Chicago Wrongful Death Lawyer Blog

The City of Houston settled a wrongful death lawsuit for $225,000 after the accidental death of a woman following a collision of two city fire trucks. Leigh Boone died two weeks after the collision with the city fire trucks. According to reports the fire trucks were speeding to a fire call that turned out to be a false alarm. Boone unfortunately was standing at the corner next to her bicycle when a speeding ladder truck rolled on top of her.

The estate of Boone filed the wrongful death lawsuit primarily because they wanted change in the way fire stations compete for calls so that this type of accident does not happen in the future. The City of Houston Fire Department has changed the way it responds to fire calls as a result of this wrongful death lawsuit. These types of accidents are preventable and it is a good thing that the City was responsible enough to settle this lawsuit.

"What we do know is that there has been a specific focus on the policies in making sure these type of incidents don't happen again,”said Donald Kidd, with Perdue and Kidd, LLP.

Walt Disney World had a wrongful death lawsuit filed against it by the mother of a former monorail driver who was killed in a monorail collision. According to details in the lawsuit Adam Wuennenberg was operating a monorail train for Walt Disney World when another monorail switched tracks and backed into him. The accident was so severe that Wuennenberg had to be extricated from the monorail and later died of injuries sustained in the train accident. The lawsuit alleges that Walt Disney World failed to put in place safety procedures which could have prevented the collision.

According to reports, investigations into the accident revealed that the monorail system coordinator was not at this assigned post when the accident occured. In a piece of good news for the plaintiff in this case, a Wat Disney World employee admitted to erroneously activating a track switch which seems to be the primary case of the train collision. In a related piece of news Walt Disney World was fined $32,500 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration ("OSHA") for safety violations.

Katheryn Trent, 78 suffered a head injury when her wheelchair tipped over in a county-funded transit bus and she ended up with severe brain injury and died seven weeks later. Her estate filed a wrongful death lawsuit and settled the wrongful death lawsuit for $95,000. According to details in the lawsuit, she was riding in a public transit vehicle and when it turned a corner, the wheelchair in which she was seated toppled over and she struck her head. Even though the lawsuit claims she died as a result of that accident a death certificate filed with her probate case shows she died of a perforated colon. Many times a personal injury case involves issues of how the injury was caused and in this case the cause of death may be left to the jury to decide.

The lawsuit claimed that Trent's injury was the result of negligence by LifeStream which owned the vehicle and the driver of the Lake County Transit bus who neglected to lock down her wheelchair. Many times with elderly people freak type accidents may occur which end up severly injuring or killing them. As was the case here, something as simple as locking down the wheelchair could have prevented the severe brain injury. It is important to pay close attention to how your parents and elderly loved ones are treated in their day to day activities. Many times workers who provide services to the elderly are not well paid and they may not have the best of training. Accidents like this are preventable.

Bay Area Rapid Transit also known as BART agreed to settle a wrongful death lawsuit with the estate of Oscar Grant for $1.5 million. Oscar Grant who was not carrying a weapon was fatally shot last year by a transit officer working for BART. According to reported terms of the settlement, the estate will receive an annual allowance from the settlement and the estimated payout over 20 years, will be between $4 million and $5 million including interest.

The incident began when Grant and his friends were pulled of the BART train for allegedly fighting. Secuirty guard Mehserle said he thought he was using his stun gun on Grant but accidentally fired his handgun while Grant was lying face down on the station platform, killing Grant. Mehserle faces murder charges in the death of Grant. The shooting was video-recorded by several bystanders and widely viewed on the Internet. It sparked violent protests and was used as evidence in a preliminary hearing last spring.

"You can't even begin to calculate in money the loss of the child's father," Burris said. "It was part of our motivation to at least financially secure her future."

Pendleton Memorial Methodist Hospital settled a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of Althea LaCoste, a 73-year-old woman who died after Hurricane Katrina left the hospital without electricity. The terms of the settlement a sealed and the amount is not available to the public. Generally when a hospital is sued it is for malpractice by doctors or other staff but in this case the allegations were the hospital negligently failed to prepare for a storm of Katrina's magnitude. Given the location of the hospital in relation to bad weather that could knock out power for prolong periods of time, the hospital should have had a better back up plan for vital services such as electricity.

LaCoste was at the hospital recovering from pneumonia and was hooked up to a portable ventilator which requires electricity. LaCoste was taken to the hospital as the hurricane approached. At the hospital LaCosta survived for 18 hours without power but the trauma of being without the portable ventilaor led to her death. It was good that the lawyer had a creative approach to holding the hospital responsible for the wrongful death of LaCosta.

The family of 23-year-old Michelle Hatchel, who was the girlfriend of Ed Scheetz, former chief executive of New York-based Morgans Hotel Group Co. which co-owns the Hard Rock in Las Vegas filed a $645 Million dollar lawsuit for wrongful death. Hatchel was found dead of a drug overdose in a luxury Turnberry Towers condominium on Aug. 29, 2007 and according to the lawsuit had received the cocaine and oxycodone that killed her from Scheetz. Three weeks after Hatchel died, Morgans said Scheetz resigned as Morgans president and chief executive officer for personal reasons.

According to the lawsuit Hatchel had been traumatized by the deaths of friends in the Columbine High School massacre in 1999 and Scheetz capitalized on her emotional troubles to induce her into drug use and sexual activity. Hatchel Scheetz at a Denver nightclub in 2005 and had a relationship with him and in the summer of 2007, Hatchel was flown to New York to be with Scheetz on a flight arranged by Scheetz's secretary at Morgans and then was flown to Las Vegas on Morgans' private jet. However things began to go wrong for Hatchel after arriving in Las Vegas. in text messages to friends Hatchel expressed unhappiness with the ex-girlfriend's presence and feared for her safety. This wrongful death lawsuit settlement should help the family get closure.

Fairfax County agreed Tuesday to pay $1.5 million to the family of Ashley McIntosh who was killed by a Fairfax police officer in a crash on Route 1, thus ending the wrongful death lawsuit against the county. McIntosh was driving her Toyota Corolla out of the Mount Vernon Plaza shopping center and was pulling onto Route 1 with a green light. Officer Amanda R. Perry was heading north on Route 1, with her emergency lights on but not her siren, when she drove through the red light at Boswell Road and struck McIntosh's car on the passenger side. McIntosh was ejected and died the next day. This type of wreckless driving is uncalled for and the danger posed by driving through a red light without the siren on is just plain stupid.

Fairfax prosecutors charged Perry with reckless driving but she was found not guilty in a bench trial. In a pretrial hearing, Perry acknowledged that she didn't use her emergency lights for several miles while heading to a reported fight in progress, in violation of police policy. There is a reason why departments have policies in place regarding using sirens and what to do when approaching intersections against the light. What makes matters worse is that the alleged fight was was actually the capture of a shoplifter. So this police officer ran a red light and took the life of a woman in her prime so she could respond to a call regarding a shoplifter. What a waste.

Niagara Falls city will pay $225,000 to settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the daughter of a Lockport man, Jonah R. Drisdom, who was shot by an off-duty police officer outside Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center. Drisdom, 47, was shot to death by Walter R. Nichols Jr., an off-duty officer who was providing security at the hospital where Drisdom was a psychiatric patient. Drisdom left the hospital in a hurry with what turned out to be a harmless butter knife.

Using deadly force to shoot a mental patient who is only armed with a butter knife and where there were alternative methods to stop him is not justified. In this case, as in other cases where a loved one is killed, it is important to involve an attorney early in the process to protect your rights.

Man Wong died in an automobile accident on the Stevenson Expressway in Chicago after off-duty police officer Edward Stapinski lost control of his automobile. The family of Wong filed a wrongful death lawsuit seeking more than $20 million. It is alleged that Stapinski was intoxicated when the caused tha car accident. Stapinski has been charged with reckless homicide and aggravated drunken driving.

According to details in the wrongful death lawsuit Stapinski was southbound on the Stevenson Expressway after drinking at the WestEnd Bar and Grill in Chicago when he struck the concrete median barrier and went over the median into the northbound lanes striking the automobile driven by Wong. The wrongful death lawsuit claims Stapinski was severely impaired from drinking and blood taken at the hospital after the automobile accident showed his alcohol level at three times the legal limit. The legal limit in Illinois is .08. Aside from the wrongful death claim there is also a dram shop claim against the bar. Dram shop is the term for a cause of action against a business that sells alcohol to someone who then injures another person.

Thomas Quirk who is a retired police officer and his two sons settled a wrongful-death lawsuit in Cook County Illinois against Little Company of Mary Hospital and two other medical establishments for $7.5 Million. The lawsuit was the result of the 2004 death of Patricia Quirk who was diagnosed with stage three endometrial cancer and had to endure being overradiated 17 times which led to her death. This type of personal injury is very tragic and preventable.

Many times medical professionals have such work loads that they fail to spend the kind of quality time evaluating what is going on. Treatments are not properly given to patients and no one seems to be watching what is going on. Hospitals and medical establishments should spend more time on each patient and less time warehousing people. This wrongful death lawsuit should not have been needed because the death was not necessary. This was preventable with good procedures in place. No family should have to suffer a loss like this.

"The prescription called for 180 centigrays of radiation. She

Four businessmen were killed when the Cessna 421B piloted by Mark Turek crashed just before landing at the Wheeling Illinois airport. According to reports from the National Transportation Safety Board ("NTSB") the airplane wasn't going fast enough to stop an engine stall. The wrongful death lawsuit was filed against the estate of pilot Mark Turek and Morgan Stanley alleging that Morgan Stanley used a nonprofessional pilot to fly employees to Illinois.

The lawsuit settled for $15 million prior to the case going before a jury. In cases like this, defendants like to minimize their potential exposure to large jury verdicts and the closer to trial the case comes, the more likely a settlement. The wrongful death case was filed in Cook County Illinois and Chicago area juries are known to award larger amounts than cases in other parts of Illinois. Small airplane crashes like this are also known to yield larger amounts in settlements because people who can afford to fly in private small aircraft usually make large amounts of money and therefore their estates will sue for more money in lost revenue to the estate.

Continue reading " Victims Families of Wrongful Death Airplane Crash Receive $15 Million " »

Southern California's commuter rail agency Metrolink will pay about $39 million to settle nearly all 189 wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits filed after the 2005 train derailment. Eleven train riders were killed and 180 injured when a man parked his SUV on the train tracks. The lawsuit alleged that Metrolink should have provided better safety controls to prevent the accident from occuring.

In wrongful death cases in Illinois it is important to prove that the person who died could have brought a lawsuit had that person survived. Another words, if the deceased person could have sued, the family can sue. In this case, as in other cases involving trains, personal injury and wrongful death, some of the issues to prove liability would be the speed of the train, the attention the conductor was paying to the tracks, any obstructions and the care Metrolink took in making sure the tracks would remain clear from obstacles that may result in an accident.

Continue reading " Train Derailment Lawsuits Involving Wrongful Death and Personal Injury Settled for $39 Million " »

This tragedy began in August 2006, when 22-year-old Cleve Bostick was run over by a pickup truck driven by longtime friend David Phelps. Phelps was charged with DUI manslaughter and is currently serving a four year prison sentence. Many times horse play around automobiles can lead to devastating consequences. In this case a young man with a very bright future lost his life.

Bostick's family sued Phelps for wrongful death and a jury awarded them $1.5 million. Although many cannot bring Bostick back, in our justice system it is the only civil remedy available and it helps keep people accountable. There are thousands of tragic accidents involving alcohol and motor vehicles each year. Hopefully, as more people become aware of these tragedies by reading news reports and blog articles less people will suffer.

"There's still a lot of sadness," said Attorney Paul Phillips. "A lot of grief and that may never end for them, but at least to know that someone has gone and found everything that there is to know. I think that gave them some closure."

Continue reading " Family Of Son Run Over By Truck Awarded $1.5 Million In Wrongful Death Case " »

Wackenhut Corrections Corp., known as the GEO Group, which runs a local prison settled a lawsuit in the beating death of Gregorio de la Rosa Jr. of Laredo for an undisclosed sum. The case involvedDe la Rosa being beaten to death while prison officials first watched and later tried to cover up by destroying evidence. The Thirteenth Court of Appeals affirmed the $40 Million Dollar judgment for wrongful death against the prison and rebuked the GEO Group and warden.

In a very callous act, the inmates used a lock tied to a sock while Wackenhut’s officers stood by and watched and Wackenhut’s wardens smirked and laughed according to the courts opinion. De la Rosa Jr., who served his country in the military was an honorably discharged former national guardsman. He was serving a six-month sentence for possession of less than one-fourth gram of cocaine. He ended up getting a death sentence by being held in this private prison and under the control of these negligent guards and warden.

"We find that Wackenhut’s conduct was clearly reprehensible and, frankly, constituted a disgusting display of disrespect for the welfare of others and for this state’s civil justice system," the appellate court said.

Continue reading " Private Prison Settles Wrongful Death Lawsuit--After Jury Returns $40 Million Dollar Verdict " »

Rite Aid is being sued by the family of John Sheridan alleging he died because of a pharmaceutical error. According to the wrongful death lawsuit Sheridan was given lethal doses of Temador which is a chemotherapy drug. Rite Aid gave Sheridan the Temodar prescription in September, which instructed him to take 14 capsules by mouth of the drug--one each day. Sheridan was only suppose to take one capsule every other week. The instructed dosage was ten times the usual recommended amount, and almost double the amount known to cause death.

The doctor who wrote the prescription admitted his fault and settled with Sheridan’s family. According to court papers, the instructed amount of Temador allowed the cancer to spread and led to the premature death of Sheridan at age 52. Rite Aid is being sued because they failed to catch the error of the doctor who wrote the prescription. It is important to speak with an experienced attorney if a loved one is the victim of the wrongful acts of another that leads to personal injury or death. When you take drugs in inproper amounts due to the errors of doctors and pharmacy personal, you could die or get severly injured.