Personal Injury News: Pick Of Last Month: Nov-2020
$7.5M Settlement For Autistic Boy Killed In Golf Cart Crash
A lawsuit involving an autistic boy killed in a golf cart crash on a school campus last year has settled, and the mother of the child will receive $7.5 million from the school district, as noted by the family's attorneys.
The tragic incident happened on September 09, 2019, at the El Modena High School campus, where the boy attended special education classes. The 15-year-old boy jumped onto a resting golf cart and crashed it into a railing, resulting in a significant chest and abdominal trauma that lead to his death later the same day.
The mother of the child filed a lawsuit against Orange Unified School District, alleging negligence in watching her son and in the training of his caretakers. The suit further claimed that the district was negligent and reckless in hiring, training, and supervising the caretakers, who are hired to watch the students.
The Superintendent of the Orange Unified School District, in response to the lawsuit, had said that the boy's one-to-one aide and a second aide were always next to him or near him and had also denied previous claims that the boy was not closely watched at the campus.
As a part of the settlement, the school district has also agreed to update its policies and procedures to improve golf cart safety and discard the carts which are obsolete. There are 26 electric golf carts used for a variety of reasons, including transportation of students from a classroom to an office. The district will place a memorial bench in honor of the boy in the high school's campus garden.
Columbia Gas To Pay $56M Over Gas Explosions In MA
The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) has approved a $56 million settlement that Columbia Gas of Massachusetts and its parent, NiSource, had agreed in July to pay over a series of explosions and fires in the state in 2018. The settlement approval news was announced by the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.
The horrific incident happened on September 13, 2018, when excessive pressure in natural gas lines owned by Columbia Gas caused a series of explosions and fires. It occurred in as many as 40 homes, with over 80 individual fires, in the Merrimack Valley, Massachusetts, towns of Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover.
One person was killed, almost two dozen were injured, more than 100 buildings were damaged, and 30,000 were forced to evacuate their homes.
The incident resulted in multiple class action lawsuits against the company for negligence and destruction of property. The $56 million settlement amount will aid debt relief to low-income natural gas customers and fund clean energy and energy efficiency measures in older homes and buildings.
As a part of the settlement deal, Columbia Gas also requires to leave Massachusetts and transfer its assets to Eversource Energy. In separate actions, the company agreed to pay a $53 million federal fine, along with a $143 million settlement for the class-action lawsuits.
DPU Chairman Matthew Nelson said, “Our approval of this settlement ensures that Columbia Gas is held accountable for the tragic gas incident in the Merrimack Valley, and provides needed support to the impacted communities and low-income residents.”
Oregon Inmate's Flu Death Results In $2.75M Settlement
The family of an inmate who died from the flu at the Oregon State Penitentiary reached a record $2.75 million settlement with the Oregon Department of Corrections (ODOC), and its Director Colette Peters publicly apologized to the family.
According to the court records, the inmate from Medford entered state custody in 2017 after being convicted of robbing a bank. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 70 months in prison with eligibility for early release. Soon after he began his sentence, he was diagnosed with confusion, bipolar disorder, brain injury, hallucinations, and depression and was transferred to intermediate care housing.
He contracted the flu in January 2018 and did not receive a flu vaccine at the prison in 2018 or 2017, and within a month after contracting the flu, he died on Feb. 6, 2018.
A $15 million wrongful death lawsuit was filed by the inmate's brother, claiming the Corrections medical staff and officials of failing to treat the 54-year-old inmate for the flu and then covering up his flu-related death. The suit accused the staff of negligence, civil rights violations, disability discrimination, and ruining or destroying evidence surrounding the inmate's death.
The settlement came nine months after the lawsuit was filed and is considered the largest ever paid in Oregon prison history.
Contamination Lawsuit Against PPG Industries Settled For $5M
Jersey City property owners will receive $5 million from PPG Industries as per the terms of a proposed agreement over a class action filed against the company claiming that waste from a former chromium plant presented health risks and lowered property values.
The two defendants named in the lawsuit are PPG, a Pittsburgh-based paint and coatings company, who operated a chrome factory on Garfield Avenue from 1954 to 1963, and Honeywell International Inc., a successor to Mutual Chemical Company of America.
The lawsuit was filed in 2010 by three residents who owned property on Jersey City’s south side. The suit alleged that the defendants dumped wastes, including the carcinogenic byproduct hexavalent chromium, and the hazardous materials were used for fill at construction sites across the city.
In 2015, Honeywell settled the lawsuit for $10 million and paid roughly $3,000 to about 2,000 residents across the former West Side Avenue plant, where it dumped waste for more than 50 years until the mid-20th century.
PPG was held liable for a $367 million site cleanup by a federal appeals court in a separate order in May. Under the current settlement deal, current and former owners of roughly 1,500 properties in Bergen-Lafayette would approximately receive between $1,000 and $2,500, depending on the location of their homes.
The settlement agreement does not include any admissibility of wrongdoing from the company. U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas will approve the settlement, which is scheduled to be heard in January.
Family Of A Grandmother Killed By Falling Tree To Get $28M
Whittier, the city in Southern California in Los Angeles County, has reached a tentative $28 million settlement deal with the family members of a 61-year-old San Pedro grandmother killed by a large falling tree at her daughter’s wedding party in 2016 at Penn Park.
A lawsuit was filed by the family in April 2017, in Los Angeles Superior Court, later transferred to Norwalk Superior Court, claiming wrongful death and that a dangerous condition of public property existed. The case also involves West Coast Arborists LLP, which inspects and trim trees at Penn Park.
According to the lawsuit, the 80-foot tree fell over at the park in the 13900 block of Penn Street at about 4:30 p.m. on Dec. 17, 2016. The family was under the tree, and before they could understand what was happening, the tree fell upon them. The grandmother died at a hospital, and a 3-year-old niece of the bride suffered a traumatic brain injury. Six other people were treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
An examiner who holds a doctorate in forest pathology and microbiology, on behalf of the plaintiffs, declared that the Blue Gum eucalyptus tree had become “acutely diseased,” and the root damage to the tree was extensive that could have been detected at least five years before the fall.
The city tried seeking dismissal of the lawsuit claiming the incident as a tragic stroke of nature and also has a cross-complaint against the company for indemnity.
There are nineteen plaintiffs involved in the lawsuit. The woman’s husband would receive $2.9 million, and the bride's share is to be $3.3 million, as both suffered physical injuries and have post-traumatic stress disorder like symptoms. Arborists' case is not a part of the settlement deal.