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.”

CBC News: “$2.25M for players, coach in 2005 bus crash”

“Admission of liability in this first phase of trial by the defendants was a significant development toward the resolution of years of litigation,” said Chris Seeger, lead trial attorney.

The remaining eight victims are expected to have their cases go to trial in the coming months, said the law firm.

“These were among the less serious of the injuries suffered among our clients,” said Moshe Horn, who represented Labadie, Gault and Mailloux. “This is a tremendous result.”

Montreal Gazette: “Injured hockey players win compensation fight”

“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 (they) were fortunate to have survived the crash, their lives haven’t been the same since.”

Canadian Press: “N.Y. jury awards millions to Windsor Wildcats hockey players after deadly crash”

Lawyer Moshe Horn says the jury heard from his clients and their families and recognized the victims “went through real trauma.”

All three suffered orthopedic injuries and were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder following the crash on Interstate 390.

A truck driver and three bus passengers were killed when the bus carrying the team rear-ended a tractor-trailer that was parked on the side of the highway near Rochester in January 2005.

“This was not easy,” Horn said.

“These people went on the stand and really, really laid bare all of the pain they’ve been through. It took a lot of courage.”

Petersborough Examiner: “N.Y. jury awards millions to Windsor Wildcats girls’ hockey players, coach after deadly crash”

“We will be involved in future cases and some of those involve more significant injuries and deaths. There are major cases coming up… These kids have been permanently scarred emotionally from this. Five years later, you see what a monstrous emotional impact this continues to have with them.”

Democrat and Chronicle: “3 injured in 2005 bus crash on I-390 win $2.25 million in lawsuit” (March 10, 2010)

Democrat and Chronicle: “Bus crash victims awarded $2.25 million” (March 11, 2010)

“We believe the jury did the right thing here and awarded a sum commensurate with the very significant physical and emotional injuries,” said Marc Albert, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. “Some suffered significant brain injuries. Some suffered extremely serious orthopedic injuries. Several girls had both legs broken and required multiple surgeries and are permanently disabled,” Albert said.

Rochester Business Journal: “Jury awards $2.25M to 3 victims of ‘05 crash”

Livingston County News: “Bus crash victims awarded $2.25 million”

Buffalo News: “3 injured in 2005 crash to get $2.25 million”

London Free Press: “$2.25M in damages awarded in Bus Crash”

WCAX Vermont: “NY jury awards $2.25M to bus crash victims”

WHAM, Channel 13: “Jury awards $2.25M to bus crash victims”

Slam Sports: “Jury awards milions to Windsor hockey players”

Republished from 2005

Windsor Star: “Reducing the Odds”

What was a 24-year-old doing at the helm of a charter bus that could carry as many as 55 passengers?

Windsor Star: “‘There is no way’: Tears flow for crash victims”

“It’s a huge loss to our organization as well as our community … this affects so many people,” said Kevin Beaudoin, president of the LaSalle Minor Hockey Association.

Windsor Star: “Police probe driver fatigue: Hockey team bus crash kills 4; Wildcats coach, son, 13, player’s mother killed”

It’s “unbelievable” more than four people weren’t killed when a bus carrying a Windsor Wildcats women’s hockey team and their relatives was sliced in half, from the front to the rear, after veering off a highway here and slamming into a parked tractor-trailer, say police.

Windsor Star: “Comfort new hire: Bus driver started working charters last month”

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.”

AmLaw Daily:

“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.”

Virginia Pilot:

“These corporations have chosen to invade traditional family farming communities and construct industrial operations that simply fail to respect the community and the land,” said Stephen A. Weiss, a New York attorney who represented the families.

Kansas City Star:

Several are fifth-generation farming families. They testified that the odors and swarms of flies sometimes drove them indoors. The situation made it hard to invite people over for barbecues or picnics, they said. One woman who sold Mary Kay cosmetics said she couldn’t have parties at her house. The daughter of one couple testified she couldn’t play outside as a child when the odors rolled in.

Law360:

“The families who brought this case have been living under a toxic cloud of hog waste produced by Premium Standard for more than 11 years,” plaintiffs’ lawyer Richard H. Middleton said.

The PopTort:

Mostly what the families want is odor abatement.  Their attorney said, ”If we sit down and talk, we can include more than money….It’s common sense. Nobody wants to live across the street from 80,000 hogs.”

USAgNet.com:

A Missouri jury has awarded $11 million to 15 people who complained of foul odors emanating from a nearby hog farm.

JDJournal:

“The families who brought this case have been living under a toxic cloud of hog waste produced by Premium Standard for more than 11 years,” said lead trial counsel Richard Middleton Jr. in a statement.

FindLaw Decided Blog:

The Premium Standard operation in Gentry County, Missouri, emitted odors so foul, they “defied description,” according to Stephen A. Weiss, one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs.

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.

New Jersey Law Journal – “In Retrial, N.J. Jury Awards $25 Million to Accutane User”

David Buchanan of Seeger Weiss in New York, one of the plaintiffs lawyers, says the reversal disappointed him at the time, but he was buoyed by the affirmance of Higbee’s other rulings. As a result, he says, the appeals court “provided a blueprint that will be useful in other trials.”

Buchanan says it is impossible to say for certain why the second jury returned so magnified a verdict after hearing the defense evidence the judge excluded at the first trial.

Two possible explanations: First, the first jury’s damage finding was lower than it should have been. “McCarrell’s case is one of the most serious,” he says. Second, the experience of the first trial has improved the plaintiffs lawyers’ presentations. “We’re getting better,” he says.

Buchanan says Tuesday’s verdict should send a message to the company that a settlement of pending cases would be wise. “I would hope they would acknowledge what the juries are telling them. I am hoping the message is heard.”

Law360 – “Roche Hit With $25M Accutane Verdict”

The nine-member jury found that Roche failed to provide an adequate warning to McCarrell’s prescribing physician about the risks of inflammatory bowel disease from Accutane and that that failure to warn was a “proximate cause” of McCarrell’s IBD, according to McCarrell’s lawyers.

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.

October 4

• New Orleans Times-Picayune: “Chinese drywall problems have spotlighted flaws in the U.S. legal system“

October 7

• New York Times: “Thousands of Homeowners Cite Drywall for Ills“
• Miami Herald: “Homeowners could lose insurance coverage over Chinese-drywall woes“

October 8

• The Atlantic Monthly: “The (Not So) Great Walls of China“
• Minneapolis Star-Tribune: “Toxic fumes in U.S. homes blamed on Chinese drywall“