Trial lawyer Mark Lanier of Houston-based The Lanier Law Firm will be recognized with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Association for Justice (AAJ) at the organization’s annual convention on July 14, 2015.

The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes an AAJ member of at least 20 years standing whose courtroom advocacy has powerfully advanced the rights of the wrongfully injured and who has significantly furthered the cause of justice and the mission of the Association.

The Washington, D.C.-based AAJ is the world’s largest trial bar, providing trial attorneys with information, professional support and a nationwide network that promotes a fair and effective justice system.

“To receive this award, the highest given by the AAJ, is a true milestone in my career,” says Mr. Lanier. “My ongoing commitment, and the commitment of every attorney in this firm, is to uphold the AAJ’s mission and to ensure that any person who is injured by the misconduct or negligence of others can obtain justice.”

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The parents of a community college student who went into a coma and died after a diagnostic test at Phelps Memorial Hospital Center in New York State have reached an $18.1 million settlement with the hospital and doctor who treated their daughter.

A report in lohud.com, a Gannett company, said Raina Ferraro, 19, had an endoscopy, in which a hollow tube is inserted into the body, usually through the mouth, at Phelps in January 2013 after experiencing stomach pain.

During the procedure, the patient went into cardiac and respiratory arrest. She died in May after more than two years in a vegetative state.

Her parents were represented by attorney Sanford Rubenstein.

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Thousands of slip, trip, missteps and fall accidents and train collisions occur each year at railroad stations, terminals, and
grade crossings resulting in serious injuries causing a significant drain of financial resources.

A paper recently presented at the 2015 Joint Rail Conference provides guidance in identifying common safety hazards and easy ways to reduce or eliminate these dangers. Authors of the paper are Carl Berkowitz, Ph.D., PE and Louis D. Rubenstein, a retired traffic engineer.

The paper covers a variety of safety issues, which are commonly present in a railroad environment. It also provides estimates regarding the cost of railroad related pedestrian accidents. More than 95 percent of injuries on rail system injuries are minor. The top one percent of injury claims can account for 20 percent of the total claims’ cost.

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A black teacher and coach has won a major victory in his racial discrimination and retaliation lawsuit against the Frisco, Texas, Independent School District following a ruling from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In a ruling issued June 15, the 5th Circuit found that the former history teacher’s claims were valid under both federal and state law, and should be heard by a jury. The ruling overturned a 2014 summary judgment issued by the U.S. District Court in Sherman that dismissed the case in the school district’s favor.

“Alvin Jackson, who taught world history along with being a basketball and track coach, filed a suit against the Frisco school district in 2012, saying his contract was not renewed because he complained about discrimination and racial hostility at the high school,” reported The Dallas Morning New. “He was the only black coach and core subject teacher at the campus then.”

The Kendall Law Group represented Jackson.

Read the law firm’s release.

Parties to a contract may agree in advance to an amount of money to be paid as damages in the event of a breach – a remedy known as “liquidated damages.”

A paper prepared by Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick and posted on Lexology, discusses the subject in light of some recent litigation involving college coaches and the schools that contracted with them.

“Some coaches succeed in negotiating exclusions to a liquidated damages provision that allow an upward career move (e.g., a coordinator to head coach) or to accept a ‘dream job.’ But even such carve-outs do not necessarily come without controversy,” the Shumaker, Loop authors write.

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A posting by by Mike Reilly on the Lane Powell website considers the question: When does the court apply “equitable tolling” to extend the time by which a claimant may file suit beyond the contractual limitations provision?

The article discusses the case of Wilson v. Standard Insurance Company, 2015 WL 3477864 (11th Cir. June 3, 2015)(Equitable tolling rejected even though claim denial letter failed to state date by which civil claim must be brought.)

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that equitable tolling does not trump the contractual limitations provision.

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A Texas federal judge handed down a $663 million judgment Tuesday against Trinity Industries, the guardrail maker accused of producing a faulty product that can jam and spear through vehicles, reports The New York Times.

The ruling in the court of Judge Rodney Gilstrap of United States District Court is the latest stage of a whistle-blower case filed by Josh Harman, a competitor. Harman said he discovered in 2011 that Trinity had made a critical change to the dimensions of its ET-Plus guardrail in 2005, but failed to tell federal regulators as required by law.

“The jury found the company liable for defrauding the Federal Highway Administration and awarded $175 million, which, under the False Claims Act, was tripled to $525 million.” The Times reports. Added-0n penalties brought the judgment up to $663 million.

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A Delaware jury has determined that Boston Scientific Corp. must pay $100 million to a Delaware woman who blamed the company’s vaginal-mesh inserts for leaving her in constant pain, reports Bloomberg.

This case is the first verdict after the company agreed to begin settling cases over the devices, and the biggest yet.

Boston Scientific’s Pinnacle and Advantage Fit inserts, built to buttress sagging organs and treat incontinence in women, were defectively designed and company executives hid the flaws from Deborah Barba, the jury found.

Bloomberg says the 51-year-old former bank teller contends the inserts eroded once they were implanted, leaving her with a scarred vagina and a host of medical problems.

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Attorneys from Dallas-based Simon Greenstone Panatier Bartlett, PC, a nationally recognized trial law firm, won two of the largest verdicts in Texas last year, according to the publishers of VerdictSearch. The firm’s wins will be highlighted in Top Texas Verdicts & Settlements of 2014, which will be inserted in the May 25 edition of Texas Lawyer.

The firm scored the state’s largest toxic tort verdict in Vicki Lynn Rogers, et al. v. The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. Dallas County jurors awarded $18.6 million to the family of a tire builder who died after exposure to asbestos fibers at a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Tyler, Texas. The verdict was No. 22 overall in Texas last year.

In Bobbie Bush v. Greenwood Motor Lines Inc., et al., another Dallas County jury awarded $4.1 million to Bobbie Bush for her injuries from a collision with a double tractor-trailer owned by Greenwood Motor Lines. The award was the state’s ninth largest motor vehicle verdict and ranked No. 44 overall.

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Carl Berkowitz, PE, Ph.D., AICP, a transportation and traffic engineering expert has posted the first part of an examination of a broad range of safety issues involving rail activity.

Topics in the paper include safe passenger boarding, pathways for passengers, stairs, handrails, ramps, elevators, escalators, crowding, platform-to-rail-car gap, passengers on the tracks, premature door closing, accidents between the train and platform, in-vehicle falls, jerk rate, operators and safety, applied attention, attention control, stopping distance, speed-distance relationship, emergency braking, derailments, crossing accidents, pedestrians on tracks, and more.

Berkowitz has served as a litigation consultant since 1997.

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The top Texas premises liability verdict during the past 10 years is the record $27 million jury award won by the Dallas law firm Standly Hamilton, LLP, against fast food giant McDonald’s, according to the publishers ofVerdictSearch, the firm reported in a release.

Attorney Chris Hamilton of Standly Hamilton represented the families of Denton James Ward, 18, and Lauren Bailey Crisp, 19, in their claims that lax security contributed to the two teenagers’ deaths, the firm said in the release. Ward died after being severely beaten by a large group of people who had gathered in the McDonald’s parking lot in College Station during the early morning hours of Feb. 18, 2012. Crisp died shortly afterward in a car wreck while a friend attempted to rush her and Ward to the hospital.

“The jurors’ award in this case is in line with what they saw in McDonald’s complete lack of respect for customer safety,” Hamilton said. “While it is professionally gratifying to know that a verdict our firm won is ranked among the largest in Texas, the fact is that no amount of money will ever be able to reunite the victims and their families.”

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A judge has approved a $200 million settlement for victims of a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak in 2012, reports Michigan Radio.

A Massachusetts pharmacy called the New England Compounding Center was accused of making massive amounts of back pain shots in a dirty lab, according to the report.

The drugs were then shipped all over the country, allegedly sickening almost 1,000 people and killing 64.

Southfield, Mich., attorney Marc Lipton worked on the settlement.

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Transocean Ltd. has agreed to a nearly $212 million settlement with Gulf Coast individuals and business owners over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, plaintiff’s lawyers said May 20, according to a report in TheTimes-Picayune.

Transocean owned the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, which sank after the April 20, 2010 blowout at BP’s Macondo well. The disaster killed 11 workers and set off the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

The newspaper quoted co-lead plaintiffs’ attorneys Stephen J. Herman and James P. Roy as saying, “We applaud Transocean for adding to the settlement funds established in the Halliburton settlement to help compensate people and businesses for their losses.”

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An Ashland, Ky., hospital has agreed to pay $40.9 million to the federal government to settle claims that it made millions of dollars by falsely billing Medicaid and Medicare for unnecessary heart procedures, reports The Courier-Journal of Louisville.

The government’s lawsuit claimed King’s Daughters Medical Center “knew, deliberately ignored or recklessly disregarded the fact” that its cardiologists were inserting stents and performing catheritzations on patients who didn’t need them.

According to the paper’s report, “Hans Poppe, who represents the patients in the private suits against King’s Daughters — as well as most of about 400 who have sued the London hospital — said the settlement may be the largest ever in the U.S. involving unnecessary heart procedures. He said it bolsters the credibility of the claims made by his clients against King’s Daughters.”

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Providence, R.I. law firm Mandell Schwartz & Boisclair won a $25.6 million verdict for a plaintiff who sued Rhode Island Hospital in the largest negligence verdict ever in the state.

The state’s largest hospital admitted that seven doctors and two nurses were negligent in caring for a patient who sought treatment in for a head injury in 2009. After his stay in the hospital, he left with permanent, debilitating injuries.

“The hospital conceded before trial that its staff misdiagnosed Carl Beauchamp, failed to check on him and do required exams, failed to communicate with other staff about his condition and missed signs that his condition was worsening during a span of less than 48 hours,” according to a report in The Providence Journal.

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DaVita HealthCare Partners has announced that it will pay up to $495 million to settle a whistle-blower lawsuit accusing the Denver company of defrauding the federal Medicare program of millions of dollars, reports The Denver Post.

According to the report, the company, which said it does not admit any wrongdoing, has now settled its third whistle-blower lawsuit since 2012, with payouts totaling nearly $1 billion.

The civil suit includes a claim by Dr. Alon J. Vainer and nurse Daniel D. Barbir, who both worked for DaVita. They said they noticed that DaVita was throwing out good medicine that it then billed Medicare and Medicaid for, according to the lawsuit.

L. Lin Wood of Atlanta represents the plaintiffs.

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A Michigan jury on May 6 issued a $21 million verdict against a hospital accused of performing brain surgery on the wrong patient in 2012. The 81-year-old patient died after spending 60 days on life support, her lawyer told the jury.

The attorney for Bimla Nayyar’s family, Geoffrey Fieger, said the woman was hospitalized at the hospital in January 2012 with jaw joint problems.

“Oakwood Hospital claimed that it mistakenly thought that Mrs. Nayyar was bleeding in her brain and needed an immediate brain operation.” Fieger said in a release. “She was taken to the operating room where five holes were drilled into her head and the right side of her skull was sawed out. At that time, they realized that there was nothing wrong with her, but did not inform the family that they had operated on the wrong patient.”

Oakwood has been reported to be considering an appeal.

Read the release.

A Los Angeles County Jury has returned a $13 million verdict in favor of Judith and John Winkel against the Colgate-Palmolive Company, finding that the company’s Cashmere Bouquet talcum powder was responsible for causing Judith Winkle to contract mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer caused by asbestos. This is the first verdict ever against Colgate-Palmolive for asbestos exposure from talcum powder, according to a release from the plaintiffs’s firm, Worthington & Caron, P.C., based in Los Angeles.

According to the lawsuit, Judy began using Cashmere Bouquet in 1961, when her coworkers gave her a can of the powder as a gift. She said she used the product virtually every day from 1961 to 1976. She was diagnosed with mesothelioma in January 2014.

Jurors found the company for the manufacture or sale of powder, resulting in a substantial danger, And the company failed to warn consumers, they found.

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If you are thinking about signing any agreement with a non-disparagement clause, ask questions about it, understand it and get competent legal advice, especially if you are the one who is, let’s say, more likely to disparage the other party to the contract, advises David Farren of Phoenix-based Jaburg Wilk in a white paper.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and other government agencies “have recently voiced concerns about whether some disparagement clauses may go too far by illegally prohibiting employees or former employees from filing legitimate, but “disparaging,” charges with those agencies,” he writes. “As a result, many disparagement clauses today carve out an exception for filing such charges, and you should ask for that and any other exception that might apply to you if you sign one.”

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A jury in Georgia awarded $150 million to a family that sued Chrysler Group LLC for the 2012 death of their 4-year-old in a crash involving a 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee with a rear fuel tank, reports Reuters.

The Decatur County jury found that Chrysler was liable for the death of Remington Walden. The company also failed to warn customers that the tank’s position could increase the risk of fire in a rear-end crash, jurors found.

Chrysler previously recalled 1.56 million Jeep SUVs with rear fuel tanks, although the 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee in which Walden was riding was not among them, Reuters reports.

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