$85 Million Premises Liability Verdict | Here goes a short description of the case (maybe the title) and a link to read more (optional)

Settlements and Verdicts


Confidential

$35 Million recovery for a man who was ejected from the seat of a tractor trailer he was driving after the brakes failed when he applied them. The Plaintiff was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident but the vehicle jack-knifed and was forced off a highway and crashed into a guardrail. The seatbelt failed to restrain the man in his seat and he hit the top of his head, breaking his neck and was ejected through the driver side window. The injuries resulted in catastrophic injuries to the man including quadriplegia.

Confidential

An eight-figure products liability settlement against a leading smoke detector manufacturer and major mobile home company where a family of seven perished in a fire. The victims, including five children ages four to eleven, suffered severe burns and smoke inhalation causing their deaths.  The victims’ mobile home came equipped with smoke detectors with ionization technology which failed to provide a timely warning of, what the Pennsylvania State Police investigators determined, was a slow and smoldering fire.


Confidential

Seven-figure settlement in a products liability and motor vehicle accident case resulting in the deaths of a mother and twin sister of a teenage girl. The girl’s twin sister was operating her family’s vehicle when it was struck by the driver of a cement truck driving above the speed limit while carrying an overloaded amount of concrete in a cement mixer truck as the family’s car started to exit and then turned back into the travel lane in front of the cement truck.

Although the women survived the impact from the truck, they ultimately died from mechanical asphyxiation when the concrete mixer truck rolled over on top of the car and discharged thousands of pounds of concrete onto them, suffocating them as they remained trapped in the vehicle’s front seat.

The cement mixer truck was defectively designed in various ways, including being designed with too high a center of gravity, a drum that allowed the truck to be overloaded with concrete and an engine governor which permitted the truck to reach excessive speeds above what was recommended by the manufacturer for safe operation of the truck.  The concrete mixer truck was also not equipped with safety devices to prevent the contents of the truck from spilling in the event of a rollover.   The design defects significantly increased the risk of rollovers and the Defendants made no material changes to the truck design since its original manufacture in the 1970’s, and continued to replicate its dangerous design, despite tremendous advances in technology over the past 40 years to prevent rollovers like the one that ultimately occurred.


Confidential

$3.7 Million for death of a nine-year-old boy as a result of a fire in an apartment building.


Confidential

$3.3 Million settlement for truck driver who sustained severe electrical burns when his dump trailer contacted uninsulated electric utility lines.


Tompkins, Natasha on behalf of Ariaha Riley, A Minor v. Confidential

$2.9 Million settlement for a products liability action involving a 3-year-old girl who was burned by an electric potpourri pot. The child suffered partial thickness burns on her right arm, right breast and shoulder. The Defendants were aware that the pot was defective and had injured other young children, but continued to market and sell it. The potpourri pots were sold without adequate warnings about the dangers and/or hazards posed by using it on a daily basis.


Jane Doe v. Harbor Freight, et al.

$2.225 Million settlement for 11-year-old burn victim. The plaintiff, an 11-year-old girl, sustained second and third degree burns to her thighs and abdomen after her nightgown ignited from a space heater. Products liability claims were filed against defendants, DESA International, Inc., and Harbor Freight, as the manufacturer in interest and distributor of the Glo-Warm space heater, and against Richard Leeds International, Inc., and Wal-Mart, as the designer and distributor of the nightgown. It had been alleged that the heater was defective since the grill guard allowed clothing to pass through and ignite rapidly from the pilot light of the heating tiles. It had been alleged that the cotton nightgown was defective since consumers were not warned that the garment was unsafe for a child, that it was not flame resistant, and that it did not comply with the children’s sleepwear regulations. This case was settled prior to trial for $2,225,000 with payments in a structured annuity expected to total an additional $4.7 million over the course of the plaintiff’s lifetime.


DeLeo v. Mighty Equipment Company, et al.

$1.55 Million total recovery for laborer who suffered head injury as a result of defective scaffolding, which caused a crank handle to spin around and strike him in the face and forehead. Plaintiff suffered severe injuries, including a laceration of the forehead, fractured bones of the face and nose, and a fractured skull. These injuries resulted in permanent neurological and cognitive dysfunction, and permanent loss of sense of taste and smell.


Confidential

$1.5 Million total settlement in defective smoke alarm that didn’t sound, resulting in death of a child in Gloucester County, New Jersey.


Confidential

$1 Million recovery for faulty smoke detectors resulting in the death of a child in Camden County, New Jersey.


West v. Sundance Development

$750,000 jury verdict award to a 50-year-old woman in a single-car rollover resulting in a cervical disc injury.


Herning v. Keller Ladders

$700,000 jury verdict award to a construction worker against the manufacturer of a ladder which broke under his feet. This particular manufacturer had never previously lost a trial in its history.


Rainey v. G.F. Management, et al.

$680,000 total recovery for laborer who suffered a badly fractured ankle while carrying a pipe on a hotel construction site.


John Doe v. US Steel

$650,000 total recovery for steam fitter who suffered burns on his arms while at work at U.S. Steel Fairless Hills Plant.


Bowes v. Suzuki

$600,000 settlement for plaintiff who was ejected from his vehicle after a rollover, causing multiple orthopedic injuries and lacerations of the head.


Confidential

$550,000 settlement in an electric shock accident resulting in permanent nerve damage to arm and hand.

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