Injury Compensation News

The family of Zoila Tellez, who was killed in a tragic railway accident, have had a negotiated settlement in excess of 36 million dollars for wrongful death compensation approved by an Illinois County District Court judge.

Zoila (44) of Chicago, Illinois, was travelling in a car with her husband Jose and pregnant daughter Adriana in June 2009, when the family pulled up to red lights at a level crossing just outside of the city. The train that was due to pass was a Canadian National Railways goods vehicle, which consisted of 114 freight wagons – 76 of which were tankers filled with liquid ethanol.

Due to heavy rain, a nearby retention pond had overflowed, washing away some of the ballast beneath the track and, as the Illinois Court heard, leaving the rails “hanging in the air”. The approaching train, ignorant of the hazard ahead, derailed shortly before the level crossing at which the Tellez family had pulled up, causing several of the ethanol tankers to explode and setting the Tellez car alight.

Jose and Adriana Tellez managed to escape the accident with severe burns – Adriana miscarrying her baby soon after – while Zoila Tellez was unable to get out of the vehicle and burned to death.

In two separate lawsuits following the tragedy, it was revealed that the County Sheriff´s Office had previously alerted the Canadian National Railways communication centre in Montreal about the potential hazard, but the employee who received the warning had not been trained about how to respond to the alert, and the message was never transmitted to the train driver.

Lawyers for the family also discovered that a weather alert had been sent to the company´s Edmonton office two hours before the tragedy, but the employee there had not read the full message as so many alerts were being delivered that evening. Canadian National Railways admitted that had the messages been dealt with in a prompt and efficient manner, an engineer would have inspected the track before allowing the train to proceed and would have therefore prevented the accident.

Acknowledging that the death of Zoila Tellez and the injuries to her husband and daughter were due to neglect, insurers negotiated a settlement which sees Jose Tellez receive 22.5 million dollars, while Adriana had a separate settlement of 13.75 million dollars approved by the judge.

A dock worker, who sustained a brain injury when hit by a defective mooring cable, has won his injuries at work compensation claim against his employer in the Texas Supreme Court.

Cody Karl of League City, Texas, was working at the Magellan Terminal located on the Houston Ship Channel when, on 1st June 2008, he formed part of a team assigned to dock a 600 foot tanker. Cody was aboard a docking skiff when one of the cables used to moor the ship parted and hit him on the head.

Despite wearing a hard hat, Cody was diagnosed with brain injuries which lead to cognitive dysfunction and a loss of physical strength along the left side of his body. After seeking legal advice, Cody made an injuries at work claim against the Magellan Terminal, claiming that the mooring cable was in an unsafe condition for the tension it had to withstand.

Cody´s employers disputed the claim, stating that Cody himself should have seen that the cable had deteriorated and was not safe to use, but at the 125th Judicial District Court of Harris County, Texas, Judge Christine Butts found in favour of the claimant and awarded him 15.12 million dollars.

The family of a prison inmate, who died from bronchopneumonia while serving a fifteen month term for tax evasion, has been awarded 750,000 dollars compensation for wrongful death by a judge in Scranton Pennsylvania.

The claim against the United States Government was made by the widow of 63 year old Louis Thomas Faison, Jr. – a retired teacher, who had pleaded guilty to a charge of tax evasion in September 2007 and was sentenced to serve fifteen months at the Federal Penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.

On 1st April 2008, Louis had been sent to the prison infirmary complaining of a bad cough and generalised pain. He was examined by a physician´s assistant who diagnosed an acute upper respiratory infection and sent Louis back to his cell with a treatment to ease the symptoms of his cough.

Twenty four hours later, Louis returned to the infirmary when his condition significantly worsened. He was diagnosed with acute bronchitis, prescribed an antibiotic and returned to his cell. Less than two hours later, Faison was found unresponsive in his bed by another inmate and transported to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead.

In their claim against the government, the family alleged that the prison healthcare provider breached their duty of care towards Louis by failing to conduct a careful and comprehensive examination and by failing to perform the appropriate testing which would have revealed his condition. Their argument was supported by a medical expert, who testified that “The failure to perform a comprehensive lung evaluation and to provide emergent care to Faison … directly led to his death.”

The complaint was upheld by the judge at the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, and he awarded the family a compensation settlement of 750,000 dollars for wrongful death.

A former face of DePuy has launched a claim for faulty hip replacement compensation after her own DePuy ASR hip replacement system failed.

Penny Brown (51) of Bath, Wiltshire, is a former gymnast who, between 2004 and 2008, allowed her image to be used in DePuy´s marketing material following her own hip implant operation. In addition to Penny´s face appearing on posters and in literature promoting DePuy ASR hip replacement systems, Penny also supported patients about to have hip implant surgery and gave media interviews about the benefits of the ASR hip replacement systems.

However, in 2009, Penny noticed an aching pain in her groin and her hip replacement made a “clunking noise” whenever she walked. After seeing her doctor, Penny found out that the pain she was experiencing was attributable to her DePuy ASR hip replacement wearing out and releasing metal debris into her bloodstream which was causing an inflammation.

She was advised by her doctor that she would need revision surgery to replace the faulty hip replacement – an operation which she underwent six months ago, but has been bed-bound ever since because of complications caused by the faulty device. Penny told reporters, “I not only feel let down personally but also feel guilty that I might have encouraged others to have the ASR implanted.”

As she has been unable to work since her operation, Penny sought legal advice and made her own claim for faulty hip replacement compensation. Although Penny admitted that she had been initially delighted with how the hip device had removed the constant pain of osteoarthritis, she says her life has been devastated since the failure of her DePuy ASR hip replacement system.

The family of a woman who sustained horrific injuries and subsequently died after an inflatable pool slide “bottomed out” has been awarded 20.6 million dollars by a judge in Salem, Massachusetts.

Robin Aleo (29) from Boston, Massachusetts, was enjoying a day by her relative´s pool in July 2006 when she attempted to go down the slide into the pool where her husband and daughter were playing. As she approached the bottom of the inflatable slide, it “bottomed out”, causing her to hit her head on the pool decking.

Robin was taken to hospital with a fractured neck and was put on life support in a quadriplegic condition. When she showed no signs of recovery, the life support system was turned off and Robin died a short time after of her injuries.

Alleging that the slide had been faulty and failed to comply with federal standards for inflatable toys, Robin´s husband took the retailer of the slide – “Toys R Us” – to court in a product liability compensation claim.

In the Salem Superior Court, the jury agreed with argument and found Toys R Us professionally negligent in importing the inflatable slide from China and selling it – both online and in their retail outlets. After a short deliberation, the judge awarded compensatory and punitive damages totalling 20.6 million dollars to the family, stating “Although nothing can bring Robin back, this award will help provide some security for the husband and daughter who lost her.”