Wrongful Death Compensation

The family of a man run over and killed by a truck driver who was falling asleep at the wheel of his vehicle after taking crystal methamphetamine, is to receive 5.2 million dollars in compensation for fatal truck accident after a jury trial in Oregon.

Kelly Linhart (52) from Medford, Oregon – also a truck driver – had alighted from his truck on September 25th 2008 to check the brakes on his vehicle. While he was doing so, he was struck by a truck driven by Daniel Clarey (54) and killed instantly. Police investigating the accident arrested Clarey for driving under the influence and charged him with negligent homicide.

Kelly´s family made a claim for wrongful death and truck accident compensation against the company for who Clarey worked – Washington Transportation – and the brokerage firm Heyl Logistics, who had contracted Washington Transportation to transport goods on their behalf. The claim against Heyl Logistics was made when it was discovered that Washington Transportation was operating without proper authority and insurance.

It was alleged in the claim for compensation for fatal truck accident that Heyl Logistics had failed in their due diligence when hiring Washington Transportation, as the latter company had lost their authority to operate for failure to conduct drug testing on their drivers. It was argued had Heyl Logistics shown more care in the selection of the transportation company, the accident would never have occurred.

After hearing testimony from both parties legal representatives, the Oregon jury found in favour of the deceased´s family and awarded 5.2 million dollars with liability shared between Heyl Logistics, the previous insurers of Washington Transport and Daniel Clarey.

The family of a man, who died from asbestos exposure after working in his home city´s shipyards, has been awarded a mesothelioma injury compensation settlement of 9.18 million dollars by a jury in Virginia after a three week trial.

John Bristow from Newport News in Virginia died in 2011 from mesothelioma cancer after working in the city´s shipyards for 37 years. Although retiring as a design engineer, doctors who attended him before his death suggested that the exposure to asbestos which was responsible for his condition had occurred in the 1960s and 1970s.

During that period, John had worked for five different companies; however the claim for work related illness brought by John´s widow, Anne, and her two sons was made against John Crane Inc. of Morton Grove, Illinois, who manufactured gaskets and sheet packing which contained asbestos for the shipbuilding industry.

Anne´s legal representatives argued that John Crane Inc. had been one of the main users of asbestos in the Newport News shipyards, and should have been aware of the dangers of working with asbestos but failed to warn their employees. It was claimed that John would have been breathing in countless millions of asbestos fibres over the years without even knowing it.

After two days of deliberations, the jury agreed with Anne´s legal representatives and awarded John´s family a total of 9.18 million dollars to account for John´s pain and suffering while he was ill, Anne´s psychological suffering while she watched her husband die from this incurable illness, and the loss of a father to John´s two sons.

A widow, whose husband died due to the delay in treatment for a perforated bowel, has been awarded a compensation for wrongful death settlement of 500,000 Euros following the hospital´s acknowledgement that they were responsible for his loss of life.

Mr Justice John Quirke, sitting at Dublin´s High Court, heard how Barry Murphy (38) from Carrigaline in County Cork had been admitted to the South Infirmary–Victoria University Hospital in Cork on the morning of April 24th 2008 complaining of pains in his abdomen.

Barry, who was known to suffer from Crohn´s Disease, was diagnosed with a perforated bowel – a particular dangerous condition for somebody with his illness – however surgery was not scheduled until much later in the day.

Because of the delay, Barry suffered a septic shock – a condition where clots form in the small arteries, stopping the blood flow and preventing oxygen reaching the vital organs – and he was pronounced dead at 11.15pm on the same day.

Barry´s widow, Mary, made a hospital negligence claim for wrongful death, alleging that the hospital had failed to provide her husband with an adequate standard of care, failed to operate on him in a reasonable time frame and were ultimately responsible for his death.

Although the hospital initially refused to accept liability for Barry´s death, an investigation into the incident revealed that the delay in treating Barry´s perforated bowel could not be justified and that the South Infirmary–Victoria University Hospital was indeed responsible for his wrongful death.

However, due to the time that it had taken for the hospital to acknowledge their liability, Mary had suffered severe psychological damage. Diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Mary´s life changed completely following her husband´s death.

At the High Court in Dublin, Mr Justice John Quirke heard that settlement of 500,000 Euros in compensation for wrongful death had been agreed between the two parties and, after an apology from the South Infirmary–Victoria University Hospital was read to the court, the judge formally approved the settlement.

The widow of a man who died due to the hospital medical negligence of a consultant gastroenterologist and a surgeon at the University College Hospital in Galway has been awarded almost 1.6 million Euros in wrongful death compensation.

The High Court in Dublin heard how Michael Davoran (47) from Ballyvaughan, County Clare, died in August 2003 from a fatal cardiac arrest after being admitted to the University College Hospital the previous month suffering from colitis. It was claimed in the action brought by Michael´s widow, Grace, against Ireland´s Health Service Executive, consultant gastroenterologist John Lee and consultant surgeon Oliver McAnena, that doctors continued treating her husband with medication for three weeks following his admission, when it was clear that his condition was deteriorating.

It was alleged in the claim for hospital medical negligence that an emergency laparotomy had to be performed eight days after standard surgery had failed to prevent Michael´s health from getting worse and, as a result, Michael died two days later when the cardiac arrest was brought on by multiple organ failure. As a result of Michael´s death, it was claimed that his mother had re-written her will to disinherit Michael´s widow and descendants from the family home on the 623 acre Ballyalben Farm, and instead passed the estate and income from it to his sister. Michael´s mother passed away soon after.

Mr Justice Iarfhlaith O’Neill at Dublin High Court heard that the three defendants did not dispute liability for the wrongful death claim, but claimed that the disinheritance was as a result of a disagreement between Michael´s mother and widow and was not connected to his wrongful death. The judge dismissed the argument, stating that had it not been for the hospital medical negligence and wrongful death, Michael´s dependents would have inherited the farm and any disagreement between the grieving mother and widow could be attributed to their emotional state of mind at the time.

Awarding Grace 1,312,275 Euros for her husband´s wrongful death due to hospital medical negligence, Mr Justice Iarfhlaith O’Neill, added a further 184,271 Euros in special damages to account for the loss of income Michael´s dependents had experienced due to being unable to work the farm and a further 50,436 Euros for lost income on the assumption that they would have rented out their existing property had the disinheritance not prevented them from moving into the family home on the farm

The family of a man, who was tragically crushed to death between two diggers in a workplace accident, is to receive £454,000 compensation from the man´s former employers following a work death claim.

Ronan Conway (27) died after getting out of the cab of his vehicle to look at something in the ground in front of where he was working. Sadly he had failed to put in place the safety lever on the digger before leaving the vehicle and was crushed between his digger and another working on the site.

Once an investigation of the fatal accident of November 2008 took place, Ronan’s fiancée of eight years Anne Marie Morgan (30), claimed wrongful death at work compensation from Ronan’s former employers – OB Hire and Sales Limited – alleging that they were responsible for Ronan’s fatal accident due to permitting him to work in a yard which had “little or no lighting”.

OB Hire and Sales Limited denied the allegations and claimed that Ronan had not followed the training he had been given in the operation of the digger and that it was his own negligence which led to his fatal accident.

However, at High Court, Mr Justice John Quirke was advised that the company had made an offer to settle the work death claim which the family were willing to accept. The final amount of compensation had been decreased to account for Ronan’s contributory negligence and was to be divided between the claimant, Ronan’s parents and siblings, and the children both Ronan and Ms Morgan had from their previous relationships.

The family of a man who suffered a fatal work accident has had the settlement of their compensation claim reduced due to the man´s contributory negligence.

Ronan Conway (27) of Kilcullen, County Wicklow, sustained his fatal injuries while working for OB Sales and Hire Limited – also of Kilcullen, County Wicklow – in November 2008. Leaving the cab of his digger to investigate something in the ground in front of him, Ronan omitted to lock the safety lever and was crushed between his digger and another vehicle working in the yard.

Ronan´s fiancée, Anne Marie Morgan (30), brought a claim for fatal work accident against his former employers, alleging that the yard in which Ronan was working was inadequately lit, but the company denied the claim and said that it was Ronan´s own negligence which had caused the accident.

In the Dublin High Court, Mr Justice John Quirke heard that the two parties had now come to an agreement over a settlement of fatal work accident compensation that took into account Ronan´s contributory negligence. The total amount once adjusted came to 550,000 Euros – a figure which Mr Justice John Quirke approved, extending his condolences to Ms Morgan and Ronan´s family.

The biggest settlement ever recorded for a US coal mining injury compensation case has just been announced, with the owners of the Upper Big Branch pit in West Virginia ordered to pay 210 million dollars in damages.

The Upper Big Branch coal mine was the site of a massive explosion in April 2010 which resulted in the death of 29 miners and, after a federal investigation, it was discovered that the mine´s owner – Massey Energy – was in breach of 369 workplace safety regulations – 12 of which directly contributed to the explosion.

The new owners of the mine – Alpha Natural Resources – will be responsible for the payment of the damages which comprises of 128 million dollars for safety upgrades, training and research, 35 million dollars in fines for safety violations and 47 million dollars for relatives of the victims.

Eighteen of the families of miners who were killed in the explosion have already settled their injury compensation cases for wrongful death, but many more remain outstanding – including nine claims for emotional distress made by mine employees who survived the explosion.

The family of Zoila Tellez, who was killed in a tragic railway accident, have had a negotiated settlement in excess of €22.5m in compensation for a victim killed by a derailed train approved by an Illinois County District Court judge.

Zoila (44) of Chicago, Illinois, was travelling in an automobile with her husband Jose and pregnant daughter Adriana in June 2009, when the family pulled up to red lights at a level crossing just outside of the city. The train that was scheduled to pass was a Canadian National Railways freight vehicle, which consisted of 114 freight wagons – 76 of which were tankers filled with liquid ethanol.

Due to heavy rain, a nearby retention pond had overflowed, washing away some of the ballast underneath the track and, as the Illinois Court heard, leaving the rails “hanging in the air”. The oncoming train, ignorant of the danger ahead, derailed shortly before the level crossing at which the Tellez family had pulled up, causing several of the ethanol tankers to explode and setting the Tellez car alight.

Jose and Adriana Tellez managed to escape from the incident with severe burns – Adriana miscarrying her baby soon after – while Zoila Tellez was unable to get out of the vehicle and burned to death.

In two separate legal cases following the tragedy, it was revealed that the County Sheriff’s Office had previously alerted the Canadian National Railways communication centre in Montreal about the potential hazard, but the employee who received the warning had not been trained about how to respond to the alert, and the message was never transmitted to the train driver.

Lawyers for the family also found that a weather warning had been sent to the company’s Edmonton office two hours before the tragedy, but the employee there had not read the full message as so many alerts were being delivered that evening. Canadian National Railways admitted that had the messages been dealt with in a prompt and efficient regard, an engineer would have inspected the track before allowing the train to proceed and would have therefore prevented the accident.

Acknowledging that the death of Zoila Tellez and the injuries to her husband and daughter were due to neglect, insurers agreed an award which sees Jose Tellez receive £14.2, while Adriana had a separate settlement of £8.7m approved by the judge.

The family of a woman who sustained horrific injuries and subsequently died after an inflatable pool slide “bottomed out” has been awarded £13m in a pool death compensation claim by a judge in Salem, Massachusetts.

Robin Aleo (29) from Boston, Massachusetts, was enjoying a day by her relative’s swimming pool in July 2006 when she attempted to go down the slide into the pool where her husband and daughter were playing. As she came to the bottom of the inflatable slide, it “bottomed out”, causing her to hit her head on the pool decking.

Robin was rushed to hospital with a fractured neck and was put on life support in a quadriplegic condition. When she showed no signs of recovery, the life support system was turned off and Robin passed away a short time after of her injuries.

Claiming that the slide had been faulty and failed to comply with federal standards for inflatable toys, Robin’s husband took the retailer of the slide – “Toys R Us” – to court in a product liability compensation claim.

In the Salem Superior Court, the jury concurred with argument and found Toys R Us professionally negligent in importing the inflatable slide from China and selling it – both online and in their retail outlets. After a short deliberation, the judge awarded compensatory and punitive damages totalling £13m to the family, saying “Although nothing can bring Robin back, this award will help provide some security for the husband and daughter who lost her.”

A San Francisco Superior Court judge has ordered three defendants in a civil action to pay a total of £1.1m wrongful death by shooting compensation to the parents of a 21-year-old man who was shot and killed outside a San Francisco nightclub.