New York Personal Injury Attorneys Blog

New York Construction Accident Law

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 05:23:12 -0500

In Torres v Our Townhouse, LLC, 2012 NY Slip Op 00418 decided on January 24, 2012 The New York Appellate Division, First Department in a one paragraph decision reversed the denial of plaintiff's motion for partial summary judgment on his Labor Law § 240(1) cause of action and granted the motion. The Court held;

"Plaintiff was injured when he fell to the ground while descending from a 12-foot-high sidewalk bridge without the use of a ladder or scaffold or any other safety device. Defendants contend that he was provided with a ladder and that his own decision to climb down a nearby tree instead of using the ladder was the sole proximate cause of his injuries. However, the record fails to support this contention. Even if defendants' evidence suggested that there might have been a ladder in the chassis under the truck at the work site, no evidence was presented that plaintiff knew where the ladder was or that he knew he was expected to use it and for no good reason chose not to do so (see Gallagher v New York Post, 14 NY3d 83, 88 [2010]; Auriemma v Biltmore Theatre, LLC, 82 AD3d 1, 11 [2011]). "

US Moves to Block Medical Malpractice Lawsuits by Military Families

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 04:26:43 -0500

From RSN;

"In defending the U.S. military's medical system in court, the U.S. Department of Justice is arguing that service personnel and their families are not allowed to sue for medical malpractice regardless of the circumstance.

As a general rule, military members are barred from taking the government to court, which has been established in several court cases, in particular the 1950 Supreme Court decision in Feres v. United States. But now government lawyers are trying to expand the scope of Feres to make it impossible for families of soldiers to sue for medical malpractice, if at the time of the bad care the service member was on active duty." MORE.

Personal Injury News Roundup

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:44:09 -0500

A jury recently found in favor of a plaintiff in a malpractice lawsuit,
and awarded him and his wife a record-breaking $9 million in damages after the doctor failed to order a X-rays or a computed tomography (CT) scan of the plaintiff's neck.

A woman injured in a wreck by a wrong-way driver claims a hospital's $20,211 fee is unreasonable for four hours of examination and diagnostic tests.

The family of a Tolland, Connecticut boy is suing his pediatrician saying he is blind as a result of her failed diagnosis.

A Portland attorney has filed a lawsuit seeking $32.5 million on behalf of a woman whose father blames doctors at Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend in Springfield for failing to do enough to prevent his daughter from suffering permanent brain injury from a stroke.

A Florida man and his family have won a $178 million judgment against the HCA-owned Memorial Hospital in Florida, and a doctor accused in the lawsuit of medical negligence in a case involving weight-loss surgery gone awry.

Costa Cruise Line announced a settlement for most of the passengers who survived the tragedy that crippled the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia two weeks ago. The agreement offers uninjured passengers about $14,460. Meanwhile, 'Cowardly' captain and negligence caused cruise ship tragedy, lawsuit claims