An unsafe intersection in Athens Township?

People injured in Springfield Township, Bradford County automobile crash

District Court Holds That Estate Underinsured Motorist Claim Barred Due To State Of Maine Law

Federal Judge predicts Pennsylvania Supreme Court will lift ban on uninsured driver recovery

The Legal Intelligencer (12/19, Duffy) reports, "In a significant victory for uninsured drivers who are victims of accidents through no fault of their own, a federal judge has predicted that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is poised to lift a court-imposed ban on their seeking awards of economic damages."

In the case, "Corbin v. Khosla, US District Judge Joel H. Slomsky found that although the Pennsylvania Motor Vehicle Financial Responsibility Law specifically prohibits an uninsured motorist from recovering first-party benefits in a suit against an insurer, the law includes no such bar for suits against alleged third-party tortfeasors." Slomsky wrote, "The bar on recovery in Section 1714 only addresses recovery from insurance companies."

Girl paralyzed by drunken Giants fan gets $23.5 million in settlement with beer vendor

The New Jersey Law Journal (12/3, Gottlieb) reported, "The beer refreshment vendor at Giants Stadium agreed to pay $23.5 million to settle the case of a girl paralyzed in a crash with a drunken football fan under an 18-month-old secret agreement that an appeals court unsealed Wednesday at the request of a public advocacy group."

Appeals court unseals settlement terms. The New Jersey Law Journal (12/4, Gottlieb) reports that the Appellate Division held "that a Bergen County judge erred when he sealed all records of the June 2007 settlement and subsequent proceedings to protect the privacy of the girl, Antonia Verni." The rationale for keeping the records sealed, which was to avoid abuse of the funds by the victim's father, "was too weak to overcome the presumption of openness of court proceedings and the public's right to know about a highly publicized case with significant issues, the appeals court said Wednesday." The Journal adds, "The ruling was a victory for Public Citizen, a Washington advocacy group associated with Ralph Nader that seeks to intervene in cases around the country when court records are kept from the public."

The AP (12/4, Porter) reports a contrasting settlement amount, saying that Aramark Corp. "has settled a lawsuit by the family of a girl paralyzed in a car accident caused by a drunken New York Giants fan for $26 million."

Lackawanna County Court Denies POs To Separate Tort and UIM Claims in Post-Koken Case

Federal Verdict Against GM in Rollover Lawsuit

Garland Reynolds and his wife, Bonnie, were awarded $3.5 million in connection with the 2002 rollover accident that claimed the life of their son, Matthew. The Reynolds sued GM in 2006, alleging that the design of the 1995 Chevrolet Blazer created stability issues that contributed to the fatal wreck. The jury awarded no punitive damages.

A jury of five men and three women deliberated for nearly three days in U.S. District Court in Gainesville, GA before finding GM at fault.

The jury said to General Motors that the Blazer is unsafe and it should not have been designed without proper stability, attorney for the plaintiff said.

On June 3, 2002, Bonnie Reynolds was driving a 1995 Chevy Blazer on the Interstate with her son in the front seat when the Blazer was struck by a drunk driver who lost control of his Pontiac Sunbird.

The Blazer flipped several times and Matthew Reynolds was ejected. He died the following day in an area hospital.

The driver who struck the Reynolds' car was later convicted of first-degree vehicular homicide and is serving a lengthy prison sentence.

Plaintiffs presented evidence at trial of other rollover accidents involving the Blazer. The plaintiffs contended that the make and model was built with too high a center of gravity for the wheel base, and that the "track," or distance between the wheels, should have been widened to prevent stability problems.

Blazers manufactured from 1995 through 2002 have similar design flaws. The Blazer was subsequently phased out in favor of the TrailBlazer, which has a wider wheelbase. 

Evidence presented at trial called for a recall.

General Motors maintains that the vehicle is safe.

Company spokeswoman Geri Lama said GM was disappointed in the jury's verdict. They contend that the rollover accident is the sole fault of the drunk driver who struck the Blazer. GM is considering its options of an appeal.There was never an offer to settle, according to Plaintiffs attorneys.

GM was represented by a team of King & Spalding attorneys led by partner W. Ray Persons,

The case, in the Northern District of Georgia, is Garland Reynolds Jr. et al., v. General Motors Corp., No. 2:04-CV-106.

Woman awarded $345k for injuries in rear-end automobile accident

Tech devices leave trail of evidence in trucking litigation

Trucking companies are using a variety of hi-tech devices that are changing the face of trucking litigation.

On-board computers, electronic logging, GPS systems and satellite and wireless tracking can provide a wealth of information about an accident and the history of the driver and vehicle.

"Everything that touches a truck these days frankly is electronic," said Morgan Adams, chair-elect of the trucking litigation section of the American Association for Justice.

He noted that on-board recorders can track over 175 characteristics, such as vehicle speed, hard-braking incidents and vehicle maintenance.

This information is a "boon" to plaintiffs' attorneys, who are using it to bring claims against trucking companies for negligent supervision and negligent maintenance as well as spoliation of evidence, said defense attorney Kenneth Abbarno of Reminger & Reminger in Cleveland.

Truckloads of data

The main source of information is the "black box," also known as an electronic control module or electronic data recorder, which records events like hard-braking, cruise control settings, when the truck traveled at various speeds and sudden decelerations.

Newer electronic on-board recorders, known as EOBRs, monitor the speed of a truck as well as the number of driving hours, and can indicate every time a driver goes over the allowed number of hours or drives over the speed limit.

Some carriers have replaced hand-written logbooks with GPS satellite and wireless devices that track a driver's schedule and route and beam the information back to the company.

Other devices are now being introduced that use video cams and radar to track and warn of potential hazards, including blind spots or when a driver is drifting out of a lane. The data is then uploaded to the company computer in real time.

The combined data can help reconstruct an accident.

Teen injured in near-fatal crash gets $14.8M

School liable for teen's car crash after going to drinking party

New Case Law on stacking of underinsurance by employees in company owned vehicles

In State Auto Property & Casualty insurance Co. v. Pro Design, P.C. today the District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania (Munley, J.) held that a corporation can avail itself of stacked underinsured motorist benefits even if it waived stacking on a single vehicle policy where it subsequently added two vehicles to the policy and never signed a new waiver of stacking for those additional vehicles. 

The court finds that Sackett II does not apply to a single car policy which is what the Supreme Court says in footnote 5 of Sackett II.  The Court also notes that under Sackett II "the degree that coverage under an after-acquired vehicle provision continues in effect throughout the existing period.  Once that policy period comes to an end, the insurer must obtain a new waiver if an additional vehicle was added during that period."  The fact is that when the single vehicle policy became a multiple vehicle policy the insured was not supposed to be given a chance to "purchase" intra-policy stacking and it did not get a chance to do so.  Thus, the 3 car policy provides stacking.

Family awarded $5.1 for man killed by drunk driver at work site

A jury awarded $5.1 million to the family of a man who was struck and killed by a drunk driver while working at a road construction site. Donald Lee Fincher Jr. hit Frank Claborn as he was providing security for a construction company that was renovating the West Sam Houston Toll Road. His counsel argued that Fincher was nearly three times over the legal blood-alcohol limit. The family claimed that Claborn was conscious and in pain for about an hour before he died. Fincher stipulated to liability. He offered a consent judgment, but Claborn's wife wouldn't make a counter offer and wouldn't consider a settlement without a trial.

Claborn v. Fincher

New Federal case law on what is required in rejecting UIM insurance coverage

Jury awards boy for hand degloving in crash

Buonaiuto v. Stroud

New case law on obtaining UIM from your employer for a work related auto accident.

New case law on uninsurance when colliding with dirt bike

In the case of Burdick v. Erie Insurance Group, the Superior Court held that an insurance policy that excludes uninsured benefits when the insured collides with off road vehicles, is against public policy and violates the Motor Vehicle Financial Responsibility Law.

In this case, the plaintiff, while driving his regular vehicle, was hit by a dirt bike on a public road.  The defendant dirt bike driver was uninsured.  The plaintiff's insurance company denied uninsurance benefits under the plaintiff's vehicle's policy.  The Court held this denial was illegal.

Florida Regulator Lifts Allstate Suspension

“Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty ordered a stay of the suspension of the Allstate Companies' licenses to sell new business in the state. McCarty's decision comes as the result of Allstate's submission of an affidavit certifying that it has complied with Florida law by freely providing all documents (McKinsey Documents) requested by the Office of Insurance Regulation as part of its investigation of Allstate's business practices in Florida.

The commissioner's announcement follows the May 15 First District Court of Appeal's opinion denying Allstate's motion for a rehearing and affirming the OIR's action in issuing the January immediate final order. ‘I have stayed the suspension of Allstate, and I have accepted its affidavit as evidence that they have completely and unconditionally complied with Florida law and with our requests for documents,’ McCarty said. ‘I also, though, have made it perfectly clear that failure to cooperate with necessary, ongoing requests from the Office (OIR) will result in an immediate resumption of the suspension.’

Allstate produced hundreds of thousands of pages of documents that OIR staff members have been thoroughly reviewing. Of the more than 825,000 pages mentioned in its affidavit, Allstate produced only 36,000 pages between the Oct. 16 issuance of the subpoenas and the Jan. 17 issuance of the IFO.

Three injured in vehicle rollover, two 'badly', in Ridgebury

The Towanda Daily Review:

RIDGEBURY — An accident in Ridgebury Thursday evening left three men injured, according to Ridgebury Fire Chief Glen Leonard, with two “severely critical.”

Leonard said one man was airlifted to Robert Packer Hospital while the other two were taken there by Greater Valley EMS. He thought the accident occurred around 6:30 p.m.
The accident occurred where Wolcott Hollow Road and Chapel Road meet. Ridgebury Assistant Chief Kevin Chapman, who was first on the scene, said that by judging from the skid marks the vehicle was heading south on Wolcott Hollow Road. Wolcott Hollow Road makes a sharp turn near a hill, which is where the vehicle skidded off the road on the northbound side and clipped two trees, then turned onto Chapel Road. The vehicle came to a rest on Chapel Road, where Chapman found the vehicle. The vehicle was facing north towards Wolcott Hollow Road, he mentioned.

Two of the men, Chapman said, had been ejected and were injured from “head to toe.” The third, he added, had gotten out of the vehicle. Chapman told him to sit by the side of the road.

He said all three men had head injuries as they all had blood on their heads. Chapman, who lives nearby, immediately reported that they were serious injuries.

Debris was scattered all over the yard where the two trees stood and included the car’s front bumper, a hat and two shoes."

28 Million Dollar Verdict For A Paralyzed 8 year Old In Philadelphia

A Federal jury, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, sitting in Philadelphia, returned a verdict of $28 Million Dollars for a paralyzed 8 year old boy.  The boy was a passenger in the back seat of a vehicle when the Defendant driver was distracted and veered off the road.

The insurance company's defense was that another child in the back seat screamed, thus causing the driver to look in the back seat, thus causing the car to veer off the road.

Congratulations to Eric Weitz, Esquire who was the Plaintiff's lawyer in the case.  And also congratulations to the injured boy and his family.  Hopefully, Eric will be able to collect something on this judgement to help take care of the child in the future.

I'll post a link to the story once I find it online.