workforce Law Group, APC

As reported by the Cook County Record, a Chicago couple is suing a heating and cooling company, claiming they suffered from carbon monoxide exposure after gas valves were left open.

Dennis and Gloria Turner filed a lawsuit Sept. 24 in Cook County Circuit Court against Four Seasons Heating & Air Conditioning Inc., Four Seasons Heating and Cooling, and Four Seasons Home Services.

According to the complaint, the Turners hired the defendants to tune up their furnace and boiler at their residence on Sept. 24, 2012, when the defendants left the gas shutoff and pilot control valves open, allowing carbon monoxide and natural gas to leak into the residence.

October 1, 2014

Walmart Responds to Tracy Morgan Crash Lawsuit

by Blady Workforce Law Group, APC

Earlier this week, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Walmart submitted its defense in New Jersey federal court to actor Tracy Morgan’s lawsuit arising from a six-car accident on the New Jersey Turnpike.

Among nine defenses, Walmart says that injuries “were caused, in whole or in part, by plaintiffs’ failure to properly wear an appropriate available seatbelt restraint device.” Morgan is one of several people injured who are suing Walmart for negligence.

Their lawsuit, filed in July 2014, questions whether Walmart driver Kevin Roper was fatigued at the time of the crash. According to the suit, Roper had driven 700 miles from his home in Georgia to a Walmart facility in Smyrna, Delaware, before starting his shift.

September 15, 2014

Widow Sues Casino for Husband’s Suicide

by Blady Workforce Law Group, APC

The wife of a recently deceased West Virginia man has filed suit against Mountaineer Casino Racetrack & Resort, claiming that her husband’s gambling addiction caused him to commit suicide.

Stacy Stevens alleges her husband, Scott Stevens, shot himself on August 13, 2012, after he drained his family’s savings accounts to feed his gambling habit.

Scott Stevens had become addicted to slot machines and embezzled more than $7 million from the company where he was CFO. He was fired when he confessed to taking the money, according to the complaint filed Aug. 7 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia.

September 1, 2014

Man sues PA. Hotel after Slipping in Shower

by Blady Workforce Law Group, APC

A New Jersey man says that the owners, licensors, and operators of a Cumberland County, PA hotel are liable for the conditions that led to his slip in one of the hotel’s showers and subsequent head injury, according to a personal injury lawsuit filed at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Frank Ristagno, of West Deptford, N.J., seeks more than $150,000 for each of the four counts of negligence filed against Hilton Worldwide, Inc., which granted the franchising rights for a Hampton Inn in Carlisle, PA to co-defendant Hersha Hospitality Trust in 2000. Hersha sold the franchise to Starwood Capital Group in 2011, but both entities have been held responsible for the 2012 incident.

As reported by The Pennsylvania Record, according to his complaint, on Aug. 26, 2012, Ristagno was a guest at the Hampton Inn on Harrisburg Pike. While taking a shower, he slipped on the floor, hitting his head against the wall and briefly losing consciousness.

August 20, 2014

You Thought Your Move was Bad…..

by Blady Workforce Law Group, APC

A moving company is being sued by a couple who alleges that they caused more than $72,000 worth of damage to their belongings during a move.

As reported by The Louisiana Record, James and Kimberly Mathes Shepack filed suit against College Student Movers Inc., Fast & Affordable College Student Movers, their insurer and Shelly and Justin McDuffie in Louisiana’s 24th Judicial District Court.

The Shepacks hired College Student Movers to move their possessions from their home in St. Tammany Parish to a house in Metairie. The move was to be completed by Dec. 27, 2013. The plaintiffs assert that under the term of their agreement with the defendant company they were to have three able bodied movers assist in moving their belongings for which they would be charged $98 per hour per mover. The Shepacks contend on the day of the move two men and a female arived up at their home.

August 5, 2014

Medical Center sued for dropping patient

by Blady Workforce Law Group, APC

As reported in The Louisiana Record, a local hospital is being sued for allegedly dropping a patent from a surgical table.

Wallace Walker, individually and as a representative of the estate of Johnnie Mae Booker, filed suit against Ochsner Medical Center on June 30.

Walker claims that Booker, his mother, underwent surgery at Ochsner Medical Center of Kenner on Sept. 7, 2010 and that when she was being moved from the operating table she was dropped on the floor while unconscious. The plaintiff alleges his mother received serious injuries to her back, shoulders and hands in the incident. Walker asserts that neither he nor his mother were informed about he incident and it was not revealed until days later when they questioned medical personnel about the open sores on Booker’s back.