New York City is bracing itself for tens of millions of dollars worth of lawsuits, as a court holds that the city was negligent in the case of the ferry crash that killed 11 people in 2003.

The city had tried to limit its liability in the accident to around $14 million, but that hope has been dashed by the ruling of the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals.

The ferry crash occurred in October 2003 in New York Harbor. Pilot Richard Smith was the only pilot at the helm of the ferry that had about 1500 passengers on board. He was on medication for blood pressure and had consumed painkillers. Before long, Smith blacked out at the controls. The ferry lost control and smashed into a pier. Eleven people were killed and many more injured.

In the days following the horrific crash, the city tried to play down its part in the accident. Smith was the lone pilot at the controls and regulations require there be two pilots at the helm. The city argued that it was normal practice in the ferry industry to allow a single pilot to work on his own. In this case, the former director of the NYC Ferry, Patrick Ryan, admitted his part in the accident, and admitted that he failed to enforce the regulation mandating two pilots. He was sentenced to a year and one day in jail. The pilot, Richard Smith, was jailed for 18 months for manslaughter. His role in the disaster was found to be smaller in comparison to that of upper management.

The ruling should come as good news for the many injured in the crash, many of whom suffered amputations. When the ferry crashed into the pier, it smashed though the ship cutting, injuring many of the passengers. A total of 189 personal injury lawsuits have been filed, and of these the city has settled all but 59 of the suits.

As the court said in this ruling, it would have been a small burden on the city to ensure that the regulations mandating two pilots at the wheel were enforced. At the very least, the city should have had another person on hand to render emergency assistance in case the pilot became incapacitated at the wheel. Blaming Richard Smith for being at the wheel on medication is right, but greater responsibility lies with the authorities that allowed him to be alone on that ferry in the first place.

Saying something has been done many times before – in this case – a single pilot being allowed to steer the ferry – and is therefore harmless is a ridiculous argument. Regulations exist for a reason, and as the court, said it was the responsibility of the city to protect ferry passengers.

How difficult could it have been to make some effort to enforce its own legislation? Negligence by the city is plain to see in this incident.

A tragic explosion in an office building in a Westchester business district had one casualty on Wednesday afternoon. There won’t be a huge media coverage of the incident, no politicians dropping sound bytes. Every time a firefighter or other service personnel dies in the line of duty we need to remind ourselves that these are people who risk their lives and put their safety on the line, so we can be safe.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Brent A. Lovrein was part of a firefighter team that was investigating smoke and a couple of blasts at a Westchester business district. He was investigating an office building at Sepulveda and La Tijera boulevards. An electrical vault apparently blew apart, throwing building material on the 35-year-old firefighter. He died of injuries sustained during the explosion. Another firefighter, Anthony Guzman, sustained injuries including a fractured arm and ankle and was treated at UCLA Medical Center. The firefighters were investigating the metal-clad door to the vault when it exploded. The explosion was strong enough to blow metal and stucco out of the building. Residents reported hearing what sounded like a sonic boom.

The explosion followed a series of earlier explosions in which two manhole covers were blasted into the air.

According to initial investigations, the cause of the explosion has not been confirmed, but it could have been due to an electrical malfunction. The firefighters were investigating an earlier explosion in which smoke was seen coming out of underground utilities. The cause of that explosion is still a mystery. It could not have been an electrical outage because there was no blackout in the area. Investigators are still baffled by what caused the earlier explosion.

FBI agents and Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad officers have been called in to help with investigations.

Some residents of the building reported smelling gas just before the explosion that killed Lovrein rocked the building. These reports are not confirmed. Other evidence suggests that a firefighter used an electrical saw to open the vault, which ignited the spark that caused the explosion. There has already been speculation about the possibility of methane or some other gas in the atmosphere before the explosion.

We hope the investigations can reveal the true cause of this explosion so Lovrein’s family can find peace. They deserve to know the truth behind the explosion, and what caused it. The Los Angeles Fire Department is currently mourning Lovrein and rallying around Guzman who remains in hospital for treatment. Lovrein leaves behind his parents and a brother.

General Motors is bracing itself for a 49 state class action lawsuit that’s expected to be worth anywhere from $80 million to $150 million for car owners.

In the case of plaintiff’s attorneys, the settlements could be worth up to $16.5 million.

According to Eric Gibbs, a class action attorney in San Francisco, he was part of a group of plaintiff attorneys who were preparing to go to trial late last year in the state of Missouri against GM, when the company decided they would agree to a nationwide group of consumer suits.

At least 20 million plaintiffs were expected to be involved in the settlement. Most people here are supposed to have made repairs that fell between $600 and $900.

The class action lawsuit has its beginnings in the lawsuit field by California and Missouri lawyers against GM claiming that the coolant that the automaker used in its vehicles was causing performance problems. The suits claimed violation of unfair business practices statutes and breach of warranty. All the cases claimed that the defective product was Dex-Cool, a coolant that GM began to use in 1995 model cars.

It wasn’t easy getting class certification of the lawsuits. The process was set off four years ago when an Alameda County Superior Court judge denied a class action settlement motion. In 2006, the plaintiffs again filed a motion to seek California class liability. That too was denied, but the judge said the plaintiffs could bring the motion again if they managed to find more evidence. This time plaintiffs came forward with stronger evidence including testimony from four expert witnesses. Class certification was granted.

The settlement does not cap the total amount to be paid by GM. Limits, however, have been set in other areas. There is a litigation expenses cap of $1.55 million, and court approved an attorney fee cap of $16.5 million. Plaintiff’s incentives will cap at about $140,000.

Other firms that worked on the case include Ram & Olson; Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll of Washington, D.C.; San Francisco’s Levy, and Kansas City’s Stueve Siegel Hanson.

Update

Debbie Shank dies a little every time she hears about her son’s death. Each time, she’s told her 18-year-old son died in Iraq, she cries, and then promptly forgets that’s he’s dead.

And asks about him again.

And when her husband, Jim, gently reminds her they have a child who’s no more, she cries again. And dies a little more.

Debbie Shank is brain damaged. A trucking accident left her with severe short-term memory loss, and she is confined to a wheelchair. The 52-year-old has become a symbol of the malaise in corporate America. She is currently involved in a lawsuit with Wal-Mart over medical expenses that the company paid for her medical care after her accident.

Eight years ago, the 52-year-old was a stocker at Wal-Mart in Cape Giradieu, Missouri, when a truck accident left her brain damaged. The injuries were severe enough for her to have to be admitted to a nursing home bound to a wheelchair. She now suffers severe short-term memory loss.

Debbie and her husband Jim turned to Debbie’s health plan with Wal-Mart to cover her medical expenses. She had signed on for the company’s new health plan, and the company paid out $470,000 for her medical expenses. Two years after the accident, the Shanks successfully sued the trucking company that had caused the accident, and received a compensation of a million dollars. After all legal fees had been paid, she was left with a sum of $417,000, which was immediately placed in a trust fund for her. She needs nursing home attention, and is expected to need it for the rest of her life. Justice was done, it seemed.

Except that Debbie had not read the fine print of Wal-Mart’s health contract. The company had a clause called “subrogation”, that’s becoming common with employee insurance providers, which says that in the event of the woman receiving a legal settlement, the company would be entitled to recoup all medical expenses. Wal-Mart announced it wanted back the amount it had spent on Debbie’s medical bills - a total of $470,000 against the money in her trust fund from the settlement, which was $417,000.

The company sued.

It sued a woman so brain damaged, she has no hopes for a normal relationship with her husband or her children ever again, a woman who will spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair, forgetting the people around her.

There is no doubt that Wal-Mart has a higher legal ground here. It is within its legal rights to demand that the Shanks hand over the money. But laws were designed to protect the defenseless and the weak. What’s shocking is not that Wal-Mart so coldly sues a sick woman, but the way that they defend their actions There is this moral “We are right - she may be really sick, and we feel so sorry for her, but we are right and we want our money” kind of posturing that’s beyond disturbing.

There is something very sick about a $90 billion company snatching a trust fund away from a brain damaged woman. And because the company in question is Wal-Mart, a symbol of corporate America and so closely identified with this country, it casts a pitiful reflection on our culture. As a law firm, we are always staunchly for what the law says, but exceptions could have been made. Wal-Mart says that not pursuing the money would be unfair to the millions of associates who all are part of its health plan. Do they really believe their associates or shareholders would be up in arms about making an exception in the case of a severely injured woman? What does Wal-Mart think Debbie’s going to do with the money? Splurge at Prada?

For the Shanks, the turmoil of the past few years has taken its toll, as now Jim is battling prostate cancer. Their situation is so dire he has had to divorce his beloved wife so she can receive more Medicare as a single woman.

For now, the Shanks have no choice but to go on with their lives. Their last appeal has been turned down, and there doesn’t seem to be any course of action left open to them.

A family trip to visit friends in Loudonville, Ohio ended abruptly and in a ghastly manner on Ohio 603 on Saturday afternoon. Five people were killed when their car overturned and hit some trees, killing almost everyone instantly.

The car, a 1995 Chevrolet Lumina, was being driven by 21-year-old Brandon McNeal. Also in the car were 12-year-old Ashley Nichols, her mother, 38-year-old Colleen Dailey, her boyfriend 30-year-old Wyatt Cross and Brandon’s 23-year-old brother Terry. The car was reportedly on Ohio 603, when Brandon lost control of the car and it went off the road. The car overturned, and hit some trees, before bursting into flames. Nearby residents rushed to the aid of the family trapped inside, but could do nothing as little flares and explosions kept erupting. It’s believed that all five of them might have died instantly. It was just after 4 pm.

It’s hard to say what caused the crash but initial accounts seem to be that there was speed involved. Police are looking into the possibilities of the driver, Brandon, driving above the speed limit. It does seem like there was an element of speed involved. A car would have to be traveling really fast to overturn on losing control. It’s a fact that cars are difficult to control at high speeds. Reaction times are just too short to be able to safely maneuver the vehicle in a pinch. In this case, there could have been anything, an animal on the highway perhaps, that could have caused the driver to lose control.

It’s tragic that five lives have ended, and in such a horrible fashion. Many families have been shattered in this accident. Brandon and Terry’s mother will always grieve the loss of two children in the same second. Ashley Nichols, a bright and promising student at Malabar High School, is being mourned by classmates and teachers. There have been so many young lives that have been snuffed out instantly.

It’s too late for Brandon, but we hope this car accident will serve as a reminder about the dangers of speed. Burning rubber on asphalt can seem like a thrill, but all it takes is a split second for you to lose control. High impact speed crashes are often tragic. The impact is always greater at high speeds, as in this case when the car struck some trees strongly enough to burst into flames. The risk of serious injuries like spinal cord injuries is also greater.

Soon after the pool accident that horribly disemboweled her, Abigail Taylor asked her father if she was going to be on television. When he asked her why, she reportedly told him that she would like to make sure that what happened to her wouldn’t happen to other kids. She got her wish – in December, President Bush signed a law that bans the distribution, sale and manufacture of drain covers that don’t meet entrapment safety standards, but Abigail didn’t live long enough to see the far reaching effects her case has had on swimming pool safety.

The 6-year-old died after a triple transplant surgery at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

Life had been a never-ending series of surgeries after the horrible accident that occurred on June 29, 2006 at the Minneapolis Golf Club. Abigail was attending a graduation party and was playing in the wading pool. She got stuck on a suction drain that it turned out later had been left uncovered, the strong and powerful vacuum pinned her down. The suction was so powerful it sucked at least 21 feet of intestine out of the little girl.

So complete was the disembowelment Abigail lost the ability to digest food, and had to be fed pre-digested food directly. She lost a part of her liver and pancreas. Her injuries were so severe it’s a wonder she even survived as long as she did.

Last year Abigail’s parents filed lawsuits against the manufacturers of the pool drain, Sta-Rite Industries, as well as the Minneapolis Golf Club where this incident took place. Over the 19 months since the accident, her medical expenses have reached a staggering 30 million dollars. The amount is far more than the insurance amount that the club has. It could add up to more when you factor in pain and suffering of the little child.

Her parents have lobbied hard to force legislation for better safety measures in swimming pools. Pool safety measures have been in a state of limbo for many years, and over this time many cases of entrapment of clothes and hair in swimming pools have been reported, but no action was taken. It took one little girl’s tragic injuries to force lawmakers to act quickly. Why does a child have to be mutilated or die for us to act?

For at least one South Dakota family, the tragedy is a completely avoidable one. The Shubecks had their son Mike involved in similar accident 20 years ago, in which he lost a part of his small intestine. It’s unacceptable that accidents that occurred twenty years ago are allowed to be duplicated so many years later. As Paul Shubeck says, “This shouldn’t be happening. After 20 years and thousands of pool entrapments or hair entrapments and body part entrapments, and drownings and eviscerations, this shouldn’t be happening.”

This case has raised so many questions about pool safety – about why a wading pool with just a couple of feet of water had a suction strong enough to suck out a child’s bowels, and why a suction pump cover was left uncovered to begin with, and the numerous cases of pool entrapments that have caused so much suffering to parents and children around the country.

If you or a loved one have been injured or killed in a swimming pool related accident, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury lawyer. Contact an attorney at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

After striking and fatally injuring a young 20-year-old man, Daniel Antonio Guillen apparently went right on ahead and back home. The 19-year-old teenager was arrested on Wednesday in the hit and run accident case that killed John Mary.

According to police, John Mary was on his way on foot to the Blockbuster video store at the Alameda Town Center to return a tape, when Guillen’s Buick struck him. How exactly that accident occurred was a mystery, and there were no witnesses at the scene. After Guillen sped away, another driver spotted the body lying on the ground on a driveway.

Autopsies have suggested that Mary was killed by a blunt force to the head. The police believe that he was already lying on the ground when Guillen’s car struck him at 1800 Shore Lane Drive.

Apparently Mary had a fall of some sort. It is possible he tripped. He hit the ground, and as he was struggling with his injuries or possibly, as he was unconscious, Guillen’s car arrived at the scene. When Mary was taken to hospital a while later, he succumbed to his injuries.

Guillen, on the other hand, drove right on ahead. There is no information at this point about how the police traced the hit and run back to him. But when he was arrested, Guillen reportedly admitted his crime. He was the sole occupant of his Buick at the time of the accident, and the vehicle was registered in his name. There is nothing to suggest that there was alcohol or drugs involved in this case.

All we have to blame is the man himself and his condemnable act. Guillen could have made his case a little more favorable by stopping the car and calling 911 after he struck Mary. Instead, he drove straight on, leaving an injured and bloodied man in his wake. If he had stopped and taken Mary to the hospital, perhaps Mary could have survived.

As it happened, by the time a couple of good Samaritans came upon the scene and espied the body on the ground, there wasn’t much doctors could do to save him.

There needs to be stricter punishment to deal with people who show such callousness on the street. Pedestrians who use the streets have rights which need to be respected.

Regardless of whether Mary was injured and on the ground before he was hit by the car, Guillen needs to be held accountable for fleeing the scene of the accident, and leaving a young man to die.

If you have been injured or have lost a loved one in a pedestrian accident, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury attorney. Contact a lawyer at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

The Stockton Council election has been given an interesting new twist. A lawsuit that involves an injured council contender and Stockton city employee promises to make headlines in this area over the course of the next few weeks.

The lawsuit relates to an accident that occurred in 2007 on Highway 88 near Jackson. Mark Stebbins, a former Councilman who served in the eighties and recently declared his candidacy for the upcoming election, was traveling with his wife Janet Stebbins, herself trying for the Democratic nomination for the 5th senate district, and friend 74-year-old Ruby Alston. They were on their way to a Jackson casino.

Dino Leonardi, a community and cultural services superintendent who worked for Stockton Parks and Recreations was driving to his Sutter Creek home. It was May 8, 2008 and the time was 5:10 pm. According to accident reports, Lombardi sped past the Stebbins’ car at the part in Highway 88 where the lanes merge into one. He apparently cut from the right and was driving so rashly that the vehicle had two tires on asphalt and two tires on gravel, kicking up a storm of dust and rocks in his wake. His speed, witnesses say, was between 80 and 85 miles an hour. At least one witness reported that he had been tailgating. When Leonardi’s car moved ahead of the Stebbins’, he braked suddenly to avoid hitting a car in front of him. That sudden stop caused Janet Stebbins, who was driving the car, to lose control. The vehicle sped onto the gravel and was broadside by another vehicle as it careened back again.

According to reports, Leonardi did not stop and drove straight on. In fact, he had to be flagged down by another witness and made to return to the scene of the crash.

Alston died at the scene. Janet Stebbins incurred minor injuries. Mark Stebbins suffered numerous rib fractures and a cracked sternum. He was hospitalized for close to 2 months at the UC Davis Medical Center.

The crash and the hospitalization have left a huge burden on Stebbins. His bill at UC Medical Center alone comes up to $207,000. Add to that, expenses like the on the air ambulance, the ground ambulance and outpatient costs and you have a sizable sum that’s still not been paid.

The lawsuit charges Leonardi with a misdemeanor and not vehicular manslaughter because it didn’t seem to be a hit and run nor was he directly involved in the crash.

As of yet, Stebbins has not yet decided to sue Leonardi, but given the fact that he is in debt because of his medical expenses, Stockton might well soon see a councilman sue a city employee for damages. It seems like this would be the only likely conclusion from this tragedy. Reckless riving by Dino Leonardi was what caused this situation in the first place, almost as well as if he had actually broadsided the vehicle himself. Stebbins’ election prospects have been hampered, and he is reportedly in debt because of the crash.

Driving rashly and with no concern for the safety of others on the street is condemnable. What was all that raging hurry to get home about? If he had obeyed the rules of the road, we would still have one person alive, and two people would have been spared the sort of physical and financial trauma they have suffered. For that reason alone, we hope Stebbins will take legal action against Leonardi.

If you have been injured or a loved one has been killed in a car accident caused by a reckless driver, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury attorney. Contact a lawyer at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

Two college students were injured on Tuesday, one of them severely in a truck accident in Vallejo, California.

The two students were reportedly studying at California Maritime Academy. The accident is reported to have occurred when the older model pickup truck that they were in, crashed against the railroad tracks. The truck was going at 60 miles per hour, and rolled over several times on impact. The impact of the crash was so severe it knocked the bed off the truck. Both men were wearing lap seatbelts, the only kind of belts in the car. The passenger who is 21 years old had to be extricated from his seat, and was air lifted to Walnut Creek’s John Muir Medical Center. He is believed to have suffered massive head trauma and other serious injuries. The driver has undergone treatment for minor injuries.

Not surprisingly given the massive impact of the crash and the destruction it wreaked on the vehicles and occupants, alcohol has been found to be the contributing factor. The driver has been arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and causing serious bodily injury.

Yet again, we see lives ruined tragically and permanently because of alcohol. Recently California passed a law that required driving license applicants to sign a paper saying they are aware of the fact that they will be held accountable for any deaths they might cause if they drive under the influence. It does seem as if this law will only have so much impact on the drunken driving situation in the state. Youngsters in particular are bound to not care too much once they have their licenses in hand, and we can continue to expect tragedies of this sort.

When it comes to drunken driving, the only punishment that’s guaranteed to work is to be held financial liable. Money talks, and when it comes to a person who has just caused severe injuries or death of another, financial liability may prove enough incentive to prevent repeat offenders. Since so many of DUI cases are repeat offenders, its safe to assume that having to cough up a substantial amount would prove even further accidents.

It turns out this latest accident is not the first to take place near the campus. In the recent past, at least three other students have been killed in accidents, including one who died in a motorcycle accident.

As for the family of the passenger who is fighting for life at hospital, we hope they will consider the possibility of financial compensation for their economic and emotional distress. It should serve as a lesson that the people you endanger when you decide to get behind the wheel drunk may not always be strangers, but could often be your own friends or family. Being lenient and “forgiving” actually compounds the problem, and clears the path for repeat offenses.

The Thomas family of Hoke County, North Carolina has had the most tragic of weeks – first they lost the oldest member of their family. As they were on their way to give her a burial, a truck struck the limousine that was part of the funeral procession, killing a 9-year-old girl, the granddaughter of the deceased.

According to reports, the driver of the truck, a 32-year-old soldier David Deming who had just graduated from sniper school, was on his way to his Colorado home. The limousines in the funeral procession were headed toward Clinton, North Carolina. The soldier apparently crossed the divider and sideswiped two of the limousines in the procession. 9-year-old Cheyenne Thomas was in the second limousine and died at the scene from her injures. The impact of the collision was so severe that both limousines overturned. At least thirteen other people were injured. One of them sustained injuries severe enough to warrant hospitalization, where his condition is described as critical but stable. The injured man, Richard Thomas, and Cheyenne Thomas were both traveling in the second limousine.

After Deming hit the limousines, his truck also hit another truck that was coming up just behind the limousines. Deming was treated at hospital for minor injuries and has been charged with death by vehicle and driving left of center. Reports say he wasn’t under the influence of alcohol and drugs.

So what caused the accident?

Apparently, just before he managed to lose control of his truck, Deming reached for a bottle of Mountain Dew. The split second loss of focus and distraction was enough to cause a tragedy of this magnitude. This is just another example of the kind of distractions behind the wheel that are passing for “mistakes” these days. Crash victim and relative of Cheyenne, Lynn Jackson, was gracious enough to say that she didn’t blame Deming for the crash because accidents happen. Its admirable that she found it in herself to be forgiving of Deming, but the number of deaths that are being caused by such youthful “mistakes” is increasing. Reaching out to grab a soft drink bottle is not a mistake. Its negligence, pure and simple, on the same scale as talking on the cell phone, which has been banned by many states, or fiddling with the CD player, or talking to other passengers in the car. Every time a person engages in behavior like this, he endangers not only his own self but also the lives of the people he shares the road with.

We need to stop this laid back attitude that we seem to be developing every time another youth kills a person or persons in a collision. Mistakes can happen, but more often than not accidents are the result of negligence on the street. The responsible thing for Deming to do would have been to pull over and then have a drink.

What makes it even more shocking is that Deming is a fresh graduate of sniper school at Fort Brag. You would expect more responsible behavior from a military person.

If you have been injured in a car accident, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury lawyer. Contact an attorney at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.