Joplin Injury Lawyers Noteworthy Verdicts and Settlements
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Joplin Injury Lawyers Noteworthy Verdicts and Settlements
2009
Settlement: $612,500
Parties: (Confidential settlement)
Facts/Claims: A Joplin man suffered disabling injuries when he collided with a train that was obscured from his ability to see it by an overgrowth of brush and foliage along the road. Defendants claimed that Plaintiff was at fault for driving at excessive speed and failing to look out.
Settlement: $775,000
Parties: (Confidential settlement)
Facts/Claims: A products liability claim was made against the manufacturer of a fuel tank when a race car exploded following a crash during a race in Oklahoma. Claims were also made against the race track because the flagman had not thrown the yellow flag, despite the car being crippled on the track from a blow out of a tire. Defendants claimed that the crash was the fault of the Plaintiff for coming onto the track with his car already having problems. The case was settled after expert depositions.
Settlement: $357,500
Parties: (Confidential settlement)
Facts/Claims: After being treated in the emergency room for injuries from a motorcycle accident, the Plaintiff had a CT of the abdomen that showed a cyst on the kidney which was diagnosed as renal cancer. The kidney was removed and was found by pathology to be benign. Plaintiff brought suit against the urologist for misdiagnosing the kidney as cancerous and for not doing a biopsy before removing the kidney.
Settlement: $400,000
Parties: (Confidential settlement)
Facts/Claims: After suffering trauma to his ankle, Plaintiff had a fusion performed by an orthopedic surgeon on the healthy ankle instead of the injured ankle. Protocols for checking to assure that the surgery was being performed at the correct site were not followed, resulting in Plaintiff having to go through two separate fusions.
Settlement: $500,000
Parties: Miller v. Russell
Facts/Claims: Plaintiff was struck by a person leaving a casino in Ottawa County, OK. Plaintiff suffered multiple fractures of his leg, required an open reduction surgery, and had over $120,000.00 in medical bills. Plaintiff demanded policy limits, and Defendant’s insurer accepted.
Settlement: $700,000
Parties: Woodrum v. Kassebaum
Facts/Claims: Plaintiff was traveling in Illinois when she was struck head on by a car that had crossed the centerline. Plaintiff claimed that it caused disabling low back injuries that ultimately resulted in surgery and inability to perform her job. Defendant claimed that she had pre-existing back injuries.
Settlement: $1,000,000
Parties: (Confidential settlement)
Facts/Claims: Plaintiff had a balloon angioplasty performed by a vascular surgeon, who inadvertently cut the artery and failed to recognize that an injury had occurred. Plaintiff subsequently lost blood flow to the leg and required amputation. Defendant claimed the problems resulting in the amputation were from vascular disease.
Settlement: $687,500
Parties: Scroggins v. Red Lobsters
Facts/Claims: Plaintiff fell while walking in the parking area when she tripped over an unmarked, un-striped curb. Plaintiff struck her head and suffered disabling neck and head injuries.
Settlement: $275,000
Parties: Fitzpatrick v. Star Transport Inc.
Facts/Claims: Plaintiff was in her early 20s and suffered a herniated disc in her lower back that required a fusion, following an intersection collision with Defendant’s semi-truck. Plaintiff had good recovery following the surgery.
Verdict: $550,000
Parties: Brooks v. Freeman Health Systems
Facts/Claims: After falling at work, Plaintiff suffered fractures to his ribs that led to fluid build-up on his lungs. Despite a deteriorating condition, Plaintiff’s Occumed doctors and the emergency room doctor at Freeman continued to return him back to work without any time off for healing and without sufficient treatment for the pleural effusion on his lungs. Consequently, Plaintiff required hospitalization and surgery.
After a five day jury trial, the jury returned a verdict for $550,000, which was $200,000 more than Plaintiff had asked the jury to award.
Settlement: $325,000
Parties: (Confidential Settlement)
Facts/Claims: Plaintiff’s baby died at 21 days old, after being born with severe problems caused from placental insufficiency that had gone undiagnosed by OB pre-natal doctors. Plaintiff claimed that warning signs of the problem existed and that an early C-section should have been performed, which would have prevented the baby’s death.
Settlement: $1,100,000
Parties: Dixon v. Dearborn Transit
Facts/Claims: Plaintiff was struck head on by Defendant’s semi, which had crossed the center line while approaching two vehicles stopped to make a left turn. Plaintiff suffered disabling brain injuries. Defendant Dearborn and Plaintiff’s underinsured motorist carrier settled with payment of their insurance policy limits.
Verdict: $2,000,000
Parties: Cooper v. Integris Hospital, et. al.
Facts/Claims: A jury in Delaware County, Oklahoma returned a verdict on behalf of the surviving husband and children of a woman who died within 36 hours of being discharged from the emergency room with a bleeding ovarian cyst. The emergency room doctor failed to diagnose the bleeding and discharged her with a stomach pain related diagnosis, despite numerous abnormal results from lab work. The defendant claimed that Plaintiff was not bleeding when she was discharged.
Settlement: $800,000
Parties: (Confidential settlement)
Facts/Claims: During a cervical disc surgery, the neurosurgeon errantly clamped off he carotid artery, causing a man in his 40s to suffer a disabling stroke. The parties settled during mediation and before any depositions were taken.
Settlement: $500,000
Parties: (Confidential settlement)
Facts/Claims: A policy limits settlement was reached after a woman developed breast cancer. Despite being in the age range where annual mammograms are generally recommended, Plaintiff’s family doctor had advised her not to have mammograms because he believed they were not effective and could actually cause the cancer to spread.
Settlement: $600,000
Parties: (Confidential settlement)
Facts/Claims: Plaintiff was the surviving widow of a missionary who died of lung cancer. Plaintiff had not been told by his doctors that a radiographic scan of his lungs had shown a mass on the lungs years before. Consequently, he went undiagnosed and untreated until the cancer had spread.
Settlement During Trial: $2,250,000
Parties: Sandhu, et al. v. Swift Trucking
Facts/Claims: A wrongful death claim in northern California was brought to jury trial, settling during the second day of trial. Plaintiffs’ decedents were natives of India and were killed instantly when a Swift semi truck merged into the passing lane into the path of the van in which the decedents were passengers.
Settlement: $750,000
Parties: (Confidential Settlement)
Facts/Claims: A man in his early 70s died of an intracranial hemorrhage after his blood had been permitted to become too thin with the use of Coumadin. Plaintiff’s widow and children brought claims against his family doctor and the hospital for their mismanagement of the blood-thinner.
Verdict: $1,500,000
Parties: Wallace v. Farmers Brothers, et. al.
Facts/Claims: Mr. Wallace was the co-driver of a semi and was in the sleeper birth when his driver lost control of the semi and struck the dividing wall on the interstate in Oklahoma. After the rig had come to a rest, it was struck three times by three separate semi rigs. The wrongful death claims of the widow and child were limited to the three companies that struck the Wallace rig after it came to a rest.
Defendants claimed the fault was solely that of Mr. Wallace’s driver, who they claimed had fallen asleep.
The case went to jury trial in Federal Court in Oklahoma City and was bifurcated so that the jury first had to find the issues on fault and then determine the value of Plaintiff’s damages. The jury returned a verdict for the Plaintiff and against all three trucking companies. The jury then returned a separate verdict for damages.
Settlement: $350,000
Parties: (Confidential settlement)
Facts/Claims: Plaintiff’s bladder was perforated during a hysterectomy, causing her to need a catheter to empty her bladder for over a year and numerous additional surgeries or procedures to repair the damage. Defendant claimed this injury was simply a risk of complication that went along with the surgery.
Settlement: $305,000
Parties: (Confidential settlement)
Facts/Claims: Plaintiff claimed that her GYN surgeon used a technique to repair a vaginal hernia that he knew had caused injuries to numerous other women over the previous several years. The surgery reduced the size of the vagina so that it became very difficult and painful for her to have sexual intercourse. Plaintiff claimed that Defendant did not warn her that this could occur or that he had problems with this technique.
Settlement: $1,700,000
Parties: (Confidential settlement)
Facts/Claims: A massive seratia infection was permitted to spread into a recent hip replacement, ultimately spreading to the bone on the same leg, when the Plaintiff’s doctors failed to respond to a urine test result that showed the growth of the seratia bacteria. Plaintiff’s doctors did not treat him with antibiotics to which the bacteria was susceptible. Plaintiff became wheelchair bound, after numerous surgeries eventually resulted in removal of the hip prosthetic.
Settlement During Trial: $1,350,000
Parties: (Confidential settlement during second day of trial)
Facts/Claims: A trucker was checking his load on his flat bed trailer when the load fell off the trailer onto him, crushing him to death. Claims were made against the fabricator of the metals that were used to hold the device in place and against the company that employed him as an independent contractor for not having adequately inspected the frame for safety. The claims against the manufacturer of the frame were settled before trial.
Settlement During Trial: $350,000
Parties: (Confidential settlement after fifth day of jury trial)
Facts/Claims: Plaintiffs were native Mexican parents who presented to the emergency room of a rural hospital. The mother was in her 26th week of pregnancy and was in labor. Rather than provide the mother with a drug to stop the contractions or transfer her to a larger hospital, the emergency room doctor attempted to deliver a breech baby. The baby was decapitated during the delivery. The defense claimed the baby was dead before the mother arrived.
Verdict: $326,000
Parties: Milburn v. Betz and Freeman Health Systems
Facts/Claims: Plaintiff was admitted into Freeman Neosho hospital with acute appendicitis into surgeon Betz’s care. During the hospital stay, Plaintiff’s appendix ruptured, causing her sepsis and massive infection, necessitating a longer hospital stay and an additional surgery. Plaintiff claimed that Dr. Betz should have performed surgery before the appendix ruptured.
The jury returned a verdict for Plaintiff after a 4 day jury trial.
Settlement: $1,200,000
Parties: (Confidential settlement)
Facts/Claims: A family doctor and an ophthalmologist in North Carolina failed to diagnose an infant with congenital glaucoma, despite the baby having some of the classic warning signs of it. After moving to Missouri, and discovering that their child’s deteriorating eyesight was from a condition that could have been treated and prevented before it caused him to go blind, the parents brought suit on behalf of the child. The defendants claimed that the glaucoma was very rare and that it would have led to blindness even if treated. After expert depositions, the case that was pending in Federal Court was settled before trial.
Settlement: $1,000,000
Parties: (Confidential settlement)
Facts/Claims: Plaintiff brought a medical malpractice suit for failure do diagnose and timely treat lymphoma against her family doctor. Plaintiff claimed that she had warning signs of lymphoma that should have been explored and evaluated before it spread. By the time she was diagnosed, the lymphoma had spread to other organs.
Verdict: $150,000
Parties: Faso v. Scorse
Facts/Claims: Michelle Faso, 27, sued her dentist for malpractice, claiming he extracted the wrong tooth and caused permanent nerve damage. The oral surgeon, Dr. Scorse, decided to remove tooth number 32, a wisdom tooth, even though X-rays revealed it had roots extending into the inferior alveolar nerve canal. The extraction resulted in permanent nerve injury, numbness and parasthesia of the right lower jaw and the right side of the tongue.
After a two-day trial, the jury returned a verdict of $150,000 — $1,000 for past medical expense, $9,000 for past non-economic damages and $140,000 for future non-economic damages.
Verdict: $312,500
Settlement During Trial: $1,000,000
Settlements: $675,000
$650,000 Verdict
$800,000 Verdict
$800,000 Verdict; $1.2 Million Settlement
$1.5 Million Verdict