SEPTEMBER 9, 2009 — A jury in Chippewa County, Wisconsin, awarded a 51-year-old Eau Claire woman $3.14 million for permanent injuries she sustained in a crash caused by a drunk driver on the evening of December 11, 2005.

Debra Mayer suffered two broken teeth, a broken left arm, a broken left leg, a broken left foot, a fractured rib and a punctured lung after the near head-on collision. The accident occurred in the town of Eagle Point, north of Chippewa Falls. The driver of the 1989 Pontiac Grand Am that caused the accident, David M. Bowe, 59, had just left a bar in Chippewa Falls when the accident occurred. Bowe was sentenced to 18 months in jail for causing the collision. It was Bowe’s second drunken driving offense.

Since the crash, Mayer now walks with a cane, needs massage therapy and physical therapy. She has had to make modifications to her home to allow her to continue living at home with her injuries.

Two years ago, Mayer rejected a settlement offer of $900,000. The award included $750,000 for Mayer’s future medical expenses; $250,000 for past medical expenses; $17,588 for out-of-pocket expenses; $1.75 million for past and future pain and suffering, disfigurement and disability; and $375,000 in punitive damages.

AUGUST 11, 2009 – A woman died in a Ford Explorer rollover accident Monday afternoon in eastern San Diego County, authorities have reported. The fatal Ford Explorer rollover crash occurred just before 3:30 p.m. Monday afternoon, on SR-79, just north of Wolahi Road, near Lake Cuyamaca. According to reports, the driver lost control of the 2001 Ford Explorer, which rolled several times before it crashed into a large pine tree west of the road. The driver, identified as Charlotte Lorraine Winn, 73, of Julian, was flown to Escondido’s Palomar Medical Center with critical injuries. She died a short time after arrival. Her 68-year-old husband suffered moderate injuries in the crash, and was taken by ambulance to Sharp Memorial Hospital. The CHP is investigating the Highway 79 rollover accident.

This tragic crash is just one example of the many Ford Explorer rollover crashes that have occurred since Ford Explorers were first introduced in 1990. Hundreds have died and many more have been very seriously hurt in Explorer rollovers such as this one in the United States. Although Ford insists their vehicles are safe, the Washington Post and other research analysts have found that Ford Explorers have a higher rollover propensity than any other sport utility vehicle (SUV), due to an allegedly defective design. Victims of Ford Explorer rollover crashes may be entitled to compensation for their injuries or the wrongful death of a family member. Ford has paid out hundreds of millions of dollars to victims in Ford Explorer lawsuit verdicts and settlements.

The biggest Ford Explorer rollover verdict awarded from Ford Motor Company for such a rollover accident was awarded to a San Diego woman, in the amount of $369 million. The San Diego woman, who was paralyzed in a January 2002 accident near Alpine in eastern San Diego County, offered to knock $100 million off the damages if Ford would recall the allegedly defectively designed Explorers, but Ford insisted that the vehicles were safe.

For more information about lawsuits, product liability issues and victims’ rights involving Ford Explorer rollover accidents, contact attorneys Stephen Estey or Mike Bomberger at Estey & Bomberger, LLP at (619)295-0035.

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JULY 28, 2009 - A jury awarded nearly $2 million to a woman whose husband was killed when his golf cart plunged down a steep rocky hillside at a San Diego County golf resort, authorities said. Edwin Payne, 65, was halfway through a round of golf when he lost control of the golf cart in May 2007 and plummeted down an 80-foot cliff, according to the attorney for the plaintiff. Payne was ejected onto the southbound lane of Old Highway 395. Pala Mesa Resort was found negligent by a North San Diego County jury last week, and the Payne’s widow was awarded $483,426 in economic damages and $1.5 million for non-economic damages. The jury found that Payne was 30 percent to blame for the golf cart accident and the resort 70 percent liable.

JUNE 27, 2009 – The San Diego Union Tribune reported this week that the state of California has given an Encinitas nursing home its maximum fine of $100,000 in connection with a patient’s death from a preventable fall, state health regulators have reported. A patient admitted to Aviara Healthcare Center on Regal Road fell two times between May 9 and 10, 2009. He was not injured in the first fall, after which staff put an alarm on his gown. However, staff did not respond when the patient got out of his bed and walked out of his room. The hallway where the man was walking did not have a handrail. The man stumbled and grabbed a piece of equipment in the hallway. The piece of equipment, a device used to lift patients out of bed, fell on the floor and struck the man in the head. He died at a hospital two days later.

Seven employees of Aviara Healtcare stated that the lift was supposed to be stored in another location, and not in the nursing home’s hallway. State investigators found the equipment in the same hallway even after the man’s death. Aviara Healthcare was also fined $16,000 for not monitoring a patient who walked away from the facility three times in one day a month ago.

To report elder abuse in California, call the state’s toll-free CRISISline at (800) 231-4024. The hotline, a service of the California Department of Aging, is is available to take calls and refer complaints 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For more information about nursing home abuse and neglect civil claims, contact the law firm of Estey & Bomberger at (619)873-4498.

MARCH 26, 2009 – The city of San Diego will pay $325,000 to settle a wrongful death lawsuit with the family of a 25-year-old man shot and killed by police in 2005. Jacob Richard Faust was shot and killed by police when he reached for a toy gun at a traffic stop. The settlement was unanimously approved Tuesday by the City Council. Faust was pulled over by police on April 4, 2005, for making an illegal left turn. What happened next is disputed between police and Faust’s family. However, Faust scuffled with police, and at some point, Faust reached for a toy gun behind the seat. The gun was apparently a prop he used in a puppet show. Police fired three times and killed Faust. Although the district attorney found the shooting to be justified, the Deputy City Attorney said the $325,000 settlement was a “business decision” to avoid the risk of a large jury verdict.

MARCH 16, 2009 – On March 12, 2009, a Connecticut jury awarded Gail Fortier, the widow of a former Navy firefighter who died from Mesothelioma last year, a $2.59 million verdict last week from Allis-Chalmers Corp. David Fortier was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a cancer caused by asbestos exposure, in October 2006. He filed a lawsuit in December of 2006, and died of mesothelioma on June 20, 2008, three months shy of his 60th birthday.

Between 1969 and 2002, Fortier worked on the USS Forrestal aircraft carrier, which was built at Newport News Shipbuilding, a shipyard known to be contaminated with asbestos. According to Fortier’s lawyer, David worked in areas of the ship that were heavily insulated with asbestos products which were manufactured by Allis-Chalmers.

This mesothelioma case is noteworthy because it is the first asbestos-related claim to go to verdict in Connecticut in 20 years. A lawyer for Allis-Chalmers said the company will appeal the verdict.

JANUARY 26, 2009 – A lawsuit filed Friday in Los Angeles County Superior Court names seven companies responsible for a January 2007 helicopter crash that killed four people off the San Diego coast. The MH-60S Knighthawk helicopter went down in the water during a training mission near San Clemente Island, off the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard.

The lawsuit was filed last week on behalf of the family members of three Navy sailors who died in the crash, Petty Officer First Class Cory Helman, Lt. Adam Dyer and Petty Officer 2nd Class Christopher H. Will. Named in the lawsuit are Sikorsky Aircraft, the helicopter’s manufacturer, along with other companies that manufactured parts for the helicopter. Alcoa, Pacific Scientific, Hi-Shear Corp., Parker-Hannifin Corp. and General Electric.       

JANUARY 9, 2009 – On Wednesday, a San Diego Superior Court judge held up a jury’s decision to award Teresa and Robert Bailey of Escondido more than $16 million for the death of their son during birth in November of 2004.

In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs alleged that the hospital, Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women and two of its doctors were negligent in the care of the mother and ignored warning signs when the baby became lodged in the mother’s birth control.  Furthermore, the plaintiffs claimed that the director of pathology at Sharp Mary Birch made a false representation and concealed the truth regarding the cause of death of their child.

According to the plaintiff’s attorneys, the couple was told the infant died of lung disease when in fact the baby died of asphyxia when the umbilical cord became wrapped around his neck. The death certificate stated the baby died of an “unspecified respiratory disorder.” The jury returned their verdict on December 5 after a nine-week trial. A spokesman for Sharp Healthcare said Sharp would ask the judge to grant a new trial.  

DECEMBER 18, 2008 – The Houston Chronicle reported yesterday that a settlement has been reached in a January 2 charter bus crash that killed a 55-year-old Houston man and injured 44 other people.  A settlement reached with the bus driver, owners, and managers was made public yesterday. The bus companies had limited insurance, and the $10 million settlement represented the maximum insurance proceeds available in the case.

The accident happened on January 2, 2008 on U.S. 59 near Victoria, Texas. The bus driver fell asleep and went off the road near the U.S. 77 interchange, flipping the bus on its side.  The bus was en route from Monterrey, Mexico, to Houston, Texas.  The driver of the bus had multiple convictions for driving while intoxicated, although  he was not drunk at the time of the crash.

The family of Pedro Mendez, 55, of Houston, who died in the accident, was awarded $4.3 million.  The other 44 injured victims who filed claims will share the remaining $5.7 million settlement. 

DECEMBER 11, 2008 – The North County Times reported yesterday that the friends and family of an Oceanside woman killed in a balloon accident at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta in October 2007 have reached a wrongful death settlement for $1.4 million dollars.  The amount was the limit that the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta was insured for.

The victim, Rosemary Wooley Phillips, of Oceanside, fell 70 feet to her death when she fell out of a hot air balloon that became caught in power lines. The NTSB reported the pilot, Tom Reyes, was distracted when he saw another balloon crash into a house.  Phillips’ partner, Cheri Dias, was also injured in the accident along with two friends. Dias and Phillips’ two siblings and the survivors of the crash also sued the companies that owned and operated the balloon and the pilot, Tom Reyes, but he recently died.

Seven people have died in power-line related accidents at the annual balloon fiesta between 1990 and 2008, including two people in 2008. The annual balloon fiesta is considered to be the most widely photographed event in the world.