541 results for 'cat:"Wrongful Death"'.
J. Wynn finds the lower improperly dismissed the estate's claims for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. The estate submitted an administrative claim to the Navy for damages, claiming that the deceased's medical complications and death were the result of substandard care she received at the Navy medical center. The government believed that the estate failed to meet the administrative exhaustion requirement because, when they submitted the administrative claims, neither of the current administrators was properly qualified as administrator of the estate. Congress has not authorized regulations that impose additional jurisdictional requirements beyond those the statute itself imposes; thus, the rules on which the government relies are non-jurisdictional. Reversed.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Wynn, Filed On: March 12, 2024, Case #: 23-1011, Categories: Administrative Law, Wills / Probate, wrongful Death
J. Winchester finds the court of civil appeals improperly reversed the trial court's summary judgment in favor of the swimming pool owner. The mother seeks recovery from her child's drowning by a fall into her neighbor's pool. Though the trial court found the owner to have no duty of care, the appeals court concluded the question of whether or not the swimming pool was an attractive nuisance was for the jury to decide. The swimming pool is not defined as an attractive nuisance being there was no hidden or unusual element of danger in or near it. A genuine issue of material fact remains, though, as to whether the owner breached a duty owed under premises liability. Vacated.
Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court, Judge: Winchester, Filed On: March 12, 2024, Case #: 119,569, Categories: Negligence, wrongful Death, Premises Liability
J. Wray finds the lower court erroneously determined the parents of the deceased priest are statutory beneficiaries under the New Mexico Wrongful Death Act. The language in the law creates no beneficiaries rights for parents of adult children; therefore, the case will be remanded to allow for reappointment of the estate's personal representative. Reversed.
Court: New Mexico Court of Appeals, Judge: Wray, Filed On: March 11, 2024, Case #: A-1-CA-40187, Categories: Family Law, Wills / Probate, wrongful Death
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J. Mitchell finds the lower court properly determined that an attorney who was appointed as the administrator ad colligendum of the decedent's estate was not permitted to bring a wrongful death action against rehabilitation center. Caselaw specifies that only executors and general administrators may serve as personal representatives in a wrongful death action.
Court: Alabama Supreme Court, Judge: Mitchell, Filed On: March 8, 2024, Case #: SC-2023-0635, Categories: Wills / Probate, Jurisdiction, wrongful Death
J. Griesbach denies the county and county sheriff's deputies' motion to dismiss the widower's lawsuit over the death of his wife, who either jumped or fell from a moving vehicle while being transported to a state mental health facility after exhibiting violent behavior toward herself and others during a hospitalization for acute psychosis. All of the widower's claims, including those under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Rehabilitation Act and those alleging violations of the wife's 14th Amendment due process rights, are pleaded well enough to survive the motion and move forward, such as by questioning whether the deputies negligently ignored the safety locks on the transport vehicle despite knowing of the wife's volatile condition.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Wisconsin, Judge: Griesbach, Filed On: March 8, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv986, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Ada / Rehabilitation Act, Due Process, wrongful Death
J. Mollway declines to extend the discovery deadline so the family of a woman who died on a diving excursion may conduct discovery and take preservation depositions of an expert who may be unable to make a physical appearance at trial. The magistrate judge properly denied the request to allow the deposition, as the family did not present a reason for not meeting the deadline.
Court: USDC Hawaii, Judge: Mollway, Filed On: March 8, 2024, Case #: 1:21cv475, NOS: Marine - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Admiralty, wrongful Death, Discovery
J. Crabtree rules an estate administrator may pursue wrongful death claims against a nursing home. The estate administrator sufficiently showed in court that nursing home employees failed to prevent her father from walking without assistance, falling, and suffering fatal injuries.
Court: USDC Kansas, Judge: Crabtree, Filed On: March 6, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv2385, NOS: Personal Injury - Medical Malpractice - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Health Care, Negligence, wrongful Death
J. Logue finds the trial court properly determined that Florida law blocks the estate representative's claim for punitive damages against Philip Morris in her wrongful death lawsuit claiming the company concealed the dangers of the cigarettes that caused her relative's death from lung cancer. The representative was not entitled to pursue her survival claim for punitive damages because she abandoned it before trial and Philip Morris explicitly stipulated that smoking cigarettes led to the relative's cancer and eventual death. The punitive damages she sought for her wrongful death claim are barred by law in part because her case is a progeny of a class action which resulted in Philip Morris paying at least $198 million in damages, and her case alleges basically the same causes of action. Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Logue, Filed On: March 6, 2024, Case #: 22-1202, Categories: Damages, wrongful Death
J. Cornelius grants a medical device manufacturer’s motion to dismiss this wrongful death product liability lawsuit involving a medical defibrillator known as the Evera brought by the patient’s estate. The manufacturer recalled the defective defibrillators due to the battery rapidly and unexpectedly depleting approximately two months before the patient’s death, but the estate alleges the recall should have happened sooner. The estate’s claims are based on post-“premarket approval” behavior, so they are preempted by the Medical Device Amendments of 1976.
Court: USDC Northern District of Alabama , Judge: Cornelius, Filed On: March 6, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv423, NOS: Personal Injury - Product Liability - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Health Care, Product Liability, wrongful Death
J. Stiles finds that the trial court properly ruled in favor of the residential facility owner in a mother's suit over the shooting death of her minor son by gang members 40 days after he voluntarily left the facility. The mother did not show the facility owner had a duty to "physically restrain" the minor from leaving the facility or to protect him from the risk he encountered upon his departure. Affirmed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Stiles, Filed On: March 6, 2024, Case #: CA-23-664, Categories: Negligence, wrongful Death
J. Jenkins partially grants a motion for summary judgment from an Illinois village and its police, on claims the police used fatally excessive force during an arrest. The arrestee died of choking-related injuries he sustained after swallowing a plastic bag while police were on top of him and holding him down. The court grants judgment to the police on the excessive force claim as to the allegation that they stuck a plastic bag in the arrestee’s mouth, finding it is not sufficiently backed by evidence, but allows the excessive force claim to stand regarding other elements of the arrest.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Jenkins, Filed On: March 5, 2024, Case #: 1:21cv3236, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, wrongful Death, Police Misconduct
J. Ransom quashes this court's preliminary writ of mandamus in a wrongful death suit against a rehab center. The patient's family contract with the rehab center for a private room, but placed the patient with a roommate in November 2020, causing her to contract Covid-19 and die. There is no merit to the center's claim that the suit is barred by the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act, as the complaint never mentions the center's Covid-19 testing procedures as contributing to the patient's death.
Court: Missouri Supreme Court, Judge: Ransom, Filed On: March 5, 2024, Case #: SC100099, Categories: Immunity, wrongful Death, Covid-19
J. Jewell finds that the trial court properly ruled in favor of the sporting goods store in a father's negligence suit stemming from his daughter's suicide that occurred after she bought a gun at the store. The store established the affirmative defense of suicide as to the claims since it "complied with the applicable legal standards," and there was no evidence it "failed to act as a firearms seller of ordinary prudence." Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Jewell, Filed On: March 5, 2024, Case #: 14-23-00234-CV, Categories: Negligence, wrongful Death, Firearms
J. Strickland grants the cigarette distribution company's motion to dismiss, ruling that because it is headquartered in Virginia and the estate has put forth no evidence to show it conducted business in New Mexico, this court lacks jurisdiction over the party.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Strickland, Filed On: March 4, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv1136, NOS: Personal Injury - Product Liability - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Product Liability, Jurisdiction, wrongful Death
J. Newsom finds that the lower court improperly ruled in favor of defendant police officers on wrongful death claims brought by a woman whose son died following an interaction with police. The evidence indicates that reasonable individuals could determine that the officers' tases and kicks caused the son's death.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Newsom, Filed On: February 28, 2024, Case #: 22-11675, Categories: wrongful Death
J. Wilson finds that the trial court improperly granted no-evidence summary judgment in favor of the aluminum company in the family members' wrongful death and survival claims involving their loved one's death from asbestosis due to being exposed to asbestos fibers from her husband's work clothes. The family members gave "direct, scientifically reliable proof of causation," specifically that the aluminum plant was the source of the asbestos to which the decedent was exposed. Reversed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Wilson, Filed On: February 27, 2024, Case #: 14-22-00417-CV, Categories: Evidence, wrongful Death, Asbestos
J. Kleeh denies in part the motion to dismiss a civil rights suit claiming deputies caused a man's death, after responding to a 911 call from the couple he was living with while he was experiencing a "mental health issue." The deputies allegedly tazed the nude man in the back and left him handcuffed face down on the floor of the home, causing him to go into cardiac arrest because of his obesity and inability to breathe properly. The court denies the deputies qualified immunity since the man, despite his size, was unarmed, not resisting arrest and not attempting to flee from the deputies.
Court: USDC Northern District of West Virginia, Judge: Kleeh, Filed On: February 26, 2024, Case #: 3:23cv177, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, wrongful Death, Police Misconduct
J. Major grants the children's motion for limited discovery concerning claims that San Diego County violated their father's civil rights by failing to prevent him from dying from pneumonia, malnutrition and dehydration while incarcerated. The county must produce surveillance video of decedent in the 72 hours leading up to his death. The children already have the names of the officers in the video, so protecting their identity is not an issue. The county has failed to explain why a protective order regarding the video would be insufficient to protect any contemplated harm.
Court: USDC Southern District of California, Judge: Major, Filed On: February 26, 2024, Case #: 3:23cv1357, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, wrongful Death, Discovery
J. Miller finds that the trial court improperly ruled in favor of the disability support coordination agency and the employee in a wrongful death and negligence action brought by the mother arising from her developmentally disabled daughter's death from aspiration pneumonia. Genuine issues of fact exist as to the mother's negligence claims. There are questions of fact as to whether the employee's failure to observe and correct deficiencies in the care home's records pertaining to the use and administration of thickener in the daughter's liquids proximately caused her death. Issues of fact also exist as to whether the agency breached a duty of care to the daughter. Reversed.
Court: Georgia Court of Appeals, Judge: Miller, Filed On: February 26, 2024, Case #: A23A1609, Categories: Negligence, wrongful Death
J. Bulla grants the doctor's petition for a writ of mandamus challenging the county court's denial of his motion to dismiss a wrongful death suit. The inmate died after unsuccessful heart surgery, complicated by sickle cell anemia. The family members of the deceased, though having received requested medical records, did not file the complaint until after limitations had expired. No reason was given for the delay and, therefore, the court was required to dismiss the complaint.
Court: Nevada Court of Appeals, Judge: Bulla , Filed On: February 22, 2024, Case #: 86567-COA, Categories: Health Care, wrongful Death, Prisoners' Rights