Chicago Wrongful Death Lawyer Blog

A contractor working for the city of Menlo Park has settled a wrongful death lawsuit $2.4 million. The wrongdul death lawsuit rose out of an accident in which a bicyclist died. Deborah Johnson fell and hit her head while riding on Sand Hill Road with friends. She was taken to the hospital and died two days later. In the lawsuit her husband alleged that Ms. Johnson fell when her bike hit the base of a detached cylindrical traffic marker in the bike lane.

This is a tragic accident and one that could have been avoided. Often times, just a little bit of neglect, like leaving a piece of concrete in a bike path, can cost a person their life and a company of city millions of dollars in damages.

The estate of a 17-year-old who was killed in a forklift accident at an Omaha meatpacking plant has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Greater Omaha Packing Company. The company has also been fined by the U.S. Department of Labor in connection with the accident. According to the lawsuit Miguel Herrera-Soltero was working in unsafe conditions at the plant when he died. He was driving a forklift on a ramp at the plant when the machine tipped and fell off the ramp.

The lawsuit alleges that Greater Omaha Packing Co., was negligent in failing to have a protective guardrail on the ramp. As a result of the accident the U.S. Department of Labor fined the company $100,000 for violating child labor laws in connection with the fatal accident. With many companies breaking unions in this country the working conditions inside many factories is getting worse.

A wrongful death lawsuit filed by the estate of Charles Gaston against the city of Danville was settled for $700,000. According to the lawsuit 17-year old Gaston was found in a collapsed stairwell at the Danville Illinois parking garage at the corner of North and Walnut streets. Mr. Gaston died of severe head injuries, according to a coroner's report. The lawsuit alleged that the city knew or should have known that the stairwell needed repairs or replacement which is a basic negligence complaint.

Three years before the accident, the parking garage stairwell was inspected by McClintock Civil Engineering Service, which reported to the city that the stairway was beginning to fail and cited an accumulation of "pack rust," a collection of rust between metal parts, as the problem. The engineer also reported that the stairwell had no connection at its base and that it was very springy and would be prone to collapse under occupant load. I can't believe this was allowed to go unrepaired.

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The estate James Minter filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Chicago Transit Authority ("CTA") after Minter was fatally pinned under a bus. According to the lawsuit James Minter exited a No. 9 Ashland bus that pulled away from the West Harrison Street bus stop before he was safely on the curb, causing him to fall under the bus and fatally run over by the rear tires.

According to the lawsuit the driver failed to check the mirrors before moving the bus forward and failed to make sure the road was free from pedestrian traffic. Additionally, the lawsuit claims the bus driver failed to stop the bus after Minter fell. This type of accident is avoidable and very tragic. The damages that are available to the estate include lost wages, and loss of society from the deceased. Wrongful death lawsuits are very emotional lawsuits and sometimes hard for the family to proceed with.

CTA spokeswoman Katelyn Thrall said after the accident that preliminary reports indicated the bus was proceeding towards a green light when the man fell and was struck. The bus driver was removed from service following the accident, a standard procedure, Thrall said.

National Seating and Mobility sent two repair men to service a motorized wheelchair used by quadriplegic Jeffrey Thompson. Thompson died from injuries he suffered when repairmen tried to service his motorized wheelchair while he was sitting in it. According to the lawsuit the wheelchair malfunctioned and shorted-out causing Jeffrey to be thrown from the chair and the chair crushed his legs. Jeffrey then went into a seizure. Remarkably the repair men did not call 911 and Jeffrey died.

The parents of Jeffrey filed a wrongful death lawsuit and are seeking $10 million in damages from National Seating and Mobility and will establish a foundation in the name of their son. It is too bad that such tragedies continue to take place because companies fail to establish proceedures for their workers.

A wrongful death lawsuit was filed by the estate of Mavis Stonick who was killed when she tried to cross the street. According to the lawsuit the elderly Evanston woman attempted to cross Sheridan Road near Foster Street in Evanston and was struck by a Mercedez-benz driven by Judy Lowrance.

According to witness accounts, Stonick was walking west across Sheridan Road against a light when she was struck by a car which was traveling within the posted speed limit. The main problem invovling this car accident may have been darkness and rainy weather. The lawsuit alleges Lowrance was careless and negligent because she failed to keep a proper lookout and drove to fast for traffic and weather conditions.

Destinie Martinez was seven years old and had undergone multiple surgeries for a known heart defect when he passed away in 2007, after collapsing during physical education class at Doña Ana Elementary School. Her mother, Candi Martinez, filed the wrongful death lawsuit alleging the school allowed an ill child to participate in physical activity and was negligent in its efforts to provide emergency medical attention when the child became sick. Destinie became ill at school and, after being allowed to sit out of class began vomiting.

With the many deadly germs and virus' spreading throughout the schools these days, school officials should be extra cautious when someone becomes ill. In this case the school should have taken the illness more serious and provide immediate medical help. It is such a tragedy that a young life was lost. Wrongful death statutes are survival statutes and have strict time limits which must be followed. It is very important to discuss a potential case early to receive the best advice.

The estate of football player Atlas Fraley filed a wrongful death suit against James Griffin the paramedic who treated him after he was suffering from cramps and dehydration. Fraley played football for Hill High School. According to details in the lawsuit Fraley was treated by paramedics and taken to his home instead of a hospital. Once home the 17-year-old called 911 and told an operator he was suffering from cramps and dehydration.

After the death the Orange County EMS filed a report stating that Griffin violated protocol. This type of death is completely preventable and should not have happened. The company that employed the paramedic should have had better command and control over what was going on.

Potter County will pay $400,000 to settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the estate of a mentally challenged person who died in the jail. Michael Dick was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and generalized anxiety disorder in 1999. He had been sentenced to eight years' probation in 2000 as part of his conviction for intoxicated assault with a motor vehicle. Dick's attorney sent a notice to the county jail warning jail officials of his mental condition, and that he required special attention at the jail. Later he was arrested for a probation violation and taken to a hospital and discharged to county custody, with orders to return if he experienced abdominal pain, dizziness or fainting.

According to court documents Dick never returned to the hospital despite experiencing the symptoms. Jail staffers removed Dick from his prescribed Xanax, allegedly causing withdrawal and he suffered a seizure causing him to slip and fall and hit his head. At that point he should have been taken to the hospital to receive medical treatment but was not. The jailers reported Dick claimed to hear voices and acted erratically and he was found dead in his cell a short time later. In a twist, a county-ordered autopsy revealed he died of a perforated ulcer. But a private autopsy ordered by his family also indicated he received traumatic injury to his abdomen while in custody

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.

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.