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May 13, 2011

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J&J HIV Drug Contaminated with Fungicide

Teen Electrocuted by Power Line Awarded $4.4 Million

File-Sharing Company Settles $105 Million Lawsuit

Pfizer Sets Aside $772 Million, Settles One-Third of Prempro Drug Cases

Owning Up to a Boy's Death

5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals: Torts - excessive exposure to radiation

Dallas Court of Appeals: Torts - Tort Claims Act

Houston's 1st Court of Appeals: Workers' Compensation - judicial review of the decision of the TDI

 

 

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Announcements

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TTLA Annual Conference has moved to June 1-3 in Austin

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We’ll be hosting all the events you’ve come to expect from our December conference. Between the 2-day CLE, parties, meetings, legislative update & special events, you’ll leave the live music capital of the world feeling energized, connected, and bad to the bone! Check out the CLE program agendas for Wednesday and Thursday, which include a live video presentation with David Ball plus family friendly events to make this a true vacation opportunity. Click on the headline to register!  

 

Share with your FB friends: 'Loser pays' is false advertising by Rick Casey

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Rick Casey: 'Loser pays' is false advertising, Houston Chronicle 5-11-11. I was once the target of a frivolous lawsuit. I had written an article about a well-oiled chop shop. These slimeballs would buy vehicles that had been totaled in accidents. Then they would hire kids to go out and steal vehicles of the same year and model as the ones they had purchased. Click on the headline to read more.  

 

Products

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J&J HIV Drug Contaminated with Fungicide

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Johnson & Johnson has announced it has found trace amounts of fungicide in its HIV drug Prezista. The discovery occurred after the company received complaints of a musty, moldy odor coming from the bottles. The company said a very limited number of patients have suffered gastrointestinal symptoms after taking the medication, but nothing serious. The company said the medication is still safe to take, and anyone that finds a bottle with a strange smell should return it to their pharmacist.  Staff Report, Reuters  05/11/2011

Read Article: Reuters    

 

Laws/Cases

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Teen Electrocuted by Power Line Awarded $4.4 Million

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A Greenville County, S.C., jury awarded $4.4 million to a local teen in a lawsuit filed against Duke Power Co. over a downed power line that electrocuted the boy. The boy was riding in an SUV that struck a utility pole during a rain storm in 2006. Two of the power lines shut down, the lawsuit stated, but a third did not. The boy suffered burns on four percent of his body and had to have several toes amputated.  Fred Horlbeck , South Carolina Lawyers Weekly  03/25/2011

Read Article: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly    

 

File-Sharing Company Settles $105 Million Lawsuit

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Former file-sharing site LimeWire and its former CEO have agreed to a $105 million settlement over accusations that the site "encouraged users to illegally share copyrighted songs online." A U.S. District judge ruled last year that LimeWire, which had been downloaded around 200 million times, forced users to violate copyrights. The settlement is among the largest paid by a file-sharing company.  Alex Pham, LA Times  05/12/2011

Read Article: LA Times    

 

Pfizer Sets Aside $772 Million, Settles One-Third of Prempro Drug Cases

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Pfizer Inc which has settled a third of the pending cases over its Prempro menopause drug, said it set aside $772 million to resolve claims the medicine causes breast cancer. Pfizer said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday that the reserve provides “the minimum expected costs to resolve all of the other outstanding” lawsuits over its hormone-replacement drugs. The company didn’t say how many cases would be settled.  Jef Feeley, Bloomberg  05/13/2011

Read Article: Bloomberg    

 

Owning Up to a Boy's Death

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David Lionetti's swimming pool company failed to install a required safety device in a Connecticut family's backyard pool. That triggered the drowning of a six-year-old boy, state prosecutors argued, and led to an unusual homicide case against Mr. Lionetti, the company's president. The prosecution spotlighted a rare but gruesome accident called entrapment, in which powerful suction from a pool's drain traps a swimmer underwater. The case also could pave the way for similar prosecutions. The prosecutors claimed that the company had failed to install a device that would have shut off the pump when an object got in the way. Mr. Lionetti last month pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, criminally negligent homicide, in what many safety advocates hope is a turning point in decades of efforts to force pool makers to address entrapment more aggressively. The plea, which averted a possible 10-year prison sentence, imposes a three-year term of probation.  ASHBY JONES, Wall Street Journal - $$ Subscription Required  05/13/2011

Read Article: Wall Street Journal - $$ Subscription Required($)    

 

TEXAS LAWYER CASE SUMMARIES

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5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals: Torts - excessive exposure to radiation

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Plaintiffs, workers who were employed in cleaning up radioactive materials, alleged that they were harmed by excessive exposure to radiation at a Texas work site. The district court granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment as to the plaintiffs' claims that were predicated on bodily injuries and illnesses, holding that the plaintiffs had failed to show a genuine issue of material fact as to whether their physical harms had been caused by overexposure to radiation. The district court denied the defendants' motion for summary judgment with respect to the plaintiffs' claims for damages based on "offensive contact" battery by radiation. The district court erred in treating the plaintiffs' "offensive contact"claims as if they arose solely under Texas law. Although all of the plaintiffs' claims are derived from Texas law, they are deemed to arise under federal law by the Price-Anderson Act, because they are part of a "suit asserting public liability" as defined by the PAA. The panel unanimously affirms the district court's summary judgment dismissing the plaintiffs' bodily injury and illness claims with prejudice, and vacates the district court's disposition of the plaintiffs' "offensive contact" claims; and a majority of the panel remands the plaintiffs' "offensive contact" battery claims with instructions to dismiss them with prejudice. Cotroneo v. Shaw Environment & Infrastructure Inc., 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 07-20939, 04-14-2011  , Texas Lawyer Opinions (TTLA Members Only)  05/13/2011

Read Article: Texas Lawyer Opinions (TTLA Members Only)    

 

Dallas Court of Appeals: Torts - Tort Claims Act

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Lisa Teague sued the city of Dallas and Dallas county under the Texas Tort Claims Act. The trial court granted the defendants' pleas to the jurisdiction. In addition to "operation" or "use," the tort claims act requires a plaintiff to establish a causal connection between the governmental employee's actions and the plaintiff's injuries. The pleadings do not allege and the evidence does not demonstrate a nexus between the operation of the city and county vehicles and the injuries Teague sustained. The evidence showed that the person being pursued in the high-speed chase lost control of his vehicle, causing the injuries. The trial court's orders are affirmed. Teague v. City of Dallas, Dallas Court of Appeals, No. 05-10-01163-CV, 05-04-2011.  , Texas Lawyer Opinions (TTLA Members Only)  05/13/2011

Read Article: Texas Lawyer Opinions (TTLA Members Only)    

 

Houston's 1st Court of Appeals: Workers' Compensation - judicial review of the decision of the TDI

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Continental Casualty Company brought suit for judicial review of the decision of the Texas Department of Insurance, Division of Workers' Compensation in favor of appellee, James E. Baker. The jury found that Baker's compensable injury extended to a left knee meniscus tear identified on an MRI over five years after his work-related accident. The trial court entered judgment in favor of Baker and awarded $134,694.80 in trial-level attorney's fees and expenses and $33,500 in conditional appellate attorney's fees. The instruction on producing cause included in the charge was erroneous and probably caused the rendition of an improper judgment. The trial court's judgment is reversed and remanded. Continental Casualty Co. v. Baker, Houston's 1st Court of Appeals, No. 01-09-00881-CV, 05-05-2011.  , Texas Lawyer Opinions (TTLA Members Only)  05/13/2011

Read Article: Texas Lawyer Opinions (TTLA Members Only)    


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