Oregon Federal Court Grants Summary Judgment To Shipping Customer For Truck Driver’s Injuries
Posted on Nov 19, 2014
In a case brought by an independent contractor truck driver for injuries he sustained while attempting to deliver an intermodal container packed with scrap foam to a manufacturing company. When he opened the container, two pallets weighing 600 pounds each fell and knocked him to the ground. The plaintiff alleged a premises liability claim against the manufacturing company (the customer), but the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon granted summary judgment to the customer and dismissed the case. The court agreed that a customer receiving a loaded shipping container cannot be...
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Engineering Experts Allowed To Testify In Alleged Injury-Causing Cell Phone Case
Posted on Nov 19, 2014
The manufacturer and seller of a cellular phone was sued by a plaintiff who alleged that she sustained a burn on her left breast, which developed into complex regional pain syndrome during an overnight bus trip from North Carolina to New York. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York sorted through the plaintiff’s challenges to the defendant’s proffered expert testimony last week. The defendants proffered two engineering experts to testify about an exemplar field test in which they traveled the same bus route under similar conditions with the same model...
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Amusement Park Operator Owed Ordinary Care, Not Highest Standard Of Care To Injured Patron In Missouri
Posted on Nov 18, 2014
The Supreme Court of Missouri reversed a jury verdict in favor of a 12-year old plaintiff who sustained injuries while on an amusement park ride. The court determined that the trial court erred in instructing the jury to assess the defendant’s alleged negligence using the highest degree of care standard instead of an instruction on ordinary care. The case involved a water slide ride on which the plaintiff was injured when another of the raft’s passenger’s heads came into contact with her mouth while the ride was being hoisted up a splash wall. The claims including...
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BSEE Panel Investigation Cites Misunderstood Verbal Instructions And Failure To Account For Seemingly Routine Tasks
Posted on Nov 18, 2014
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) issued its results of a panel investigation into an October 2013 fatality off the Louisiana coast last week. The incident involved the death of a welder who fell into the Gulf when a 130-ton dry oil storage tank skid assembly became detached from a platform unexpectedly. The worker was employed by an oilfield services contractor who had been commissioned by the platform’s owner/operator to decommission and remove the platform, which had ceased production in 2012. When the contractor’s employees arrived via barge the day...
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Deliberate Intent Suit Involving Injuries From Propane Heater Dismissed In Washington
Posted on Nov 17, 2014
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington recently dismissed an intentional exposure to danger claim brought by a worker against his employer for failure to demonstrate that the employer had actual knowledge that the worker was certain to be injured on the job. The worker, an employee of a frozen food distributor, was injured during the course of his employment when gas from the propane heater he was using to defrost the company’s delivery trucks ignited. The worker sued, alleging among other things that his employer deliberately caused his injury. As is true in most...
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Refinery Owners Win Summary Judgment On Police Officer’s Chemical Exposure Claims
Posted on Nov 17, 2014
A Texas police officer brought suit against the owners of multiple refineries claiming he was damaged as a result of chemical exposure during power failures at the refineries in April 2011. Last week, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas granted summary judgment for the defendants on all of the plaintiff’s claims for the following reasons: nuisance claim–the plaintiff admitted in his deposition that his property was not damaged in any way during the incident; negligence claim–the claim was beyond the general experience of laypersons, but the...
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Louisiana Law Applies In Product Liability Suit Stemming From Natural Gas Well Blowout
Posted on Nov 12, 2014
Following a 2009 natural gas well blowout in Louisiana, the well operator brought suit against the manufacturer and supplier of lock screw assemblies alleging that the products were defective and that this defect caused the blowout. The parties asked the court to determine whether Louisiana or Texas law applied. The parties agreed that Louisiana choice of law rules should apply, but the defendants argued for Texas law whereas the plaintiff argued for Louisiana law. Interpreting Louisiana’s choice of law rules for product liability cases, the U.S. District Court for the Western...
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