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Wildcats News Roundup
Five years later, the tragic story of the Windsor Wildcat’s deadly bus crash still strikes a cord. National and especially local news outlets have picked up the story of this first verdict awarding damages to three victims of that terrible accident. You can read some of that coverage below.
Windsor Star: “Windsor Wildcats win court battle” (March 10, 2010)
“The verdict demonstrates how seriously the jury was moved by the experiences of having witnessed the deaths of their close friends and teammates,” said Wildcats’ lawyer Moshe Horn. “While these courageous young women and man were fortunate to have survived the crash, their lives haven’t been the same since.”
Windsor Star: “Windsor Wildcats win court battle – Cash cap for crash under appeal” (March 11, 2010)
“We do not understand why Canadian law should apply in a motor vehicle accident in New York,” said lawyer Marc Albert. “We are so confident that New York law applies here, that we think we will prevail.”
Gault said, to her, the monetary sum is irrelevant. “No amount of money is ever going to change what happened.”
Law360: “Jury Awards $2.25M Survivors Of Deadly Bus Crash”
“This probably has been the most painful testimony I’ve seen in my 16-year career as a trial lawyer,” Horn said. “The verdict demonstrates how seriously the jury was moved by their experiences of having witnessed the deaths of their close friends and teammates.”
“All my life savings, it all went into Madoff and it is all gone.”
“Madoff Judge Endorses Trustee’s Rule on Losses,” from the New York Times:
The ruling is a setback for investors like Adele Fox of Tamarac, Fla., an 87-year-old retired school secretary who was widowed in 1986. Mrs. Fox withdrew more than her original capital for living expenses, but still had nearly $3 million on her account statement when the fraud was discovered.
Under Judge Lifland’s ruling, she is not eligible for cash from the Securities Investors Protection Corporation, the industry-financed organization that provides limited protection for customers of failed Wall Street firms.
“My health has been a mess,” Mrs. Fox said on Monday. “I can manage, more or less, but if I have to go into a facility, what would I do? All my life savings, it all went into Madoff and it is all gone.”
Hog Farm News Roundup
Seeger Weiss wins another victory against corporate agriculture, when a Jackson County, Missouri jury awarded $11 million to small, family farms overrun by waste this week. Read our press release for more information.
This case has garnered significant media attention, from major news outlets, to local papers, to legal blogs.
Associated Press (via Washington Post):
“If we sit down and talk, we can include more than money,” [plaintiff co-counsel Charlie Speer] told The Associated Press on Thursday. “It’s common sense. Nobody wants to live across the street from 80,000 hogs.”
“You can’t simply come into these environs, decimate the land, and expect not to be held accountable,” said plaintiffs counsel Stephen Weiss of Seeger Weiss. ”We don’t want to put them out of business. We just want them to reform how they do business.” Weiss told us residents and Premium Standard began negotiating a global settlement after the company won a defense verdict in a 2007 trial, but those talks ended when a memo from the company was leaked to the Kansas City Star. “That chilled the discussions for reasons I don’t understand,” Weiss told us. “[Premium Standard's parent company] chose to walk away from any global settlement.”
First Chinese Drywall Trial
The first trial against manufacturers of toxic, Chinese-manufactured drywall begins in New Orleans this week, coming before Judge Eldon Fallon in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Founding partner Christopher A. Seeger was named to the Plaintiff’s Steering Committee (PSC) in the Chinese-Manufactured Drywall Products Liability Litigation (MDL No. 2047) by Judge Fallon in September.
Accutane News Roundup
The news articles rolled in after Seeger Weiss secured an enormous victory for a victim of Accutane.
Associated Press (via ABC): “NJ Jury Awards $25M to Ala. Man in Accutane Suit”
A New Jersey jury has hit the pharmaceutical company that makes Accutane with a $25.16 million judgment…
National Law Journal – “This Time Roche’s Loss to Accutane Suit Is Big, Real Big”
“This drug is awful, and the warnings were inadequate. [Roche] warned about things like pregnancy and those problems, but everything else they really ignored,” said Christopher Seeger of New York’s Seeger Weiss, one of four plaintiffs’ firms that is handling the scores of Accutane lawsuits. The others are Hook Bolton, Beggs & Lane, and Levin Papantonio — all in Pensacola, Fla.
Seeger Weiss wins $25.16 million for Accutane victim
This week Seeger Weiss scored another victory against Accutane, a powerful anti-acne medication that has been linked to several serious side effects, including inflammatory bowel disorder.
On Monday, a nine-person New Jersey jury has found that pharmaceutical maker Hoffman-La Roche Inc. failed to provide an adequate warning of the possible condition to Andrew McCarrell’s prescribing physician, which then led to his development of chronic IBD. Mr. McCarrell, who was 23 at time he took Accutane, developed a severe case of IBD and later had his colon removed. The jury awarded compensatory damages of $25.16 million to Andy, now in his thirties.
Hoffman-La Roche faces as many as 800 cases around the country. Seeger Weiss has won 5 consecutive verdicts against Roche since 2005.
Toyota Recall News Roundup
February 4, 2010
Washington Post: “2007 federal probe of Toyota complaints resolved nothing”
LA Times: “U.S. safety agency to investigate possible Toyota Prius braking problems”
CNN: “Toyota Recall Costs: $2 Billion”
Time: “Behind Toyota’s Recall: Focusing More on Quantity than Quality”
February 1, 2010
New York Times: “With Eye on Its Reputation, Toyota Issues Repair for Pedal”
January 31, 2010
New York Times: “Toyota’s Slow Awakening to a Deadly Problem”
Also check out our earlier post on the Toyota recall, featuring a groundbreaking story from the LA Times, which got the in depth scoop early on Toyota’s acceleration problems.
Victory in bellwether pain pump lawsuit
Injured victim Matthew Beale, a 38-year-old father whose cartilage in his right shoulder disappeared after a pain pump was used following shoulder surgery, and his wife were awarded $5.5 million in an Oregon court last week – the first of hundreds of similar pain pump cases set to go to trail. Oregon Live details the pain Mr. Beale experienced after I-Flow, a pain pump manufacturer, encouraged doctors to employ their products in joint surgeries even after the FDA repeatedly refused to approve those types of uses.
Seeger Weiss LLP is part of the litigation group working in coordination to bring these cases to court across the country. The Oregon case is expected to set the trend for upcoming cases, and gives many pain-pump victims hope for relief and justice.
Following this giant victory for pain pump victims across the country, the New York Times follows up with a piece on pain pump studies.
Louisiana sues companies over tainted Chinese drywall
AP via Miami Herald: Louisiana’s attorney general on Wednesday sued building supply manufacturers and developers over imported Chinese drywall that homeowners claim has damaged their homes and made them sick.
Attorney General James D. “Buddy” Caldwell said he filed a lawsuit in state court on Wednesday to help state and local governments recoup the cost of dealing with contaminated drywall. The suit names a slew of companies – from Chinese drywall manufacturers to home developers – as defendants.
Doctor who faked favorable Vioxx research charged with fraud
Washington Post: Federal prosecutors announced Thursday that they have filed a health care fraud charge against a doctor accused of faking research for a dozen years in published studies that suggested after-surgery benefits from painkillers including Vioxx and Celebrex.
Court documents indicate that Dr. Scott Reuben, an anesthesiologist, has agreed to plead guilty in exchange for prosecutors recommending a more lenient sentence of up to 10 years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine and forfeiture of assets worth at least $50,000 that Reuben received for the research.
Prosecutors allege the former chief of acute pain at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield sought and received research grants from pharmaceutical companies but never performed the studies. He fabricated patient data and submitted information to anesthesiology journals that unwittingly published it, court documents allege.
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