New Jersey Injury Lawyer Blog

A recent article in the New Jersey Law Journal indicates that a Spring Lake Heights woman accepted a $300,000 settlement on June 12 for a neck injury in a two-car accident. Dawn Pizzolato was hurt October 29, 2003 on route 71 in Manasquan when Franklin Leighton turned left onto the road and struck her car on the driver's side. Leighton was found guilty of careless driving.

Pizzolato sued Leighton in Monmouth County over herniated and bulging disks and a shoulder injury. She had surgery to remove bone from her hip for grafting near a metal plate in her neck. Pizzalato now has limited movement of her neck and tingling and numbness in her left arm.

(This information was obtained from the New Jersey Law Journal)

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Posted In: Car Accidents

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The New Jersey Law Journal reported that Secaucus and seven other defendants agreed on June 9 to pay $335,000 to a woman who suffered afractured tibia as she tripped while crossing a town street in a rainstorm. On Nov 9, 2001, Theresa Guadara was crossing Front Street which had been unevenly restored after utility work. Due to injuries suffered, she needed reconstruction and bone grafts, continues to feel pain and cannot resume her work as a hairdresser.

Defense noted that Guadara was outside the crosswalk. The evidence showed some of her pain could have been caused by shingles and a post accident fracture.

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Posted In: Slips and Falls

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An Essex County jury awarded $539,000 on June 8 to an injured worker but cut his award by 25 percent due to comparative negligence. Osualdo Rodriguez was an employee of Jenny Trading Company which was housed in a Newark building undergoing repairs in 2003. A contractor, Luso Air Company, had rented a scissor lift from DNI Rentals Inc of Newark to remove equipment from the roof.

When DNI's driver delivered the lift to the site, he instructed Luso employees to drive the lift up a ramp. Rodriguez, though not a Luso employee, was one of the few workers on site who spoke English and he agreed. As he drove, the lift slid, crushing his right foot.

The jury found DNI 75 percent liable and Rodriguez 25 percent liable on the theory that he should not have been driving. The jury no-caused Luso.

* This information appeared in the New Jersey Law Journal

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Posted In: Work Injury

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A construction worker who lost three fingers in a pole-driving-machine accident will receive $850,000 from the manufacturer in a settlement of his Atlantic County suit. Joseph Kell Jr was installing a highway guardrail in Philadelphia on January 7 and had his right hand crushed by a 1,200 pound hammer and block assembly that came dislodged from the machine's cable. His ring and middle fingers and part of his index finger had to be amputated.

The plaintiff claimed the machine, made by Sterling Manufacturing of Wilkes-Barre, PA, was defectively designed because it lacked a safety latch to prevent the hammer and block from coming loose.

* This information appeared in the New Jersey Law Journal

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Posted In: Product Injuries

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A mother who claimed that her son's cognitive defects were due to ingestion of peeling lead based paint accepted $825,000 on June 7 to settle her suit against a landlord. Jonathan Rodriguez will receive monthly payments of $2,968 at age 18, which likely will yield more than $6 million.

According to the suit, Teresa Perez asked her landlord, Maurice Wolfe, to remove the peeling paint when Jonathan was 2 years old. After six months went by with no response, a test showed such high levels of lead that Jonathan was hospitalized for removal of the lead.

Perez sued in Hudson County in 2003 over Jonathan's neurodevelopmental disabilities, cognitive defects and learning disabilities.

(This information appeared in the New Jersey Law Journal)

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Posted In: Childhood Injuries

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An Atlantic County jury handed up a $4 million verdict on May 31 in a medical malpractice suit over a casino worker's fatal heart attack, but a high-low agreement will cap recovery at $800,000. Amilcan Rodriguez died while being airlifted from Newcomb Medical Center in Vineland to Presbyterian Hospital in Philadelphia for an emergency cardiac catheterization.

Rodriguez's estate sued their primary care physician Jodi Abramowitz and a consulting cardiologist Mahesh Ghayal. The jury found that for the 14 months Rodriguez was her patient, Abramowitz failed to diagnose his coronary artery disease. At one point, she diagnosed him as suffering from malignant hypertension yet sent him home.

But the jury also found Rodriguez 20 percent liable for having delayed a visit to the cardiologist for six weeks after Abramowitz told him to go.

Continue reading "$4M for Failure to Diagnose Disease" »

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Posted In: Failure to Diagnose

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On June 1, 2005, a Bedminster woman agreed on a settlement of $975,000 for brain injuries sustained from a head-on auto collision. On April 30, 1998, on Route 206 in Chester, an oncoming vehicle crossed the center line and hit Gail Osborne’s car. An emergency room x-ray after the incident showed no head injuries but a week later, Osborne reported a loss of concentration and balance and was diagnosed with a mild brain injury that hampers her vision.

Osborne has been unable to return to her job as a regional sales manager for a pet supply company. The other driver said a tie rod that broke loose from her car and was found at the scene caused a steering malfunction.

(This information appeared in the New Jersey Law Journal)

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Posted In: Car Accidents

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Scarred by a fire in their mother's minivan in 2002, the four Bigelow brothers of Georgetown will each receive undisclosed monthly cash payments for the rest of their lives under a settlement approved Tuesday in a federal court in Austin.
The brothers — Brandon, 11; Jerry Nicholas, 9; Justin, 8; and Sean, 5 — were burned after one of them set the fire when their mother, Veronica Bigelow, left them briefly alone in the van Nov. 12, 2002.
A year later, the boys' father, Jerry L. Bigelow of Bastrop, sued the importer of the lighter used to start the fire, New York Lighter Co. Inc., claiming product liability and negligence.
U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel approved the settlement.
The terms were not stated in court, and Yeakel ordered documents containing the settlement amount sealed, but he described it as a "substantial amount of money."
Outside court, Jerry Bigelow said that the boys are doing well, though Sean, the most seriously injured, is old enough to begin to feel different because he has no fingers and his skin is scarred.
"He's starting to feel the full impact of what happened to his body," he said.
The boys will be paid different amounts based on the severity of their injuries, according to hearing testimony. Jerry and Veronica Bigelow, who have joint custody of the children, will not receive any money under the settlement but will have access to a special fund set up to help with expenses related to the boys' medical care.
Lawyers in the case said that a jury could have gone either way.
~Steven Kretak, American Statesman

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Posted In: Childhood Injuries

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In a closely watched case unfolding in federal court, a jury is being asked to take up an intriguing question that has confounded many medical researchers: Can welding fumes cause neurological diseases such as Parkinson's?

The lawsuit was brought by a former welder who suffers arm tremors and other movement problems that he says could be Parkinson's. Ernest G. Solis, 57, of Corpus Christi, is seeking unspecified damages from four welding rod makers.

It is the first trial among about 3,800 lawsuits from around the country that have been consolidated in federal court in Cleveland. Solis' case could set the ground rules for the other lawsuits.

At issue is whether manganese — a chemical element found in vitamin supplements, tea, nuts and grain, as well as the fumes from burning welding rods — can at high exposures lead to tremors or shaking, poor balance and difficulty walking and swallowing.

Companies that make welding equipment argue that a link between fumes and Parkinson's has not been established, and that in any case, warning labels and welding safety equipment minimize any risk.

~Associated Press

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Posted In: Work Injury

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Monroe County and the town of Brighton are being sued by the parents of a boy who was seriously injured while crossing Westfall Road last year.

The boy, Thomas Yoon, was returning home from Buckland Park with his sister and a baby sitter when he was hit by a vehicle on Oct. 6, 2005. The driver and the baby sitter are also defendants in the suit, which was filed in State Supreme Court last week.

On May 30, a traffic light was installed at the location and a sidewalk was added. State, county and town officials were present for the unveiling.

But at the time of the accident, people had to weave through traffic to get across the street or walk along with traffic to get to the next crosswalk.

The boy's injuries include a traumatic brain injury, bilateral pulmonary contusion and paralysis and severe atrophy of the left calf muscle.

The suit, which asks for an unspecified amount of damages, claims that the "intersection, roadway, path, and area was also improperly designed, improperly constructed, improperly maintained, and the municipal defendants failed to correct a known dangerous condition."

During the planning process, the town did request that a traffic signal be added near the park, said Brighton Supervisor Sandra Frankel. However, Westfall Road is a county road, which means the county has the final say, she said.

(This information appeared in the New Jersey Law Journal)

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Posted In: Car Accidents

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The town of Greenwich, Connecticut has been ordered to pay $910,000 to a Greenwich man for injuries he suffered when a police cruiser struck his vehicle.

A jury in Stamford Superior Court said Friday that the town and Officer Andrew Kelly were liable for a 2002 crash in which James Peterson, 21, suffered pelvic fractures and other injuries.

The jury found that Kelly failed to show due regard for other drivers while responding to a report of a traffic accident. An attorney representing the town said he did not yet know whether an appeal would be filed.

Kelly's police cruiser, with lights and sirens activated, struck the driver's side door of Peterson's car as Peterson attempted to make a left turn at an intersection.

After the accident, police cited Peterson for failure to yield the right of way to an emergency vehicle and failure to grant the right of way at a stop sign.

Peterson's suit contended that Kelly's speed was so excessive that there was no reasonable expectation that the police car's approach could have been seen.

(This information was obtained from the New Jersey Law Journal)

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Posted In: Car Accidents

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A pregnant woman died in South Florida Baptist Hospital two weeks ago because a nurse gave her an overdose of a common medicine, hospital officials said Wednesday.

Elisha Crews Bryant, 18, was seven months pregnant when she went to the hospital with early labor pains, family members said. A doctor ordered magnesium sulfate, a common treatment to slow early labor.

But the nurse who gave Bryant an IV bag of the drug mistakenly gave her too much, hospital officials said. She got 16 grams when she should have gotten 4, said the family’s attorney, Doug Burnetti.

Bryant began having trouble breathing.
“I knew something wasn’t right,” said Bryant’s husband, Preston Bryant, 21. “I tried to tell them, and they wouldn’t listen.”

(This information was obtained from the Times)

Continue reading "Hospital Mistake Kills Woman" »

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Posted In: Medical Malpractice

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Macie Lesto, a 28-year-old maintenance worker of the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey, will receive $350,000 for injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident on September 1, 2001. Lesto was driving on Route 35 in Middletown when he was hit by a car entering the roadway. His injuries included a broken right leg and right shoulder, as well as knee injuries which required surgery. The grant was awarded accordingly to his injuries as well as his inability to work overtime. The settlement was approved by Judge Edward Seaman on April 24, 2006.
~Michael Booth, New Jersey Law Journal

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Posted In: Motorcycle Accidents

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