South Florida Personal Injury Lawyers

Thousands of federal lawsuits claiming the drug Vioxx killed or injured people by causing heart attacks cannot be pooled into one national class action, a judge ruled Wednesday.

U.S. District Court Judge Eldon Fallon, who was appointed to deal with pretrial matters for all federal suits involving Merck & Co.’s painkiller, did not rule on the possibility of separate class-actions suits for each state and the District of Columbia.

He rejected the plaintiffs’ proposal to try all of the cases under the laws in New Jersey, where Merck is headquartered.

It makes more sense to apply the law of each plaintiff’s home state to that plaintiff’s claims, Fallon ruled.

A family that was forced to move out of their home when a neighbor blew up his multi-million dollar East Side New York townhouse, killing himself and demolishing their house in the process, is suing the man’s estate.

According to court papers, Michael and Ann Conry’s neighboring apartment and its contents were demolished when their neighbor’s house exploded on June 10, 2006. Michael Conry, his wife, and their young son were forced to move to an apartment a few blocks away, said Jeremy E. Deutsch, their lawyer.

Only a narrow driveway and a single wall separated their apartment from Bartha’s estate.

Dr. Nicholas Bartha, 66, was seriously burned in the blast. He died five days later.

Authorties say Bartha caused the explosion to destroy his house so that his wife – who he was in the process of divorcing – would not benefit from its sale.

According to Deutsch, none of the family was injured because no one was home, but the apartment and many of their possessions, including china, antique furniture, and family pictures were destroyed.

The lawsuit claims that the explosion caused damage to their apartment’s walls, floors, ceilings, and windows, rendering the place uninhabitable.

The lawsuit names Bartha’s estate, and his daughter, Maria Serena Bartha, who is the estate’s administrator, as defendants.

The Conrys seek unspecified damages. They claim that Bartha was “reckless, careless and negligent and acted with wanton disregard” when he blew up his house.

This is the fourth known lawsuit filed against the Bartha Estate since the blast

The city of Houston should pay $2.5 million to the mother of a 13-year-old boy who drowned after being sucked into a rain-swollen drainage culvert two years ago, a jury decided Monday.

“I feel it was a win not only for my child, but for every child in Houston,” said Sherry Jones, who filed a wrongful-death suit on behalf of her son, Logan Jones. “We’ve had a great victory.”

The city probably will file a request to have the judgment capped at $250,000 as prescribed by the Texas Tort Claims Act, said Anna Zimmerman, Jones’ attorney.

Zimmerman said the cap does not apply, however, because the city’s responsibility to make the culvert safe is outside the act.

“This is not over,” Zimmerman said.

Senior Assistant City Attorney Jaqueline “Jackie” Leguizamón referred questions to City Attorney Arturo Michel. Michel could not be reached for comment.

Logan and his friends thought a flooded drainage ditch at Cimarron and Emporia was a playful swimming hole after heavy rains ceased June 25, 2004.

They tossed an inner tube in the water and Logan jumped, missing the floating inner tube. Within seconds, he was sucked under by the current and disappeared into the concrete drainage pipe beneath the street.

His body was found an hour later 100 to 150 yards downstream — nearly two blocks away — where the nearly 2-foot-diameter culvert emptied.

His mother filed a wrongful-death claim against the city, saying the city knew no grate covered the culvert.

City attorneys said the city staff had not been alerted to the culvert’s condition prior to Logan’s death.

Following three days of testimony and 2 1/2 days of deliberations, a seven-woman, five-man jury found that the city and Logan shared blame.

Jurors determined that the city was 70 percent and Logan was 30 percent at fault.

They awarded Jones $2,584,700 for her pain and mental anguish as well as for her son’s mental anguish and his funeral and medical expenses.

The award will be reduced by 30 percent, to acknowledge the jury’s determination that Logan bore some responsibility.

Before Jones receives any award, state District Judge Levi Benton, who presided at the trial, will determine if the judgment should be capped at $250,000.

Zimmerman said Benton has no time limit to make that decision.

A federal jury in Tulsa returned a $15 million verdict against Ford Motor Co. on Monday in a product-liability lawsuit brought by the parents of a teenager who died in a crash of a 1995 Ford Explorer Sport.  

Tulsa jeweler Kevin Moody and Veronica Moody filed the lawsuit Nov. 18, 2003, a little more than 10 months after their son, Tyler Moody, 18, was killed Jan. 7, 2003, in a single-vehicle rollover crash on Delaware Avenue near 121st Street.

Moody lost control of the sport utility vehicle while he was passing another vehicle in a no-passing zone on a curve, according to a Nov. 14 order by U.S. Chief District Judge Claire Eagan.

The SUV left the road and rolled at least 1 ¹/2 times, coming to rest on its roof, Eagan wrote.

In their lawsuit, the Moodys alleged that “because the defective vehicle had an inadequate roof-crush tolerance,” Tyler Moody was trapped within the Explorer “and his neck was pushed into his chest by the intruding roof at a precipitous angle.”

Testimony showed that Moody was wearing his seat belt and sustained no physical injury beyond a 5 inch contusion on the top of his head.

However, his airway was impeded to such an extent that he died of “positional asphyxiation,” according to the lawsuit.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Clark Brewster told the jury Monday that the roof of the Explorer collapsed when the vehicle went through what he termed a relatively slow, easy roll.

Brewster described the part that gave way during the wreck as being made of “spindly little pieces of metal engineered down to an unacceptable level to save money.”

But Ford attorney Mary Quinn Cooper said the vehicle exceeded federal standards. She said 98 percent of seat-belted SUV riders who are in rollover accidents sustain no serious injuries.

Cooper said Moody would have been fine — just as his passenger in the wreck was — if he had been removed from his seat belt sooner.

She said there was no doubt that Moody was by all accounts “a great kid,” but on the day of the accident he made “bad decisions that had fatal consequences,” she said.

The plaintiffs’ accident reconstruction expert testified that Moody was traveling at approximately 67 mph through the curve, according to Eagan’s Nov. 14 order.

The judge wrote that the posted speed limit on the road was 50 mph but that as vehicles entered the curve, another sign advised drivers of the curve and stated “30 mph.”

Cooper told jurors that Moody was traveling 37 mph over the speed limit, but Brewster said the 30 mph on the sign warning of the curve was only a recommended speed, making the actual speed limit 50 mph.

In any event, Brewster said, Moody’s speed was irrelevant to the issue of whether the roof on the SUV was defective or unreasonably dangerous.

Brewster had claimed in his Nov. 9 opening statement that what happened to Moody was “foreseeable and preventable” and that Ford engineered the 1995 Ford Explorer’s roof “very calculatedly to save money.”

The jury deliberated for about three hours Monday before delivering its verdict of actual or compensatory damages of $15 million.

However, the panel did not find that Ford recklessly disregarded its duty to the public’s safety. Such a finding would have prompted a second stage of the trial involving punitive damages.

Kevin and Veronica Moody would not comment.

Tyler Moody was a senior at Jenks High School, where he excelled in both athletics and academics.

He was a National Merit Scholar finalist, a Distinguished Graduate and an Advanced Placement Scholar with Distinction.

He also was the French Club president, a Jenks Chemistry Olympiad representative, an Adventure Club leader and a letterman in both cross-country and track.

Besides his achievements in school, Moody was an American Red Cross Local Hero award recipient. He received that honor and the Boy Scouts of America’s highest award for lifesaving for a late-night rescue of a rock climber in 1998, when Moody was 14. He later became an Eagle Scout.

Moody had planned to attend Stanford University.

A teenager who died after falling through the gap between a commuter train and a station platform had been drinking and pulled away from people who tried to help her, a state panel concluded.A lawyer for the teen’s family called the report a “cover up.”

Natalie Smead died Aug. 5 while taking a Long Island Rail Road train with a group of friends into New York City. She fell through the gap while getting off a westbound train at Woodside Station and was trying to climb up on the other side of the platform when she was struck by an eastbound train.

The state Public Transportation Safety Board’s report released Monday said that the Long Island Rail Road was in compliance with government safety standards and that Smead, 18, had a blood alcohol level of 0.23, a level associated with severe impairment.

It said her group had been drinking before and during their trip from Merrick, on Long Island. After she fell into the gap, Smead was told to stay put and someone took her hand, but she pulled away and crawled under the platform to another track, into the path of the other train, according to the report.

“This was certainly a tragic and terrible accident and our heartfelt condolences go out to Ms. Smead’s family, but there’s also a level of personal responsibility when you ride public transportation,” said state Transportation Commissioner Thomas Madison,

A lawyer for the teen’s family, Robert Sullivan, called the report a “cover up” rife with omissions to protect the Long Island Rail Road. The family has filed a notice of intent to sue. Smead was from Northfield, Minn.

Railroad officials said it is the only known fatality attributed to someone falling through the gap, although nearly 130 commuters have been injured by slipping through gaps since 2004.

From her window seat in a school bus packed with laughing classmates, LaWanda Jefferson spotted a passing orange car seconds before she felt herself catapulted sideways.”The bus went to the side, and I guess it went over,” she said. “When it was falling … I was just glad when it hit the ground.”

It struck the ground nose-first, about 30 feet below the I-565 overpass.

Two teenage girls died in the wreckage; a third died later at a hospital.

“They were falling on each other. People were screaming, yelling, crying,” said Jefferson, 16, who suffered fractures to her left arm and cuts and bruises to her face.

More than 30 Lee High School students and the bus driver were taken to Huntsville Hospital, which became a hectic trauma center Monday with emergency physicians and staff called in to help as ambulances brought in the severely injured.

Five people, including the bus driver, had undergone surgery, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Police said the bus, taking students to classes at a downtown tech center, swerved on the overpass, plowed through a concrete barrier and plunged to the street below.

Police Chief Rex Reynolds said an orange Toyota Celica driven by another Lee High student apparently came close to or struck the bus, causing it to swerve. He declined to say whether charges would be filed.

Students on the bus, which was not equipped with seat belts, were screaming when rescue workers arrived. “They were thrown all over the bus,” said Huntsville Fire Chief Dusty Underwood.

Some had to be extracted from the crumpled front of the bus, he said.

The police chief identified the high school students who died at the scene as Christina Collier, 18, and Nicole Ford, 17. A third, Tanesha Hill, 17, died at the hospital from her injuries, Huntsville Hospital CEO David Spillers said.

Some parents were called to the scene by wailing children on cell phones. Many were angered that police held them back or had no information. At the hospital, some collapsed in tears amid more confusion.

Hospital officials said the horror of the wreck was compounded by the inability of hospital staff to identify some of the more severely injured students who were unable to talk and had no identification on them.

The police chief said the driver and a passenger in the Celica went to a hospital following the crash, but he was not aware if they were treated for injuries. He said the driver was interviewed by police.

The bus driver was in critical condition, said Brooke Thorington, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Education.

“This is a heartbreaking tragedy,” said Gov. Bob Riley in a statement in Montgomery.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which was to investigate the wreck, has said that school buses are designed to protect occupants without the use of seat belts. A new design uses strong, well-padded, high-backed seats, closely spaced together, the NTSB has said.

However, NTSB board member Debbie Hersman said at a news conference Monday night that the board last week added school bus safety to its list of most wanted transportation safety improvements. She said the board is recommending that new standards be devised to improve safety when buses are involved in rollover crashes.

A school bus that plunged from an interstate overpass, killing three teenage girls and injuring about two dozen more, had been struck moments before by a car, and the bus driver was ejected before the bus crashed nose-first 30 feet below, a witness said.

Thad Sokolowski, a 17-year-old Lee High School student, told The Huntsville Times that he saw the car driven by a fellow student fishtail and maybe blow a tire.

“Then I saw it hit the bus,” he said. “Not real hard, but it hit it. The bus swerved some, and it hit the wall. Then, it went over the wall.”

Sokolowski, who was in another car when the accident occurred Monday morning, said he was shocked to see the school bus driver had been ejected and was lying motionless on the interstate ramp. A National Transportation Safety Board spokeswoman, Debbie Hersman, also told CNN on Tuesday the driver was found on the overpass, but the agency wasn’t clear if he had been ejected or somehow got out as the bus careened down the interstate and crashed over the railing.

“We thought he was dead,” Sokolowski told The Times in a story Tuesday. “Blood was everywhere. He wasn’t moving.”

Hersman said the school bus driver remained hospitalized in serious condition and the NTSB hopes to be able to speak with him. The bus driver’s name has not been released.

Police said the bus veered off the road after an orange car came up on its side, possibly striking the bus. Hersman said there is “some contact evidence” and that the bus traveled about 450 feet from the point where contact may have begun and the site where the bus went over the railing.

Police Chief Rex Reynolds said the car’s driver and a passenger went to a hospital following the crash, but he was not aware if they were treated for injuries. He said the driver was interviewed by police. He declined to comment on whether any charges might be filed.

Sokolowski said he was a passenger with a friend who was driving them to a downtown tech center, the destination of the Lee High School students on the bus.

Lee High School student LaWanda Jefferson, 16, who was on the bus, told The Associated Press she spotted the passing orange car seconds before she felt herself catapulted sideways.

“The bus went to the side, and I guess it went over,” she said. “When it was falling … I was just glad when it hit the ground.”

Two teenage girls died in the wreckage; a third died later at a hospital.

“They were falling on each other. People were screaming, yelling, crying,” said Jefferson, who suffered fractures to her left arm and cuts and bruises to her face.

More than 30 Lee High School students and the bus driver were taken to Huntsville Hospital, which became a hectic trauma center Monday with emergency physicians and staff called in to help as ambulances brought in the severely injured.

Five people, including the bus driver, had undergone surgery, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The police chief identified the high school students who died at the scene as Christina Collier, 18, and Nicole Ford, 17. A third, Tanesha Hill, 17, died at the hospital from her injuries.

The school bus was not equipped with seat belts. The National Transportation Safety Board has said that school buses are designed to protect occupants without the use of seat belts. A new design uses strong, well-padded, high-backed seats, closely spaced together, the NTSB has said.

However, Hersman said at a news conference Monday night that the board last week added school bus safety to its list of most wanted transportation safety improvements. She said the board is recommending that new standards be devised to improve safety when buses are involved in rollover crashes.

A man was struck and killed early Tuesday by a New Jersey commuter train sent to pick up passengers stranded after their first train hit and killed someone else, authorities said.Two hundred passengers were aboard an NJ Transit train when it hit a woman in Matawan on the North Jersey Coast Line just before midnight Monday, said agency spokesman Dan Stessel.

A train was sent to pick up the stranded passengers while the incident was being investigated, and the passengers continued south, Stessel said.

Then, around 2 a.m., that train struck and killed a man in Bradley Beach. Stessel said the crew on the train did not know that they had hit someone until they stopped in Spring Lake, which is about four miles away.

Authorities were investigating the incidents. NJ Transit said there were no significant delays for morning commuters. The North Jersey Coast Line runs between New York’s Penn Station and Bay Head, about 16 miles south of Asbury Park.

A lawyer for the Stonington Volunteer Ambulance Corps is asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit by a man who was mistakenly declared dead after he was struck by lightning.

Kevin Crandall, a North Stonington man who was struck by lightning and mistakenly declared dead by emergency medical technicians is suing, claiming that lack of treatment at the scene left him with brain damage.

On May 31, 2005, Crandall, a mason and blues musicians, was struck by lightning while building a stone wall. Ambulance company members Victor Lima and Iona Lyons ceased resuscitation efforts and covered Crandall with a blanket. A few minutes later a police officer noticed that Crandall was still alive and he was rushed to the hospital.

Crandall then sued Lima, Lyons and the ambulance company, charging that he suffered brain damage from lack of oxygen because of their actions. The state placed the two emergency medical technicians on one-year probation and ordered them to undergo retraining.

Peter Clark, the attorney representing the ambulance company, has argued in a motion that a judge should dismiss Crandall’s allegation of gross negligence against Lima, Lyons and the ambulance company because gross negligence is not recognized by Connecticut law.

Clark also argued in his motion that Lima, Lyons and the ambulance company are immune from a claim of ordinary negligence because they are protected by the state’s Good Samaritan law.

Crandall’s attorney Stephen Reck has asked a Superior Court judge to hear oral arguments on the issue.