Indiana Court Finds Attorneys’ Fees Recoverable Under General Wrongful Death Statute
Posted on Aug 17, 2014 in Product Liability | Comments Off on Indiana Court Finds Attorneys’ Fees Recoverable Under General Wrongful Death Statute
The Indiana Court of Appeals held last week that attorneys’ fees are recoverable under Indiana’s General Wrongful Death Statute. The court also found that any award of such fees is compensatory, must be limited to the amount actually lost, and should be reduced by any fault allocation. The case involved an explosion caused by a propane gas leak. The defendants appealed a lower...
Retailer Agrees To Plead No Contest To Criminal Charge For Workplace Safety Violations; Fined $950,000
Posted on Aug 14, 2014 in Construction, Investigations | Comments Off on Retailer Agrees To Plead No Contest To Criminal Charge For Workplace Safety Violations; Fined $950,000
A California criminal case against a retailer for willful violation of occupational safety and health standards was settled last week when the company agreed to pay a $950,000 fine and undergo an independent safety audit of its stores and distribution facilities. As part of the Plea and Settlement Agreement entered with the District Attorney of Los Angeles County’s Office, the company...
Railroad Worker’s Retaliation Claims For Refusing To Fabricate Safety Violations Proceed To Jury
Posted on Aug 13, 2014 in Litigation, Transportation | Comments Off on Railroad Worker’s Retaliation Claims For Refusing To Fabricate Safety Violations Proceed To Jury
The anti-retaliation provisions of the Federal Railroad Safety Act are fairly recent additions to the statute and contain, on their face, a lighter causation standard than other employment retaliation statutes. They provide that a “railroad carrier … may not discharge, demote, suspend, reprimand, or in any other way discriminate against an employee if such discrimination is due, in...
Eighth Circuit No Stranger To Lead Refinery Dispute
Posted on Aug 12, 2014 in Construction, Energy/Environmental | Comments Off on Eighth Circuit No Stranger To Lead Refinery Dispute
For the second time in the last hundred years, the Eighth Circuit last week had to decide a smelter-related dispute between the successor company to an owner of a massive Omaha lead refinery and smelter (the “petitioner”) and a railroad that leased the land (until the 1940s) on which the smelter operated. To quote the court’s opinion, “The history of this case is an archetypal tale of...
Expert Opinion Evidence Necessary To Prove General Causation In Benzene-Exposure Case Involving Gas Station Worker
Posted on Aug 11, 2014 in Energy/Environmental, Investigations, Product Liability | Comments Off on Expert Opinion Evidence Necessary To Prove General Causation In Benzene-Exposure Case Involving Gas Station Worker
In a products liability action against oil and gas companies in which the surviving spouse of a gas station worker claimed that the decedent’s exposure to benzene-containing gasoline caused his acute myeloid leukemia (“AML”), the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana denied the plaintiff’s partial summary judgment motions on a number of issues last week. The...
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