Pennsylvania Personal Injury Blog

According to a report by Fox News, 10 million cans of the popular diet drink Slim-Fast have been recalled by its parent company, Unilever PLC. Unilever claims that this move is strictly precautionary. They believe that the cans may possibly be contaminated with bacteria that can make consumers ill, but were quick to point out that the recall only affects their “Slim-Fast ready-to-drink” products; their snack-bars and powder products remain untainted with the bacteria.

Unilever describes the bacteria, called Bacillus cereus, as a micro-organism that can cause diarrhea, nausea and vomiting when ingested. The company spokeswoman did not have information on whether calls from consumers had prompted the recall or if consumers would be compensated for any problems. Unilever’s spokeswoman did say that, “The probability of serious, adverse consequences is remote.” The company also announced that, “Out of an abundance of caution, the company is recalling all ready-to-drink products in cans that are currently in distribution centers, on shelf or in back room retail outlets or in consumer’s homes.” Unilever asked the public to throw away any cans they have and contact them for a full refund.

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A news story on the latimes.com website reported that the California attorney general’s office has settled a toxic tort lawsuit with Toys R Us, Kmart, and Target. They were found to be guilty of selling toys with high levels of lead, exposure to which can be dangerous especially in young children whose nervous systems are developing.

The attorney general’s office and the Los Angeles city attorney filed a lawsuit against the three retailers, along with Mattel Inc. when it was discovered that they were selling or making toys with excessive amounts of lead paint.

The contaminated toys broke federal toy safety standards and California law Proposition 65, that deals with toxic substances, prompting a wave of recalls.

The California State deputy attorney said, “Our enforcement action will serve as a reminder to companies that they have a responsibility to make sure that children aren’t exposed to harmful chemicals from their toys.

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A Philadelphia jury awarded $2.5 million to a woman from Bensalem. The jury found that Paxil had caused heart problems in her 3-year-old son who required several surgeries after his birth to fix his heart. They ruled out additional punitive damages.

The case was the first of about 600 lawsuits to go to trial on claims that the GlaxoSmithKline’s Paxil antidepressant caused birth defects in children whose mothers took the drug during pregnancy.

According to an article in The Philadelphia Inquirer, legal experts saw the 10-2 jury decision as a big win for plaintiffs in the remaining cases, even though the jurors awarded only compensatory damages.

Jurors linked the plaintiff’s problems to Paxil and said GlaxoSmithKline was negligent in not properly warning the woman’s doctor of the drug’s risk. They did not find the company’s behavior “outrageous,” which would have been necessary to award punitive damages.

The standard for finding punitive damages requires evidence that a company knew about problems but ignored them or covered them up because the product was so profitable.

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According to an article on Philly.com, a $4.85 billion fund was set up so that Merck & Co. Inc. can compensate kin of those who died of heart attacks or strokes.

The claims are from the families of more than 3,100 users of its Vioxx painkiller who died of heart attacks or strokes because of the drug.

The fund will pay about 3,000 claims for heart-attack deaths and at least 122 for strokes.
Merck launched Vioxx in 1999 and withdrew it in 2004 when a study showed the drug doubled the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Merck set up the fund in 2007 after reserving $1.9 billion to fight 26,600 Vioxx lawsuits.

The facts of each case determine the extent of Merck’s liability, which analysts once estimated to be as much as $20 billion overall.

Families of heart-attack victims who died will get an average payment of about $374,000. The amount will depend on the Vioxx user’s age, how long he or she took the drug, and whether the person had health risks such as obesity or hypertension.

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On September 15, an attorney told a Philadelphia jury that GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C. ignored evidence for years that its antidepressant Paxil may have caused birth defects. According to an article in The Philadelphia Inquirer, this attorney represents a woman who says that taking the drug during her pregnancy caused her three year-old son’s heart problems.

The Bucks County resident, a former cheerleader for the Philadelphia 76ers, is making the claim for her son who appeared briefly in the courtroom this morning. According to her attorney, Glaxo told its scientists to avoid disclosing possible risks associated with the drug’s use by pregnant women.

An attorney for GlaxoSmithKline is claiming there is no evidence that Paxil caused the child’s heart problems. The case is being heard in Common Pleas Court.

The woman’s attorney showed the jury a series of documents that showed that Glaxo knew before Paxil went on the market that rats administered the drug were more likely to have pups that didn’t survive past four days and that the rate of death increased with higher doses of Paxil.

In the late 1980s, at about the same time as the rat study, an internal Glaxo scientist warned that “there remains the possibility that this compound could be teratogenic (meaning can cause birth defects) at higher dose levels.”

The trial is the first of more than 600 cases alleging that Glaxo knew Paxil caused birth defects and hid those risks to pump up profits. Approved for U.S. use in 1992, the drug generated about $942 million in sales last year, 2.1 percent of Glaxo’s total sales.

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The Ford Motor Co. has settled a lawsuit filed by residents of a northern New Jersey town over toxic waste dumped there nearly 40 years ago. According to an article, the settlement was announced in state Superior Court. The residents of Ringwood, about 25 miles northeast of New York City, will receive about $10 million.

An attorney for the Plaintiffs alleged that they had been injured by exposure to toxic chemicals at the Ringwood landfill site. After more than three years of litigation, the parties have entered into a settlement that will resolve all the claims in the litigation.

Under terms of the settlement, Ford and two other defendants, URS Corp. and Arrow Group Industries, admitted no liability for the residents’ claims of health problems caused by the waste.

The article stated that during the 1960s and 1970s, contractors hired by Ford dumped thousands of tons of paint sludge and heavy metals from a car manufacturing plant in nearby Mahwah into landfills, open pits and an abandoned mine that dates back to the 18th century.
The Ringwood site was placed on the federal Superfund list, a ranking of the country’s worst environmental dump sites, in 1983.

Large amounts of hardened paint sludge and other waste were discovered. A joint federal-state report released that year found the site contained potentially unsafe levels of metals and chemicals.

Residents blamed the toxins for serious illnesses including certain cancers and skin diseases, and about 700 of them joined a lawsuit in 2006.

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A patient sued a New Jersey oncologist who health officials suspect was responsible for a hepatitis B outbreak this year. According to this article by the Associated Press on Philly.com, one man from Manchester, NJ said he contracted the disease after being treated for prostate cancer at the office of suspected doctor this year and last year.

The affected man sued the doctor for medical malpractice in a state court in Ocean County, NJ in July. His attorney said that the man was tested before the doctor treated him and was not infected with the virus.

The state warned nearly 3,000 of the suspected doctor’s patients in March to get tested after five cancer patients tested positive for hepatitis B, which is transmitted through exposure to infected blood and can cause serious liver damage.

According to the article, the state Health Department refused to say how many more patients tested positive after the warnings were issued.

The oncologist’s medical license was suspended in April because of conditions at his Toms River office. There was blood on the floor of a room where chemotherapy was administered, blood in a bin where blood vials were stored, open medication vials, and unsterile saline and gauze.

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John Parkhurst, a single father of Capitol Hill, is suing the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority (WASA) for $200 million. He claims lead-contaminated tap water poisoned his twin sons as infants, causing them ongoing health problems.

According to this article by the Associated Press that appeared on Philly.com,
Parkhust claims that the water utility hid elevated levels of lead from customers and federal authorities between 2001 and 2004. He also says they failed to remedy the situation and left out information from public education campaigns that would have warned people about the problem. According to the personal injury lawsuit, WASA continued to encourage residents to drink the water.

The complaint followed a study that determined hundreds of D.C. children might be at risk of irreversible IQ loss, developmental delays, and behavioral problems linked to the lead levels. Considering such a drastic number of children have suffered, a mass tort lawsuit may be in order.

Parkhurst prepared baby formula and food for his sons, Jonathan and Joshua, using tap water from when they were 8 months old, when he adopted them from Vietnam, until they were 2 in 2002. It wasn't until then, during a yearly medical checkup, that Parkhurst learned the twins (now 8 years old) had dangerous levels of lead in their blood. Parkhurst’s attorney said Jonathan’s levels were so high, they were reported to the Centers for Disease Control. As the boys got older they developed anxiety and serious attention problems. After he read about the lead level study, he made the connection.

Continue reading "Class Action Lawsuit Against DC Water Authority Begins With Father Suing For $200 Million" »

Jim Sullivan III, a Gloucester County, NJ real estate broker who acquired a contaminated building and rented it out as a day-care center says he did not believe an environmental cleanup was necessary.

According to this report in the Philadelphia Inquirer, he did not tell Kiddie Kollege Day Care operators that the building was once a thermometer factory with a history of mercury spills and vapors.

The statements appear in court records and a deposition Sullivan gave to attorneys who represent nearly 100 children who attended the now boarded-up New Jersey day care.

The Kiddie Kollege Day Care closed in July 2006 after New Jersey inspectors discovered the building’s new use. Testing showed it contained hazardous vapors 27 times the acceptable limit. Mercury beads were detected in cracks and crevices of floors and ceiling joists.

Class-action lawsuits have been filed on behalf of the children and day-care staff. They are asking for payment from Sullivan and local and state government for medical testing.

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