South Florida Personal Injury Lawyers

The United Mine Workers has panned a proposed federal rule designed to improve rescue operations at the 653 underground coal mines in the U.S., in part by cutting maximum emergency-response time in half.”The union does not believe the proposed rule should move forward as it is written,” Dennis O’Dell, administrator of Occupational Health and Safety, told a federal Mine Safety and Health Administration panel Tuesday. MSHA either misunderstood or ignored Congress when it crafted the mine rescue rule, said O’Dell, who suggested tabling the proposal and rewriting it after talking with the union, mine operators and lawmakers.

The rule is aimed at complying with a federal law passed last year after an explosion that killed 12 West Virginia miners and several other high-profile fatal accidents.

The proposal would require rescuers to reach underground coal mines within one hour. The current rule is two hours.

Rescue teams also would have to be certified, familiar with a mine’s workings and participate in two local mine rescue contests annually. Members would need at least three years of underground experience and 64 hours of training a year. The current requirement is 40 hours per year.

O’Dell, however, said Congress mandated rescue teams at every underground coal mine, not just two employees from each mine serving on rescue teams as proposed by MSHA.

“They should be employed at that mine,” O’Dell said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Ken Perdue, from Abingdon, Virginia-based mine operator Alpha Natural Resources, said the rule is going to cost his company $530,000 (€367,877), much of it to relocate one mine rescue station. He said MSHA’s estimate that the rule would cost the industry $3.1 million (€2.1 million) a year is too low.

Perdue added that the rule may eliminate mine rescue teams rather than increase their ranks because it would break up existing units and add so much training time that members would quit.

“It will take years and millions of dollars for us to overcome” the changes, Perdue said.

MSHA was scheduled to hold a second hearing Tuesday afternoon on proposed rules regarding equipment that would apply to all of the U.S. mines, whether they mine coal or not. Mines would have to stock additional gear to bolster rescuers’ oxygen supplies and improve their ability to detect dangerous underground gases and communicate with the surface.

Interest in emergency response was spurred by the January 2006 deadly explosion at West Virginia’s Sago Mine and was renewed after this past summer’s death of six miners and three rescue workers at the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah.

A man was run down by a car Wednesday morning while trying to stop two men who were stealing from his van, police said. At about 4 a.m., two men broke into a van parked in the Futura Condominiums, according to police. The men began unloading a compressor and other motorized equipment from inside the van when a resident saw the theft and called the owner of the van.The van owner immediately ran outside after the men with a baseball bat and a scuffle ensued, police said. The men got into their car and drove away, hitting the man in the process.

He was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.

Across the state, hundreds of people are coming forward to take on Big Tobacco again. A wrongful-death lawsuit filed Tuesday in Tampa against Philip Morris and seven other major tobacco manufacturers has now been added to the mix.

The plaintiffs are survivors of 11 people who died of smoking-related illnesses between 1992 and 2004, according to the lawsuit, filed in Hillsborough Circuit Court.

The suit seeks damages for financial and emotional stress caused to survivors of Juan Ojeda, Bobby DeLuca, Dottie Higgins, Georgina Carranza, Malcolm Chancey, Howard Haack, Addie Branton, Brigitte Altobelli, Betty Sharp, Raymond Wyerick and Jean Silver.

The local case comes one year after the decision by the Florida Supreme Court in a class-action suit known as the Engle case. In that case, the court threw out a $145-billion jury award against the tobacco industry and required that any future suits against the industry be filed individually.

The courts set a Jan. 11, 2008, deadline.

On the surface, the decision appeared to be a coup for Big Tobacco. But the high court also ruled that when future suits against tobacco companies come forward, key points the plaintiffs would not have to prove include the assertions that cigarettes cause diseases and the industry was negligent in marketing.

Bayer AG announced yesterday that it was halting a clinical trial of its heart surgery drug Trasylol because of evidence of an increased risk of death from hemorrhaging.

Trasylol , generically known as aprotinin, gained approval by the Food and Drug Administration in 1993 for preventing blood clots in certain heart bypass patients. Over the past year, however, the drug’s safety has come into question.

Accumulating Data

Data from previous studies has suggested that Trasylol raises the risk of kidney damage, stroke, and death. On Thursday, the FDA posted a statement on its website warning doctors of “accumulating data suggesting” an increased death risk.

Last year, a warning was added to the drug’s label to limit its use to patients with a higher risk of blood loss during heart surgery. Despite its risks the drug has remained on the market, though an FDA advisory panel last month urged Bayer to conduct a rigorous clinical trial.

Bayer knew about the possible increased risk of death associated with its drug, and admitted to withholding a study of nearly 70,000 hospital records suggesting that risk. The company blamed the failure to disclose the study on a “regrettable human error.”

A New York woman whose 12-year-old son died from the drug-resistant staph infection MRSA announced that she is suing a city hospital for $25 million.“What my son go through, I don’t want any kid, no mother, to go through,” said Aileen Rivera.

Missed Diagnosis

Omar Rivera missed school on Oct. 9, according to officials at his school. His mother took him to First Medcare, a local clinic where doctors diagnosed Omar with an infection and prescribed him the antibiotic amoxicillin and ibuprofen.

After midnight on Oct. 13, Aileen Rivera took her son to the emergency room at Kings County Hospital Center because he was still running a high fever. A doctor there determined that Omar was having a reaction to the ibuprofen and gave him Benadryl.

Blood Tests Confirm MRSA

Omar died shortly thereafter on the morning of Oct. 15. Blood tests conducted after his death came back positive for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, said city health officials.

Hospital officials said they were “closely examining” why Omar’s staph infection went undetected by doctors. A spokeswoman said the hospital would look into “what more could have been done to detect the infection at that time.”

On Nov. 9, 2004, plaintiffs’ decedent, Tae A.M. Im, a 47-year-old engineering foreman for Mountain Cascade Inc. (MCI), a Livermore-based pipeline engineering company, was working with his digging crew along South Broadway, between Newell Avenue and Rudgear Road in Walnut Creek. The crew was backhoe trenching for the placement of a water pipeline in a narrow strip between the street and adjacent sound walls. As Im’s crew dug the trench, the backhoe punctured an underground petroleum fuel line causing an explosion. Im and four workers perished, while several others sustained significant burn injuries.Claiming wrongful death, Im’s widow and adult children sued several companies involved in the trenching project, including Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, Houston, the company that owned the punctured petroleum fuel line, and Comforce Technical Services, Mesa, Ariz., the company it used to inspect its jet fuel lines. The other named defendants were East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD), Oakland; Camp, Dresser & McKee, Cambridge, Mass. and Carollo Engineers, Phoenix, Ariz.

Plaintiffs’ counsel claimed that Kinder Morgan was responsible for the fatal accident because it had not properly marked its underground petroleum fuel line prior to the trenching even though it knew that the project was going to be problematic. Counsel asserted that the trenching was going to be difficult for two reasons: first, the strip between the street and the sound walls was narrow, allowing for little space between the fuel line and the water pipe that was being installed; second, there had been a number of protected heritage oak trees along the strip, and Kinder Morgan knew that its petroleum fuel line in the area ran in a zigzag fashion so as not to disrupt the trees. At the time of the accident, some of the trees were no longer present, leading to confusion as to where the fuel line actually ran.

Plaintiffs’ counsel asserted that Kinder Morgan’s failure to properly identify and flag its petroleum fuel line amounted to gross negligence. Counsel contended that Comforce Technical Services, Kinder Morgan’s inspection contractor, was liable for negligent inspection.

In addition, plaintiffs’ counsel sued EBMUD, the public entity that owned and operated the water pipeline under construction, as well as the two engineering firms responsible for designing the water pipe line project, Carollo Engineers and Camp, Dresser & McKee. Plaintiffs’ counsel contended that those three defendants had knowledge of the problematic nature of the project but failed to safely address the location of the fuel line during the design of the project. Plaintiffs’ counsel maintained that it was Camp, Dresser & McKee’s and Carollo Engineers’ joint responsibility to ensure that the trenching was going to progress safely by marking obstructions posed by other utilities on the construction plan. Counsel argued that their failure to properly indicate the obstructions on the trenching plans constituted negligence. Furthermore, counsel argued, EBMUD was essentially liable for the negligence of the two firms to which it outsourced the design and installation of the water pipe line.

All the defendants filed cross complaints against Im’s employer, MCI, the construction contractor responsible for the trenching. The defendants alleged that the construction plan’s notes, drawings and other documents identified the fuel line, and that pursuant to the contract, MCUI had the responsibility for verifying the location of the fuel line prior to digging. The defendants also claimed that Im’s negligence caused the explosion since he was the trenching foreman with access to the plans at the time of the explosion.

Also, Kinder Morgan contended that the contractors were responsible for avoiding its petroleum fuel lines. Kinder Morgan’s counsel maintained that the company and its agent, Comforce Technical Services, had provided EBMUD with sufficient mapping of its fuel lines and it also had marked the area with yellow flags and paint prior to the commencement of the trenching project. Furthermore, counsel argued, EBMUD had fired its original contractor for the project because it was taking too long to locate the fuel line, replacing it with MCI, which accelerated the endeavor. Kinder Morgan maintained that MCI was responsible for hand-digging the area to locate the petroleum fuel line prior to trenching.

Counsel for EBMUD, Carollo Engineers and Camp, Dresser & McKee asserted that the three defendants provided Im and his employer, MCI, with all of the necessary maps and plans that identified where Kinder Morgan’s petroleum fuel line was located. Thus, the defendants asserted that Im and MCI were comparatively liable for the accident because they didn’t believe the engineering plans and chose to dig with a large hydraulic excavator where the plans showed the fuel line to be located. Camp, Dreesser and McKee added that Carollo Engineers was the engineer of record for the portion of fuel line where the accident occurred.

Im’s wife and two adult children who sought to recover $1.6 million in future wage loss damages, $220,000 in loss of household services damages and unspecified damages for the loss of comfort, care and society of a loved one.

The parties agreed to a universal settlement whereby Kinder Morgan, EBMUD, Camp, Dresser & McKee, Comforce Technical Services and Carollo Engineers combined to pay the Ims $10,650,000. Counsel for Camp, Dresser & McKee indicated that the company paid $250,000 to settle the Im’s claim and maintained indemnity actions to recover the payment.

All settlement money paid by EBMUD was provided by MCI’s insurance carrier per its role as EBMUD’s contractor.

The family of a boy who died in a freak wind-related accident can sue the city of Pleasant Grove for negligence, the Utah Supreme Court said.Daniel Grappendorf died after being hit in the head by a city ballpark’s portable pitching mound that was lifted from the ground and carried by a strong wind gust.

The mound measured 8 feet by 12 feet and weighed several hundred pounds. Grappendorf, who was walking in the park with his family, died of massive brain injuries.

A 4th District Court judge tossed out a lawsuit filed by Grappendorf’s family, saying the city had governmental immunity and couldn’t be held responsible for natural-occuring events on its land.

But in a ruling issued Friday, state Supreme Court justices said the wind that picked up the mound and broke it free of its nylon tether does not “constitute natural conditions on the land.”

The court said the phrase “on the land” relates to situations that are “topographical in nature, not merely atmospheric.”

Ed Moriarity, the Grappendorf’s attorney, called the ruling narrow and literal and said the family will continue to push their case.

“It’s sad for them to have to revisit this awful event,” he said. “But they’re pleased to know the wrong can be righted.”

A fire at a North Carolina vacation house that killed seven college students taking advantage of the last good beach weather may have started on a porch.It was where they talked, listened to music and danced late into the night. But investigators fear the deck just two blocks from the beach may also have been the starting point of a fast-moving fire that killed seven people, including a group of high school friends who went off to college together.

The storm of fire and smoke – so daunting that firefighters radioed for backup before they even arrived at the scene – enveloped the home early Sunday, killing six students from the University of South Carolina and one from Clemson University. Six other South Carolina students in the house survived.

The house’s owner, whose daughter was hospitalized Monday because of conditions from smoke inhalation, said his family was “numb, shocked and confused.”

“There are no words to describe what we’ve been going through,” Chip Auman said. “We are living a nightmare.”

Anna Lee Rhea said her older brother, William, was among the dead – a devastating blow to their older brother, Andrew, who made it out of the house alive.

Mayor Debbie Smith said Monday that investigators believe the fire was likely accidental and started in the rear of the house, either on or near the deck facing the canal. That side of the residence appeared to be the most heavily damaged.

Investigators should be able to determine where the fire started, but may have trouble finding a specific cause, said Dr. Rolin Barrett, a consulting engineer with Raleigh-based Barrett Engineering who has been involved in almost 1,000 fire investigations.

“So many things are consumed in fire that you can’t tell what they were like beforehand,” he said. “If a cigarette did it, then the cigarette was probably consumed.”

As authorities removed the bodies from the charred home, they found most of the victims in the home’s five bedrooms. The only person on the top floor who survived did so by jumping out of a window and into the adjacent canal, said Ocean Isle Beach fire Chief Robert Yoho.

Investigators quizzed dozens of college students who filled several homes near the site of the disaster.

Rebecca Wood, the president of the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity at the University of North Carolina, said police wanted to know if the college students were using a grill or a small outdoor fireplace called a chiminea. She told investigators she did not see anyone using the chiminea, and all the grilling was done far from the house.

On Nov. 9, 2004, plaintiffs’ decedent, Tae A.M. Im, a 47-year-old engineering foreman for Mountain Cascade Inc. (MCI), a Livermore-based pipeline engineering company, was working with his digging crew along South Broadway, between Newell Avenue and Rudgear Road in Walnut Creek. The crew was backhoe trenching for the placement of a water pipeline in a narrow strip between the street and adjacent sound walls. As Im’s crew dug the trench, the backhoe punctured an underground petroleum fuel line causing an explosion. Im and four workers perished, while several others sustained significant burn injuries.Claiming wrongful death, Im’s widow and adult children sued several companies involved in the trenching project, including Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, Houston, the company that owned the punctured petroleum fuel line, and Comforce Technical Services, Mesa, Ariz., the company it used to inspect its jet fuel lines. The other named defendants were East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD), Oakland; Camp, Dresser & McKee, Cambridge, Mass. and Carollo Engineers, Phoenix, Ariz.

Plaintiffs’ counsel claimed that Kinder Morgan was responsible for the fatal accident because it had not properly marked its underground petroleum fuel line prior to the trenching even though it knew that the project was going to be problematic. Counsel asserted that the trenching was going to be difficult for two reasons: first, the strip between the street and the sound walls was narrow, allowing for little space between the fuel line and the water pipe that was being installed; second, there had been a number of protected heritage oak trees along the strip, and Kinder Morgan knew that its petroleum fuel line in the area ran in a zigzag fashion so as not to disrupt the trees. At the time of the accident, some of the trees were no longer present, leading to confusion as to where the fuel line actually ran.

Plaintiffs’ counsel asserted that Kinder Morgan’s failure to properly identify and flag its petroleum fuel line amounted to gross negligence. Counsel contended that Comforce Technical Services, Kinder Morgan’s inspection contractor, was liable for negligent inspection.

In addition, plaintiffs’ counsel sued EBMUD, the public entity that owned and operated the water pipeline under construction, as well as the two engineering firms responsible for designing the water pipe line project, Carollo Engineers and Camp, Dresser & McKee. Plaintiffs’ counsel contended that those three defendants had knowledge of the problematic nature of the project but failed to safely address the location of the fuel line during the design of the project. Plaintiffs’ counsel maintained that it was Camp, Dresser & McKee’s and Carollo Engineers’ joint responsibility to ensure that the trenching was going to progress safely by marking obstructions posed by other utilities on the construction plan. Counsel argued that their failure to properly indicate the obstructions on the trenching plans constituted negligence. Furthermore, counsel argued, EBMUD was essentially liable for the negligence of the two firms to which it outsourced the design and installation of the water pipe line.

All the defendants filed cross complaints against Im’s employer, MCI, the construction contractor responsible for the trenching. The defendants alleged that the construction plan’s notes, drawings and other documents identified the fuel line, and that pursuant to the contract, MCUI had the responsibility for verifying the location of the fuel line prior to digging. The defendants also claimed that Im’s negligence caused the explosion since he was the trenching foreman with access to the plans at the time of the explosion.

Also, Kinder Morgan contended that the contractors were responsible for avoiding its petroleum fuel lines. Kinder Morgan’s counsel maintained that the company and its agent, Comforce Technical Services, had provided EBMUD with sufficient mapping of its fuel lines and it also had marked the area with yellow flags and paint prior to the commencement of the trenching project. Furthermore, counsel argued, EBMUD had fired its original contractor for the project because it was taking too long to locate the fuel line, replacing it with MCI, which accelerated the endeavor. Kinder Morgan maintained that MCI was responsible for hand-digging the area to locate the petroleum fuel line prior to trenching.

Counsel for EBMUD, Carollo Engineers and Camp, Dresser & McKee asserted that the three defendants provided Im and his employer, MCI, with all of the necessary maps and plans that identified where Kinder Morgan’s petroleum fuel line was located. Thus, the defendants asserted that Im and MCI were comparatively liable for the accident because they didn’t believe the engineering plans and chose to dig with a large hydraulic excavator where the plans showed the fuel line to be located. Camp, Dreesser and McKee added that Carollo Engineers was the engineer of record for the portion of fuel line where the accident occurred.

Im’s wife and two adult children who sought to recover $1.6 million in future wage loss damages, $220,000 in loss of household services damages and unspecified damages for the loss of comfort, care and society of a loved one.

The parties agreed to a universal settlement whereby Kinder Morgan, EBMUD, Camp, Dresser & McKee, Comforce Technical Services and Carollo Engineers combined to pay the Ims $10,650,000. Counsel for Camp, Dresser & McKee indicated that the company paid $250,000 to settle the Im’s claim and maintained indemnity actions to recover the payment.

All settlement money paid by EBMUD was provided by MCI’s insurance carrier per its role as EBMUD’s contractor.

In 2002, plaintiff Charles Carnes, 69, retired, suffered a stroke following prostate surgery. For the past nine years, he was a patient of Dr. John Caruso for high blood pressure.Caruso was called in to manage his medical condition while he was in the hospital. In the four days following the surgery, Caruso failed to act as Carnes’ blood pressure steadily increased, from 190/110 on Wednesday to 230/110 the following morning. In spite of this, Caruso only administered one dose of medication, which was a insufficient dose for the problem. Caruso did not come to see Carnes, but phoned in the prescription and allowed him to be discharged from the hospital without having his blood pressure checked. Carnes was discharged Friday, and was okay for the remainder of the day. On Saturday, he begins feeling pain in his body and by that night he suffered a stroke that paralyzed the left side of his body.

Carnes sued Caruso for medical malpractice, claiming that he failed to control Carne’s blood pressure over the course of nine years by not administering the proper medications. This led to an advanced accelerated hardening of the arteries, which did not allow them to constrict allowing a thrombosis. If you have this disease, the ability to constrict and dilate is less effective, and allowed for a occlusive stroke to occur as a result of hypertension.

Defense counsel argued that the medication Caruso administered to Carnes over the nine years was sufficient and that his pressures were not unordinary.

Caruso’s attorneys initially argued that additional blood pressure medicine was not given to Carnes because Caruso feared it might react with the anesthesia or pain medications, but dropped this argument when it was discovered to be unfounded.