Personal Injury Legal Theories Attorney Blog

Published on: March 10, 2016

Expert Witnesses Precluded in BMW Birth Defect Case

In a recent case, a child plaintiff sued BMW, claiming that his disabilities were caused by exposure to unleaded gasoline vapor from a defective fuel hose in his mother’s BMW when his mother was pregnant with him.

The Facts of the Case

In 1989, the plaintiff’s father bought his mother a new BMW 525i. The plaintiff’s mother was the only person who drove the car. In the spring of 1991, she noticed a smell of gasoline in the car at times. It caused her headaches, dizziness, and throat irritation. That summer, she became pregnant with the plaintiff. In November, a mechanic finally discovered a fuel leakage caused by a split fuel hose. The plaintiff was born in May 1992 with severe mental and physical disabilities. In 1994, BMW recalled all of their 525i vehicles made between 1989 and 1991, due to defects in the fuel hoses.

The plaintiff sued BMW in 2008, claiming that his disabilities were caused by exposure to unleaded gasoline vapor from a defective fuel hose in his mother’s BMW while he was in his mother’s womb. The plaintiff sued BMW in a personal injury action, claiming that the car’s defective fuel hose caused his injuries.

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Published on: March 5, 2016

Large Manufacturer Ordered to Pay $72 Million in Cancer-Related Lawsuit

By Moll Law Group

In a recent court decision, Johnson & Johnson, the world’s largest maker of health care products, must pay $72 million to the family of a woman who claimed that the company’s products caused her ovarian cancer and ultimately her untimely death. This recent verdict was the first time a jury found that Johnson & Johnson had to pay damages related to the company’s talc-based products.

The plaintiffs claimed that the woman’s fatal ovarian cancer was caused by the company’s use of talcum powder in its products, including in its baby powder and Shower to Shower brand. Johnson & Johnson advertised its Shower to Shower brand (which included talc) for feminine hygiene, claiming that “just a sprinkle a day keeps odor away.” In 1999, the American Cancer Society advised women to use cornstarch-based products in the genital area. Cornstarch is generally now used instead of talc as an absorbent in baby powder and feminine hygiene products. However, Johnson & Johnson continues to use talc in some of its products and maintains that it is safe. The woman used the products for 35 years for feminine hygiene. More than three years ago, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, which ultimately caused her death at age 62.

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Published on: February 12, 2016

Illinois Supreme Court Decision Exposes Local Governments to Lawsuits

By Moll Law Group

The Illinois Supreme Court’s recent decision in Coleman v. East Joliet Fire Protection District brings a significant change to Illinois law. Its decision greatly increases the exposure of local public entities to lawsuits. In the decision, the court repealed the public-duty doctrine, which held that local government entities owed a duty to the public in general, but not to individual citizens.

The lawsuit was filed by the family of a woman from Will County who died after waiting for an ambulance for 41 minutes. The woman called 911 and told the operators that she could not breathe and needed an ambulance. Her call was then transferred to another county’s dispatch operator, without relaying any information about the call. The second operator asked the woman questions but received no response. He then hung up and called back but received a busy signal, so he requested an ambulance for an unknown medical emergency.

Responders were then sent to the woman’s house, but no one answered the door. The responders asked dispatch for more information but did not receive any. They told the neighbors that they could call the police and ask them to make a forced entry. The responders then left, at the direction of their supervisor.

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Published on: January 9, 2016

State-Owned Railway Is Protected by Sovereign Immunity, Supreme Court Decides

By Moll Law Group

In a recent decision, the United States Supreme Court decided that a railway owned and operated by the government of Austria cannot be sued in the United States for an accident that occurred at one of the railway’s stations in Austria. The plaintiff in the case, a resident of California, sued the state-owned railway for injuries she suffered after falling onto the tracks while boarding a train at the railway’s Innsbruck, Austria station. When she fell, the train ran over her legs, requiring that both legs be amputated above the knee.

Under federal law, foreign governments cannot be sued for damages in U.S. courts except under limited circumstances. This protection is known as sovereign immunity, and it was codified by Congress in the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.

The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act includes several limited exceptions, one of which permits a lawsuit against a foreign government when an injury is based upon commercial activity conducted in the United States. In her lawsuit, the injured American alleged that this exception applied in her case — and thus that her suit for damages should proceed — because her injuries were based upon the purchase of a train pass that occurred in the United States.

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Published on: December 11, 2015

Former Football Players May Be Entitled to Compensation for Head Injuries

By Moll Law Group

For years, many former professional football players struggled with a constellation of neurological and mental health symptoms of unknown etiology. Many players believed that their symptoms were the result of their days on the gridiron, but clear explanations were rarely forthcoming.

More recently, the base of evidence has grown to indicate that repeated blows to the head, especially those involving concussions, can cause severe neurological impairments and a condition called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). While symptoms may be mild at first, retired players may ultimately be plagued by Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS), and severe dementia as a result of their playing days. CTE is also associated with extreme depression and even suicide.

As a result of their debilitating conditions, more than 5,000 former players sued the National Football League (NFL) for failing to warn them of the dangers of repeated concussions, and even concealing those dangers. These lawsuits were ultimately consolidated into a class action lawsuit, which also alleged that the NFL knew or should have known of the risks associated with frequent blows to the head.

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Published on: November 30, 2015

Illinois Resident Receives Multi-Million Dollar Verdict for Cruise-Related Injuries

By Moll Law Group

According to a news report, a jury in Seattle recently awarded a man from Illinois $21.5 million in damages as a result of injuries he suffered while taking a cruise around the world with his wife and daughter. At the trial, the 61-year-old man alleged that one of the ship’s automatic sliding glass doors closed on his face and head due to problematic motion sensors, causing him to suffer an injury to his brain. As a result, he is now plagued by seizures, vertigo, and memory loss.

After the accident, a doctor on board the ship diagnosed the man with a concussion. However, tests later revealed that the man suffered more serious head injuries. Because of his injuries, the passenger struggles to perform previously routine tasks and was forced to sell his retail business.

At the trial, the man’s attorney offered evidence of 16 other incidents involving sliding doors on the cruise line’s ships over the last three years. The cruise line denied that allegation. The lawyer for the Illinois man also alleged that the cruise line withheld documentation relating to nearly 35 incidents involving automatic sliding doors on its ships, but the judge would not allow the lawyer to discuss the majority of those cases in front of the jury.

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Published on: October 16, 2015

“Dram Shop” Case Filed Against Local Illinois Bar

By Moll Law Group

Earlier this month, a trial began on the issue of whether an Illinois bar served a patron to the point of intoxication before he went on to cause serious injuries to one of the bar’s other patrons. According to one local news source that reported on the case, the incident occurred back in May of last year, when the plaintiff was at the establishment having a drink at the bar.

Evidently, one of the other patrons started to get rowdy and made some sexually inappropriate remarks to the bartender, who asked the man to leave. The man refused to leave, and the bartender then enlisted the help of other customers to get the intoxicated man out of the bar. The plaintiff was one of the men involved in confronting the intoxicated man, and when he attempted to get the man out of the bar, a fight broke out.

While the plaintiff claims all his attempts were peaceful, the interactions eventually turned violent, and the plaintiff was hit, causing him to fall into a pool table. He suffered serious and permanent injuries as a result, and he filed suit against the bar under a Dram Shop theory of liability.

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