Friday, May 10, 2024

Free Litigation Reports Find Judicial Opinions

Friday, May 10, 2024 | Back issues

Personal Injury

Exploitation and theft

Brief / May 8, 2024

AUSTIN, Texas — A federal court in Texas dismissed the counterclaims brought by Louis Black, the co-founder of the Austin Chronicle and South by Southwest (SXSW), against a former employee who sued him for allegedly coercing her into sex and withholding her salary when she refused to marry him. His countersuit alleges that she stole “several valuable comic books and pulp magazines” from his garage, but the counterclaim is inappropriate because the legal questions in the suit and countersuit “contain no overlap.”

9 of 10 wrongful death suits over Astroworld concert crowd surge have been settled, lawyer says

Associated Press / May 8, 2024

More than 4,000 plaintiffs filed hundreds of lawsuits after the concert.

Alabama IVF

Brief / May 6, 2024

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama Supreme Court decided not to rehear the in vitro fertilization case it considered earlier this year on the question of whether frozen embryos are children protected under the Alabama Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.

The first wrongful death trial in Travis Scott concert deaths has been delayed

Associated Press / May 2, 2024

Over 4,000 plaintiffs filed hundreds of lawsuits following the concert.

Deadly bean burn

Brief / May 2, 2024

HOUSTON — A federal court in Texas ruled that an engineering company that was involved in building a factory cannot be held liable for the scalding death of a forklift operator who ruptured a pipe conveying pressurized hot beans. The company were not responsible for work such as safety assessments or the placement of that pipe, so it wins summary judgment on the claims.

Died in custody

Brief / May 2, 2024

BOSTON — A federal court in Massachusetts denied the city of Brockton and its police officials’ motion to dismiss 14th Amendment and municipal liability claims brought against them after a man died in custody. He had difficulty standing upright and staying awake, which should have indicated to the officers that he needed medical attention.

Choice of law

Brief / May 1, 2024

NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit ruled that a Louisiana federal court improperly found an Indian citizen’s claims are governed by the Jones Act and general maritime law. He says he contracted malaria while working on a Liberian ship managed by a Singaporean company. The shipworker suffered gangrene and had several toes amputated, but he has not shown the relevant portions of Singaporean or Indian law conflict with Liberian law. The law of the ship’s flag prevails.

Youths challenge arrests at San Francisco skateboarding event

Michael Gennaro / April 30, 2024

Police arrested over 100 people, mostly minors, after the Dolores Park Hill Bomb skateboarding event last summer.

Philips will pay $1.1 billion to resolve US lawsuits over breathing machines that expel debris

Associated Press / April 29, 2024

The announcement is another step toward resolving one of the biggest medical device recalls in the industry's history, which has dragged on for nearly three years.

Negligent gun ownership

Brief / April 29, 2024

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A federal court in Alabama declined to dismiss a wrongful death and negligence lawsuit filed against a man who directed his friend to a gun in the back of his car, which his friend used to shoot and kill someone he was arguing with in downtown Tuscaloosa. Though another person committed the shooting, the allegations leave enough room for members of a jury to disagree as to whether the injury was foreseeable.

School abuse

Brief / April 26, 2024

NEW ORLEANS — A federal court in New Orleans denied a parish school board’s request to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that three suburban school employees used physical violence on a blind, autistic 12-year-old student in separate incidences on the same day. The child’s family’s claims are supported by video and witness testimony. According to the parents, the school board posits that “kicking, hitting, and slamming a child’s head into a table somehow does not constitute battery.”