California Injury Lawyers Blog

March 19, 2014

Parents Sue Accused Child Killer

The parents of a 10 year-old girl who was kidnapped and murdered last month have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her accused killer, according to Courthouse News.

Hailey Owens of Springfield, MO was kidnapped as she was walking home on Feb. 18. Her body was found the next day at Craig Michael Wood’s residence. The cause of death was a single gunshot wound to the head, according to the lawsuit. Wood, a substitute teacher and football coach, was arrested and charged with Hailey’s murder.

Hailey’s parents, Stacey Barfield and Marcus Owens, sued Wood in Greene County Circuit Court. They are seeking punitive damages for wrongful death.

February 26, 2014

Innocent Deaf Man Tasered by Hawthorne Police

by Blady Workforce Law Group, APC

Hawthorne police beat and Tasered a deaf man as he signed to them that he was deaf and his friend had given him the snowboard he was carrying, claimed the victim in court.

In a federal complaint for violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Jonathan Meister claimed the attack could have been avoided had Hawthorne trained its police officers to communicate with the hearing impaired.

Officers confronted Meister on Feb. 13 outside a friend’s home as he picked up a snowboard and clothing for a trip to Utah, Meister stated in the lawsuit.

February 6, 2014

Uber-distracted?

by Blady Workforce Law Group, APC

As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle,the family of a 6-year-old girl killed by an Uber driver on December 31, 2013 in San Francisco has filed a lawsuit against the driver as well as the company, claiming that use of the fast-growing online app violates California’s distracted-driving laws. The wrongful-death suit could weigh heavily in the debate over how companies like Uber, Lyft and Sidecar in the growing ride-services industry should be regulated – and to what degree they should be held liable for their drivers’ actions.

The suit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, alleges that the driver of the vehicle – who was at that time an Uber contractor – was logged on to the company’s UberX app when he fatally struck Sofia Liu and was waiting to receive a ride request. The company, which takes a cut of every ride booked through its system, declined to comment. In the past, Uber officials have said the driver, 57-year-old Syed Muzzafar of Union City, was not providing services on the company’s basic UberX system because he did not have a passenger with him.

The suit calls this a narrow view of how companies like Uber do business. Christopher Dolan, the Liu family’s attorney, said the phone-based interface that drivers use to find fares contributed to the death of Sofia, along with injuries to her mother, Huan Kuang, and 5-year-old brother, Anthony Liu. Dolan said Uber had denied insurance protection that would have covered the family and the driver.

January 20, 2014

Defective Refrigerator Burns Man to Death

by Blady Workforce Law Group, APC

A North Carolina man burned to death when his refrigerator overheated to more than 1,000 degrees and a fireball blasted into him as he opened it, his family claims in court.

As reported in the Courthouse News Service, Jane Walker Payne sued Whirlpool Corp. on behalf of Ashley Alvin Walker, in Randolph County Superior Court.

In March 2002, Walker bought a Whirlpool refrigerator which had a defective heating element pin in its icemaker, according to the complaint.

December 27, 2013

Tippi Hedren Awarded $1.5 Million for Injury

by Blady Workforce Law Group, APC

Actress Tippi Hedren, most famous for her role in the 1963 Hitchcock film, The Birds, was attacked from above once again. In 2006, while rehearsing for the TV show Fashion House, a gallon of water fell from the ceiling onto her head. It is speculated that the water had accumulated under the soundstage’s plywood roof because a bird’s nest was blocking a condensation tube in the air conditioning system. This event precipitated six years of litigation, according to The Hollywood Reporter, culminating in a California appeals court’s recent decision to affirm a nearly $1.5 million judgment in her favor.

Hedren had long suffered from severe headaches. In 2006, shortly before taking the role in Fashion House, she underwent spinal fusion surgery. The operation brought her tremendous relief. She testified it was “a miracle”, and once free of headaches, was cleared to play the non-action role of a woman dying of cancer on the show. But after she was struck on the head by water while rehearsing at Stu Segall Studios in San Diego, the headaches returned. She tried various remedies including chiropractic, acupuncture, physical therapy, medications, Botox injections and nerve block injections, but the headaches persisted.

In October 2006 she retained attorney Joseph Allen to file a personal injury lawsuit against the owner and lessee of the soundstage.The attorney appears to have made an error. In March 2007, Allen filed a complaint, but shortly before the trial readiness conference, he dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice. He failed, however, to first obtain an agreement by the defendants to toll the statute of limitations. As a result, when the lawsuit was refiled, the defendants successfully defeated it by arguing that it came too late.

December 13, 2013

Family of North Carolina Teen Killed by Stray Bullet Sues Gunmaker

by Blady Workforce Law Group, APC

The family of a North Carolina teenager shot and killed by a stray bullet is suing the gunmaker, reports the Insurance Journal. A lawsuit filed Monday in Charlotte says the Remington Model 700 rifle misfired and the company was negligent in manufacturing it.

Almost two years ago, 16-year-old Jasmine Thar was killed and her godmother and a friend wounded by the same bullet as they were in the front yard. Investigations by the FBI and the state law enforcement agents determined the bullet came from a neighbor’s rifle that accidentally discharged while he was cleaning it.

Remington did not return messages seeking comment about the lawsuit. The Rockingham County-based company says on its website its Model 700 rifle is safe and malfunctions often involve alterations or improper upkeep. It has also been pointed out by gun experts that one should always empty any gun of bullets before cleaning or handling it.

November 26, 2013

Web retailer fines customer for posting negative review

by Blady Workforce Law Group, APC

You might want to think twice before posting that scathing review. Internet retailer Kleargear.com threatened to fine customer Jen Palmer $3,500 if she didn’t remove the criticism she had posted about the company on Ripoffreport.com. Palmer tried, but Ripoffreport.com told her she would have to pay $2,000 to remove the post, so she ignored the demand. Ripoffreport.com founder Ed Magedson said in a comment to ABAJournal.com that the site would never take down a consumer complaint, for any amount of money.

Although Kleargear did not sue to force Palmer and her husband to pay the $3,500 fine after its demand was ignored, it did report her as delinquent to credit agencies, which has made it impossible for the Utah couple to get loans. The couple has disputed the negative credit-report entry to no avail.

A Kleargear company spokesperson defended the charge in an e-mail as justified by the terms of use.TechCrunch and Techdirt provide the text of the anti-disparagement provision, which states in part: “In an effort to ensure fair and honest public feedback, and to prevent the publishing of libelous content in any form, your acceptance of this sales contract prohibits you from taking any action that negatively impacts KlearGear.com, its reputation, products, services, management or employees.” There’s some question, however, whether the provision was in force in 2008 when Palmer posted the review.

October 30, 2013

Landlord May Be Liable When Tenant’s Facebook Harassment Leads To Rape

by Blady Workforce Law Group, APC

What is a landlord’s obligation if they learn that a resident is harassing another tenant on Facebook or other social media websites? A recent case from an Ohio appellate court, reported by Eric Goldman of Forbes, illustrates the pitfalls of this situation.

The case involves the interactions between Mr. Haynes, the live-in boyfriend of Ms. Schmidt (who was on the lease, while Haynes was not), and Lindsay, another tenant who lived in the apartment right directly above. Lindsay repeatedly complained about the noise coming from Schmidt’s apartment, and alleged that Schmidt and Haynes retaliated for her complaints in a variety of ways, including loudly banging on her door and screaming at her. Subsequently, Lindsay received a message on her Facebook account asking her to have sex and linking to a pornographic video depicting people who looked similar to Lindsay and Haynes. In response to Lindsay’s repeated questions, Haynes did not admit to authoring the Facebook messages, but Lindsay believed he had.

Lindsay showed the Facebook transcript to her landlord and asked to be released from her lease because she feared Haynes. Instead, the landlord recommended she contact the police (which she did) and moved her to another apartment in the same complex. The landlord also allegedly told Haynes and Schmidt that Lindsay was moving and warned them to leave her alone. The landlord discovered Haynes was not on the lease and told him he would have to leave. Haynes tried to get onto the lease but his credit wasn’t approved, so the landlord didn’t add him to the lease. It also, however, did not evict him.

October 11, 2013

New Ruling on Bad Faith Liability

by Blady Workforce Law Group, APC

The California Court of Appeal (Second Appellate District) issued the decision Reid v. Mercury Insurance Company on October 7, 2013, in which it held that there is no “bad faith” liability for an insurer in failing to initiate a settlement or offer limits, even when there is clear liability and excess exposure, unless (1) there is a limits demand made by the caimant or (2) the claimant clearly conveys to the insurer an interest in discussing settlement but the insurer ignores the opportunity to the insured’s detriment.

In this case, the insured‟s liability was clear almost immediately after the collision. The insurer’s claims manager had decided, within a little over six weeks, that while the insurer needed medical records, the insurer must tender the policy limits to the third party claimant “as soon as we have enough [information] available to do so.” No settlement demand was made by the claimant, who filed suit against the insured three and one-half months after the collision. The medical records were not forthcoming from the claimant until seven months after the collision, and another three months passed before the insurer offered its policy limits. Under these circumstances, the trial court found the insurer not liable to its insured for bad faith failure to settle and granted the insurer‟s motion for summary judgment.

The Appeals Court upheld the decision that an insurer’s duty to settle is not precipitated solely by the likelihood of an excess judgment against the insured, and in the absence of a settlement demand or any other manifestation the injured party is interested in settlement, when the insurer has done nothing to foreclose the possibility of settlement, there is no liability for bad faith failure to settle.

August 28, 2013

$32M verdict against Domino’s for driver’s collision

by Blady Workforce Law Group, APC

As reported by the Southeast Texas Record, a Texas jury found Domino’s Pizza to be the negligent party in a delivery boy’s fatal collision, serving up a $32 million dollar verdict against the pizza chain.

Representing the estates of Devavaram and Ruth Christopher, attorney Raghurami Reddy filed suit against Domino’s IP Holder, Mac Pizza Management and driver Joshua Balka on Sept. 7, 2012, in Jefferson County District Court.

According to the plaintiff’s petition, on Aug. 11, 2012, the Christophers were traveling on S. Major Drive in Beaumont when Balka, a Domino’s employee, crossed the center lane and struck their car head-on. Ruth, 65, sustained injuries and died the next day while Devavram, 70, sustained a permanent traumatic brain injury and was left with no positive cognitive function.The case went to trial Aug. 12 in Judge Bob Wortham’s 58th District Court and ended Aug. 27.