News
Health Care
[02/09]
ALOKA's Diagnostic Ultrasound System ProSound Alpha 6 Presented 2010 iF Product Design Award
[02/09]
FDA aims to rein in radiation-based medical scans
[02/08]
Hanger Orthopedic Group, Inc. Announces 2009 Year-End Earnings Release Conference Call
[02/08]
Obama invites GOP leaders to health care talk
[02/08]
Ag Secretary pushes school nutrition plan
More...
Tort
[02/09]
Investigators interview survivors of Conn. blast
[02/09]
Double hand transplant patient leaves Pa. hospital
[02/09]
Minn. bridge collapse widow adopts Haitian twins
[02/09]
FDA aims to rein in radiation-based medical scans
[02/09]
Pilot: 'Everything went red' after planes collided
More...
Case Summaries
Health Law
[02/08]
Johnson v. Weld County
In an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) action based on defendant's failure to hire plaintiff, summary judgment for defendant is affirmed where plaintiff failed to rebut defendant's evidence suggesting that the male candidate it hired as Fiscal Officer had superior qualifications to plaintiff's, as well as its evidence that she was not, at the time of the hiring decision, disabled within the meaning of the ADA.
[02/08]
Crandall v. Denver
In an action under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act to prohibit full-plane deicing at an airport concourse and also require other precautionary steps relating to airplane deicing fluid (ADF), judgment for defendants is affirmed where plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that ADF at the airport (whether it degraded inside or outside the concourse) may present an imminent and substantial endangerment to health.
[02/08]
Hall v. Liberty Life Ins. Co. of Boston
In plaintiff's suit seeking reinstatement of her long-term disability benefits, judgment of the district court is affirmed in part, vacated in part and remanded where: 1) district court's judgment with respect to benefit plan's termination of plaintiff's benefits and its claim for partial reimbursement is affirmed; and 2) district court's imposition of an equitable lien on plaintiff's Social Security benefits and its denial of attorney fees to the benefits plan are vacated and remanded.
[02/08]
Ward v. Dixie Nat'l Life Ins. Co.
In a class action lawsuit against multiple insurance companies alleging that defendants violated a contractual promise under insurance policies to pay policyholders the "actual charges" of cancer treatments, judgment in favor of the plaintiffs is affirmed where: 1) under the three-step retroactivity analysis, the presumption against retroactivity operates to bar the application of the South Carolina statute to the claims in this case; and 2) defendants' remaining arguments are meritless.
[02/08]
Bolmer v. Oliveira
In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action based on plaintiff's involuntary commitment, denial of summary judgment for defendant is affirmed where: 1) the medical-standards test set forth in Rodriguez v. City of New York, 72 F.3d 1051 (2d Cir. 1995), for determining whether an involuntary commitment violates substantive due process, was not inconsistent with County of Sacramento v. Lewis, 523 U.S. 833 (1998); and 2) denying defendant-county summary judgment based on sovereign immunity did not require a showing that it acted with discriminatory animus or ill will toward plaintiff.
More...
Injury & Tort Law
[11/20]
In re Golden Peanut Co., LLC.
In plaintiff's wrongful death suit against the decedent's employer to compel arbitration of the family members' claims, court of appeals' denial of plaintiff's petition for mandamus relief is conditionally granted as the wrongful death beneficiaries, as derivative claimants, are bound by the decedent's agreement to arbitrate. Furthermore, Texas Labor Code section 406.033(e), which prohibits pre-injury waivers of personal injury or death claims, does not invalidate the decedent's arbitration agreement.
[11/20]
City of Waco v. Kirwan
In a wrongful death suit against a city arising from a collapse of a solid rock causing decedent to fall to his death, judgment of the court of appeals is reversed as, under the recreational use statute, a landowner generally owes no duty to recreational users to warn or protect recreational users against the danger of a naturally occurring condition or otherwise refrain from gross negligence with respect to the condition.
[10/30]
Chrysler Ins. Co. v. Greenspoint Dodge of Houston, Inc.
In an insurance coverage dispute involving liability policies insuring a corporation and its officers where the policies excluded coverage for defamatory statements an insured knew to be false and the insurance company refused coverage on the basis of this exclusion, court of appeals' judgment in favor of the corporation is affirmed in part and reversed in part as, under the policy's known-falsity exclusion, coverage for defamation was excluded for statements made or directed by the insured with knowledge of their falsity, the policy expressly named Greenspoint as the insured, and the arbitration proceeding effectively determined that Greenspoint made the defamatory remarks through its vice-principals, and knew them to be false when made.
[10/30]
Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP v. Nat'l Dev. & Research Corp.
In plaintiff's legal malpractice case, court of appeals' judgment in favor of plaintiff is reversed where: 1) there is legally insufficient evidence to support a finding that damages in the underlying suit would have been collectible; and 2) the defendant attorneys' negligence did not proximately cause the entire amount the jury awarded as damages for attorney's fees and expenses. Because there is some evidence that the attorneys' negligence caused some amount of attorney's fees and expenses in the underlying suit, the case is remanded.
[10/23]
Missouri Pacific R.R. Co, v. Limmer
In plaintiff's wrongful death action arising out of a truck-train collision, trial court's ruling in favor of plaintiffs is reversed as it erred in concluding that federal regulations do not apply in this case, and thus, judgment is rendered that plaintiffs take nothing.
More...
Professional Malpractice
[02/04]
Elam v. Menzies
In plaintiff's suit claiming negligence in a heart operation that defendant-doctor performed, summary judgment for doctor on the ground that Kentucky's one year statute of limitations for medical malpractice suits had run is reversed and remanded as there is a factual dispute as to whether plaintiff knew or should have known he had a claim after the conversation with a second doctor, and thus, this issue should be referred to the jury.
[02/02]
Clark v. Baka
In an action for damages for physical and neurological injuries plaintiffs' grandchild allegedly sustained during his birth, plaintiffs' appeal from summary judgment for defendant-hospital management company is dismissed where the district court abused its discretion in certifying the action for appeal because the court of appeals was unable to discern how or why plaintiffs would face hardship or injustice by waiting to appeal until their claims against all defendants were fully resolved by the district court.
[01/25]
Stein v. York
In plaintiff's legal malpractice action against her attorney, trial court's entry judgment of $2.65 million in favor of the plaintiff is reversed where: 1) a default judgment for an amount greater than that stated in the complaint is void; 2) constructive notice of potential liability does not satisfy Code of Civil Procedure section 580; 3) the judgment is void and vacated as plaintiff did not comply with the notice requirement; and 4) plaintiff's motion to dismiss the appeal is denied.
[01/14]
Florida Birth-Related Neurological Injury Comp. Ass'n v. Dep't of Admin. Hearings
In a consolidated medical malpractice action, involving the Florida Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Plan established by the legislature, the decision by the Second District is quashed and remanded where, in order to satisfy the notice requirement of section 766.316, Florida Statutes, both participating physicians and hospitals with participating physicians on staff must provide obstetrical patients with notice of their participating in the plan.
[10/30]
Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP v. Nat'l Dev. & Research Corp.
In plaintiff's legal malpractice case, court of appeals' judgment in favor of plaintiff is reversed where: 1) there is legally insufficient evidence to support a finding that damages in the underlying suit would have been collectible; and 2) the defendant attorneys' negligence did not proximately cause the entire amount the jury awarded as damages for attorney's fees and expenses. Because there is some evidence that the attorneys' negligence caused some amount of attorney's fees and expenses in the underlying suit, the case is remanded.
More...
