On the July 29th, the Kansas City Star newspaper reported that:

On Tuesday, the Missouri Court of Appeals in Kansas City upheld a jury verdict that requires Allstate Insurance Company to pay more than $16 million in damages.

The case beganon March 24, 2000, when Wayne Davis Jr. got into his pickup while intoxicated, crossed the center line on U.S. 54 in Camden County and hit a compact car head-on.  The driver and the passenger, Edward Johnson and his wife, Virginia, survived but suffered life-threatening injuries. Virginia was hospitalized for 40 days and Edward for 35 days. Their combined hospital bills totaled $320,000.

Although the Johnsons offered to settle for Davis’ minimal insurance policy limits of $50,000, his carrier, Allstate Insurance Co., did not respond until six months later. That was after the statutory 60-day limit for accepting had expired.

After Allstate failed to settle, the Johnsons sued Davis. He consented to a judgment in their favor of more than $5 million — $2.5 million in actual damages, $1.5 million in punitive damages and more than $1 million in prejudgment interest.

The Supreme Court in New Jersey recently decided that a woman who saw her own mother killed in a car wreck can sue the other driver for negligently inflicting emotional distress.

The decision reached allows the claim to be made despite the state's previous position that generally only allowed victims to sue only for physical injuries.

The father of a 17-year-old honor student killed in a January car crash on Interstate 95 has sued the contractor and engineering firms in charge of a road construction project as well as the driver of the vehicle that rear-ended the car in which the teen was a passenger.

Philip Davis, on behalf of his son, Brian Davis, blames abrupt lane closures and inadequate lighting and warnings for the four-vehicle crash in Lake Worth on Jan. 8.

Defendants Astaldi Construction Corp. and Corradino Group Inc. as well as Mark Best are the named defendants. Best's Chevrolet truck rear-ended the Toyota Camry that Davis was in. The wreck occurred near a construction zone on Sixth Avenue South.

Davis was coming home from an English study class. At Palm Beach Gardens High School, he was captain of the swim team and also a member of the varsity track team.
- 23 - 30

Capt. Clint Roberts makes his living cutting accident victims out of hideously mangled vehicles, but even he could hardly believe it when two people in a 2007 midsize car survived a head-on crash with a full- sized pickup last year.

The Ford Fusion's reinforced steel construction probably saved the lives of the 18-year-old driver and his 16-year-old passenger. But Roberts said it gave his Hillsborough County Fire Rescue crew fits as they tried to free them last November.

Because hydraulic cutters couldn't shear the roof posts, rescue workers had to turn to heavy-duty electric saws, replacing blade after blade as they dulled on the rugged material.

"It was just beating the snot out of the tools," adding minutes and delaying medical treatment, Roberts said.

Authorities say 11 students were taken to metro Atlanta hospitals with injuries after a school bus carrying 27 students overturned in Cherokee County.

Bus Number 427 was on its way to Sequoya High School and Dean Rusk Middle School in Canton, about 40 miles north of Atlanta, when it went off Georgia 140 near Canton and overturned just after 8 am. A 911 center supervisor earlier said 30 students were on the bus.

One student was taken to Atlanta Medical Center by helicopter because the student had lost consciousness after the accident.

Authorities had earlier said the student was in critical condition. But Cherokee County Fire Department spokesman Tim Cavender says officials later upgraded the student's injuries to non life threatening.

Cavender says 10 students were taken to North Fulton Regional Hospital for neck and back injuries. He says the bus driver and 15 students were taken to Northside Cherokee Hospital to be evaluated before being released to their parents. One student did not go to a hospital.

The cause of the accident is still under investigation. But sheriff's department spokesman Sergeant Jay Baker says a preliminary analysis indicates the bus went off the road after the driver tried to overcorrect when the right side of the bus went off the pavement.

The bus driver apparently lost control of the bus, which rested on its side on the side of the road. No students were ejected from the bus during the accident.

Talk isn't always cheap, as International Paper Co. learned recently when it agreed to pay $5.2 million to settle a personal injury suit related, at least in part, to one of its employees' use of a cell phone while driving.

According to the complaint, filed in Fulton County, Ga., Superior Court in 2006, International Paper employee Vanessa C. McGrogan was using her company-supplied cell phone as she drove west on Interstate 16 near Dublin, Ga., when she rear-ended a vehicle driven by Debra Ford. The collision pushed Ford's vehicle into the ditch on the right side of the road, overturning it so that the driver's side hit and then slid along the roadway -- with Ford's arm trapped between the door and the asphalt.

Medical complications eventually forced Ford, a widowed mother of four, to have her arm amputated almost up to the shoulder.

"We have a cell phone statute in Georgia that says the driver is not to do things that are distracting," said Ford's attorney, Katherine L. McArthur of The Law Firm of Kathy McArthur in Macon, Ga. McArthur explained that this essentially means reasonable cell phone use is acceptable within the purview of the statute. The International Paper employee's cell phone use was not reasonable, McArthur continued, because the employee had set her cruise control at 77 miles per hour -- in a 70 mph speed zone.

The combination of those two factors, said McArthur, allowed her to raise the issue of intentional negligence on the part of the employee and International Paper and to seek punitive damages.

International Paper raised some affirmative defenses, McArthur said, alleging, among other things, that the loss of her client's arm was caused at least in part by the fact that she was a smoker, and that smoking had damaged her vascular system, thus impairing the healing process. Both Ford's doctor and another medical expert refuted that claim, saying Ford lost her arm because it was crushed in the accident, McArthur said.

Outside counsel for International Paper, C. Michael Evert Jr. and Christopher G. Conley of Evert Weathersby Houff, referred comment to Amy Sawyer, a spokeswoman for International Paper in Memphis, Tenn.

Sawyer, in an e-mail message, said only, "This was an unfortunate accident, which touched off a series of bizarre events that caused Ms. Ford's injuries. Given these circumstances, it was a very unique case."

After a series of negotiations with a variety of outside counsel for International Paper -- the company changed law firms three times, McArthur said -- and an attempt at mediation, the parties agreed to settle for $5.2 million in mid-December. The case had been set for trial March 17.

Although International Paper filed a motion for partial summary judgment on the issue of punitive damages, the case settled before Judge Michael D. Johnson had ruled on that issue. "They didn't want to make bad law," McArthur said of International Paper.

According to McArthur, the company made an early settlement offer of $750,000, and a mediator indicated International Paper would go as high as $2.5 million. McArthur, however, rejected the early settlement offer.

WHETHER you're a CEO of a company or a guy who sweeps floors for a living, the Ohio Supreme Court has put its stamp of approval on a law that could have devastating consequences for you if you're seriously injured in an accident.

The city has agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by a woman whose son was hit by a truck driven by a city employee.

The City Council was briefed on the issue during a closed-door meeting Tuesday night. City Attorney Bernard Pishko said the matter has not been resolved and declined further comment. However, two city officials who asked not to be identified said the council agreed to the settlement.

The circuit judge hearing the case must approve any settlement. The case is scheduled to go to trial next week. Council approval isn't necessary because Pishko has the right to settle lawsuits, but he sought approval anyway.

The payout could make the task of balancing the budget more difficult for City Manager Regina V.K. Williams. The city is self-insured and thus pays for settlements from its own funds.

The lawsuit was filed in Norfolk Circuit Court in January 2007 by Renee D. Wilson on behalf of her son, Travis Dalton.

Wilson's lawyer, Jack Drescher, said Dalton was standing in the median on Brambleton Avenue near Posey Lane in December 2006 when he was struck by a city truck driven by city employee Theodore Goodman. Dalton suffered serious brain injuries.

The lawsuit first named Goodman as a defendant. Wilson later added the city.

Dalton, who is 19, now functions at the level of an 11-year-old, Drescher said. He had been on his way to a job interview when he was hit. Now he will never work, according to documents filed by Drescher and his partner, Jeffrey Breit.

Dalton spent three months in the hospital following the wreck and returned frequently for follow-up visits. Doctors had removed a portion of his skull to relieve pressure from swelling in his brain. His medical expenses have exceeded $329,000, Drescher said.

Dalton lives with his mother in Norfolk.

The city had argued that it was not liable because Goodman was traveling between two of its recreational facilities. Governments have some protection from lawsuits because of sovereign immunity.

Ford Motor Co., the second-largest U.S. automaker, must pay $6.5 million to a 41-year-old man left brain-damaged in a 2004 rollover accident involving an Explorer sport-utility vehicle, a Texas jury said.

Ruben Zamora lost control of the 1993 Explorer when a tire lost its tread and was ejected from the vehicle as it rolled over.

His mother, suing on his behalf, said the tread separation set off vibrations in the rear of the vehicle that made it skate sideways because of a defect in the SUV's suspension.

"They've known about the problem for years and failed to fix it."

A state court jury in Cotulla, Texas, found the Explorer defective and awarded $10 million on Feb. 1.

The jury found that Zamora was 35 percent responsible for the accident, leaving a verdict of $6.5 million against Ford, Neumann said.

Ford will appeal, a Ford spokeswoman, Marcey Evans, said Monday in a phone interview.

"It is unfair to blame Ford for this tragic accident or for Mr. Zamora's injuries, which were caused by not being belted properly while losing control of his vehicle," Evans said.

"We think the verdict isn't supported by the evidence," Evans said.

The verdict will be further reduced "substantially" because of a prior settlement with a co-defendant, Evans said.

Lifetime care needed for victim

Zamora, a disabled oil field worker before the accident, was injured in August 2004 while driving in south Texas, near San Antonio. Zamora, who sustained severe brain damage, "will need someone to take care of him for the rest of his life," Neumann said.

Evenflo Co. issued a voluntary safety recall Friday of 1 million Discovery infant car seats after tests showed that the seat could potentially become separated from its base in high-impact side collisions.

The recall affects Discovery Infant Car Seat Models 390, 391, 534 and 552, made between April 2005 and Jan. 29, 2008. Evenflo is providing owners of the seat models a free supplemental dual-hook fastener to ensure that the seat remains attached.

Testing by Evenflo and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration showed a potential safety risk to children, said NHTSA Administrator Nicole Nason. Rob Matteucci, Evenflo's chief executive officer, said there have been no reports of any serious injuries or deaths.

The privately held company, based in suburban Dayton, said it is not necessary for owners of the car seats to stop using them or return them. To order the fastener, seat owners should call Evenflo at 1-800-356-2229 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. EST.
- 30 - 30