Recently in Injury & Tort Law Category

It will be a happier holiday for a veteran newswoman this year, thanks to the First Circuit Court of Appeals.

Wednesday, the Boston-based federal court dismissed a defamation lawsuit against Barbara Walters.

Don't you just hate it when the boss-man at a company has been sexually harassing employees for so long that no one can pinpoint when the harassment started, and everyone starts bickering about whether or not the company's wrongful employment practices policy covers his saucy antics?

It's the worst.

But if you're a lawyer for either the boss-man's company or the insurance company, that bickering means billables because the case is unlikely to be resolved in summary judgment.

Mark Menard was permanently injured while crossing through a railroad freight yard. He sued the freight yard operator, CSX Transportation (CSX) for his injuries, but the district court ruled that his complaint was barred because failed to assert sufficient facts to overcome his status as a “trespasser” under Massachusetts law.

The First Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed, and remanded Menard’s case for limited discovery.

After obtaining a $7,650 jury verdict in an age discrimination lawsuit, Carmen Diaz went after Jiten Hotel Management for the big bucks: attorney’s fees and costs. Diaz asked the court for $139,622 in attorney’s fees and $13,389.34 in costs.

The district court awarded $25,000 in fees and $9,434.74 in costs. This week, the First Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that the district court’s numbers needed a bit of tinkering.

The First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against a Massachusetts wastewater treatment plant in an August 3 decision.

But not all are happy with the decision. The Mayor of Worcester, for one, is debating what to do next, in light of the First Circuit’s upholding of the stringent environmental limitations on the Millbury facility, reports the Telegram News.

Contingency fees versus hourly fees— which is the appropriate standard in a class action lawsuit?

Last Friday, the First Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a class action attorneys’ fees award in a lawsuit against Volkswagen and Audi, reports Thomson Reuters News & Insight.

What’s the extent of a bank’s liability when a customer’s account has been hacked?

A district court in Maine held that Ocean Bank wasn’t liable for a hacked account, but the First Circuit Court of Appeals remanded the case, finding that the bank could potentially be liable.

Here’s a hornbook-style negligence case out of the First Circuit to kick off the week. But the interesting dicta in this case doesn’t come from the negligence analysis. Rather, it takes us back to good old-fashioned jurisdictional issues, Erie style.

In a decision posted on Friday, the First Circuit Court of Appeals talked about the liability of a gun owner, specifically when his gun is stolen to commit a crime.

The First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a monumental products liability verdict in New Hampshire recently. The verdict is the largest jury verdict in state history, reports the New Hampshire Union Leader.

The lawsuit was filed against Philadelphia-based Mutual Pharmaceutical. Plaintiff Karen Bartlett was awarded $21.6 million after a medication she used for shoulder pain caused toxic epidermal necrolysis, or Stevens Johnson Syndrome, a life-threatening condition that involves the detachment of the top layer of skin from the lower layers. Bartlett suffered burns to 60 to 65 percent of her body and is almost blind.

The First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an $11 million donation to the Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center last Tuesday.

The decision didn’t come easily, though, as the judges expressed their concern with the idea that they were called on to determine the ultimate disposition of settlement funds in the underlying case.