Missouri Injury Attorney Blog

David Payne Law is being recognized in the Missouri Lawyers Weekly Top Verdicts 2009 with the $2 Million settlement of a complex premises liability case involving traumatic head injuries. David Payne Law & Strong-Garner-Bauer represented the Plaintiff. This case settled for policy limits within 5 months of the date of injury!

A Russian student visiting Branson in the Summer 2008 suffered a severe head injury in a fall off a motel balcony and recently reached a $2 million settlement of his Christian County premises liability case against the motel. Missouri Lawyers Weekly reported Jill Frost, Kansas City attorney for Bahy, confirmed the settlement details but declined further comment.

While working in Branson during the summer of 2008, Naumenko and several other Russian friends had gathered at the Queen Anne II Motel on Aug. 30, 2008, to celebrate the end of the summer. Naumenko was leaning against the outside walkway railing on the second floor of the motel and without warning the railing collapsed, causing Naumenko to fall about 20 feet to the parking lot below.

Naumenko suffered a serious head injury (traumatic head injury) and was life-flighted to St. John’s Hospital, Springfield. After more than 100 days in the hospital and multiple surgeries — including placement of intracranial pressure monitors, an emergent bifrontal decompressive craniectomy and a bifrontal cranial defect reconstruction — Naumenko was able to return to Russia about four months after the fall.

Police photographs of the railing taken the night of the fall showed it was not bolted to the adjacent support posts.

Plaintiff’s counsel also learned there was a foreclosure action on the motel pending in Taney County between defendants Berag Singh Bahy and Queen Anne Hospitality Corp. The Taney County court file contained a copy of the purchase agreement between the two defendants entered in 2006. Oh, how rich this purchase agreement was for the plaintiff's case on linking liability to both Bahy and Queen Anne.

The plaintiff asserted that an addendum to the purchase agreement showed both defendants had known the railing was unsecured and unsafe for almost two years before Naumenko’s fall, but neither defendant had ever fixed it. "It appears the defendants had been fighting over who should fix the railing and do other needed repairs. Neither defendants' pride seemingly would allow them to fix this railing...it would have taken a few minutes and a $2 bolt!"After identifying the defendants’ insurance information during initial discovery, plaintiff issued a policy limit demand, left open for 30 days. The defendants didn't let the 30 days pass before tending policy limits. The parties settled for the defendants’ combined policy limits of $2 million.

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Posted In: Verdicts & Settlements

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Earlier this month, Unilever United States Inc. and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the massive recall of about 10 million Slim-Fast® ready-to-drink shakes because of serious bacterial contamination.

If you or a loved one has experienced health problems, including the symptoms listed below, and wonder if it is related to contaminated Slim-Fast®, contact a product liability lawyer at David Payne Law.

Missouri personal injury attorney, David Payne, will give you a free, no-obligation and confidential evaluation of your Slim-Fast® claim. While consultations involve no obligation by a prospective client to hire David Payne Law, a phone call or in-person meeting will fully outline your rights and any paths of legal action you may have.

The products are packaged in paperboard cartons and contain four; six or 12 steel cans that are 11 fl oz. (325 mL) each. Individual cans are also sold in certain retail stores. These products may have been contaminated with Bacillus cereus, which is a micro-organism that is linked to:

• Nausea
• Diarrhea
• Vomiting
• Other serious adverse health issues

Bacillus cereus is responsible for about two percent of all food borne illnesses, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Numerous, recent reports indicate that the illness resulting from consuming these shakes comes within 24 hours after exposure and can cause diarrhea. Serious illness and permanent injury have also occurred.

A list of the recalled products is available on the FDA website.

According to Unilever officials, the company has ceased production of Slim-Fast ready-to-drink cans until the source of the contamination can be identified and corrected.
Slim-Fast® powdered shakes, meal bars, or snack bars are not affected by this recall.

Please feel free to contact David Payne anytime at 417.847.7516.

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Posted In: Advice for the Injured , Defective Products , Pharmaceutical Drugs , Pharmaceutical Litigation/Defective Drugs , Verdicts & Settlements , Wrongful Death Claims & Litigation

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A Russian student visiting Branson in the Summer 2008 suffered a severe head injury in a fall off a motel balcony and recently reached a $2 million settlement of his Christian County premises liability case against the motel.

David Payne Law & Strong-Garner-Bauer represented the Plaintiff. This case settled for policy limits within 5 months of the date of injury!

Denis Naumenko was a Russian student working in Branson during the summer of 2008. Naumenko and several other Russian friends had gathered at the Queen Anne II Motel on Aug. 30, 2008, to celebrate the end of the summer. Naumenko was leaning against the outside walkway railing on the second floor of the motel. The railing collapsed, causing Naumenko to fall about 20 feet to the parking lot below.

Naumenko suffered a serious head injury (traumatic head injury) and was life-flighted to St. John’s Hospital, Springfield. After more than 100 days in the hospital and multiple surgeries — including placement of intracranial pressure monitors, an emergent bifrontal decompressive craniectomy and a bifrontal cranial defect reconstruction — Naumenko was able to return to Russia about four months after the fall.

Police photographs of the railing taken the night of the fall showed it was not bolted to the adjacent support posts.

Plaintiff’s counsel also learned there was a foreclosure action on the motel pending in Taney County between defendants Berag Singh Bahy and Queen Anne Hospitality Corp. The Taney County court file contained a copy of the purchase agreement between the two defendants entered in 2006. Oh, how rich this purchase agreement was for the plaintiff's case on linking liability to both Bahy and Queen Anne.

The plaintiff asserted that an addendum to the purchase agreement showed both defendants had known the railing was unsecured and unsafe for almost two years before Naumenko’s fall, but neither defendant had ever fixed it. "It appears the defendants had been fighting over who should fix the railing and do other needed repairs. Neither defendants' pride seemingly would allow them to fix this railing...it would have taken a few minutes and a $2 bolt!"After identifying the defendants’ insurance information during initial discovery, plaintiff issued a policy limit demand, left open for 30 days. The defendants didn't let the 30 days pass before tending policy limts. The parties settled for the defendants’ combined policy limits of $2 million.

Missouri Lawyers Weekly reported Jill Frost, Kansas City attorney for Bahy, confirmed the settlement details but declined further comment.

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Posted In: Brain Injury , Spinal Cord Injury , Verdicts & Settlements

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Dog bites and vicious dog attacks are getting noticed in the courts as evidenced by the HUGE ruling in a Jackson County Missouri court. On Tuesday, Alan L. Hill, who suffered severe injuries when viciously attacked by a group of pit bulls, was awarded $7.25 million by Circuit Judge Vernon E. Scoville of Jackson County, Missouri. This is proof positive of the benefits of hiring an attorney after an injury. The May 4, 2006, attacks against Hill and two other men sparked an outcry for tougher laws on dangerous dogs in Independence. The plaintiff's attorney was also successful in obtaining a consortium claim award for $300,000 to Hill’s wife, Connie Hill.

I would say that the plaintiffs are pleased so far with the efforts of their attorney, Paul L. Redfearn, III.

Circuit Judge Scoville ruled that several defendants should have known of the dogs’ “vicious propensities and tendency to injure persons. …,” and therefore found them liable for the damages sustained by the Plaintiff.

Defendants were Brittnee Ann Wisdom and James K. Knowles — owners of the property the pit bulls escaped from — and Wisdom’s mother, Nancy J. Wisdom. Also added to the lawsuit as third-party defendants were Paul Piper, owner of the dogs, and Bryan Smith, a handyman previously convicted of criminal charges in the case.

The facts of the case are pretty nasty. Hill nearly died. He remained hospitalized on a feeding tube for more than a month.

The judge found the attack caused permanent disfigurement and disabling injuries to Hill which included complex facial lacerations, extensive lacerations to his upper and lower extremities, and multi-system organ failure. Hill’s medical bills were greater than $500,000, and his loss of direct and future income was estimated at more than $1 million.

As could be expected, the civil case brought new light on the attacks, including the fact that the Wisdoms and Knowles all tried to contact animal control to have the dogs removed in the days before the dogs’ rampage. Interestingly enough, Brittnee Wisdom even left more than one note for Piper, telling him that he needed to have the dogs fenced in or restrained in a cage.

“I just rented the place out and the people have small children,” Wisdom wrote.

Earlier on the day of the attacks, the Wisdoms drove to the house to meet animal-control officers and have the dogs removed. However, the officers already had left by the time the Wisdoms arrived. The mother later called Smith to ask him to unlock the dogs for animal control. Which apparently happened, but he also left a window open, and the dogs escaped. Police eventually were able to locate the dogs and had the dogs killed.

On the criminal court side, Smith was sentenced to a year in jail for misdemeanor assault and was to serve 100 days in jail as shock time. Piper also was convicted by the municipal criminal court.

This is another horrifying case were the reckless behavior of dog owners led to serious and life-altering injuries. If you believe you might have a case worth pursuing, call or contact an experienced personal injury attorney in your area for a meeting to discuss your options.

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Posted In: Verdicts & Settlements

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A Texas appellate court Thursday overturned a $26 million Angleton jury finding a 59-year-old triathlete died because of his use of the painkiller Vioxx. The Missouri injury law firm of Cardin & Payne represents many Vioxx victims in the on-going Vioxx settlement.

The 14th Texas Court of Appeals ruled that the man's widow, Carol Ernst, should receive nothing because the more than one month of testimony in the nation's first Vioxx trial lacked sufficient evidence to prove the drug caused his heart problem and death. The jury of Texas citizens of course found that the drug did cause the death and that Merck WAS responsible.

This ruling on the 2005 trial came the same day a New Jersey court struck down most of a 2006 jury verdict against Vioxx maker Merck & Co. and earlier this month, an appellate court in San Antonio overturned a $32 million jury award to a widow in South Texas who claimed her husband died of a heart attack because of Vioxx.

Bruce Kuhlik, attorney for Merck said, "We are gratified that the Texas appeals court correctly found that Vioxx did not cause Mr. Ernst's death and reversed the previous decision for the plaintiff in the first Vioxx case to go to trial."

VIOXX taken off market

Vioxx was withdrawn from the U.S. market in 2004 when studies showed Vioxx was responsible for increasing the rate of heart attacks among patients and Merck has agreed to pay more than $4.8 billion to settle lawsuits by thousands of victims who point the cause of their heart attacks and strokes to be Vioxx.

Merck went to trial on several cases and has appealed those it lost.

Jon Skidmore, a Dallas-based Fulbright & Jaworksi attorney who helped try the Angleton case for Merck, said the rulings should not alter the global settlement. "The court found certain expert testimony by Mrs. Ernst's experts was possibility, speculation and surmise." However, the JURY didn't think this way. Houston appellate court Chief Justice Adele Hedges wrote that studies support the conclusion that "Vioxx use at a certain dose and duration is associated with risk of thrombotic cardiac event."

There is sure to be much more news on Vioxx and the courts that have a say in the outcomes so say tuned to the Missouri Injury Attorney Blog.

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Legal Aide for Car Accident Victims and their Families ~ Missouri

After the jury came in and told a trucking company it's driver was at fault for the deaths of three women, the defendants have agreed to pay $18 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the families of three women killed in a June 2006 crash.

Pro Logistics Inc. agreed to the payment Friday, two days after a jury found the company liable for the women's deaths and ordered them to pay $15 million. Still out was the jury and they were deliberating whether and how much the company should pay in punitive damages when Pro Logistics agreed to the higher amount.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol and witnesses said the truck was traveling eastbound on Interstate 70 about 30 miles east of Columbia when it failed to slow down as it approached congested traffic and slammed into a line of cars. Then, the 18-wheeler broke through safety cables in the highway median and crossed into the westbound lanes, jackknifing on an embankment.

In order to best position your family to have a successful wrongful death claim, you will need more than simply the compassion of the insurance adjuster for the person at fault. You will need the experience, knowledge and passion of an experienced personal injury attorney with the resources available to maximize your recover.

CALL NOW FOR A FREE CONSULTATION WITH DAVID PAYNE, LAW SERVICES FOR INJURED MISSOURIANS

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Too many times drug corporations make decisions that hurt people. Too many times people are misled into making decisions that negatively effect their health based upon lies from the drug companies. Product liability law allows injured people to sue in many instances. Sadly, even when held financially responsible in court, the victims are not made whole due to the impact on their health. This is a recent drug case were product liablity law helped injured people.

Cardin and Payne law firm helps people who have been injured in these circumstances. Helping Southwest Missouri residents is personally rewarding for the lawyers in our firm. We represent people all over the Ozarks including: Springfield, Joplin, Monett, Aurora, Mt. Vernon, Neosho, Cassville, Republic, Marionville and Branson.
Recent news reports state OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc. expects to pay $500,000 out its own pocket to settle a class-action lawsuit related to the Tarceva lung-cancer drug OSI sold. OSI's settlement amount is aproximately $9 million and the terms of the settlement are subject to court approval.

This drug class action settlement stems from a lawsuit alleging that OSI had made false and misleading statements about Tarceva's potential to increase survival from lung cancer.

If you have been injured due to prescription drug, call an experienced injury attorney now.

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Whether your case is in Springfield, Cassville, Monett, Republic or anywhere in the Missouri Ozarks, the value of you case will vary depending on the specific facts of your case. One particular such element is the actual value of other cases that have tried to a court or when they settle. Whether in Greene County or Barry County, Missouri, the value of your case will depend on how well others do when they go to court. This is what happened in one wrongful death case.

A federal jury awarded the family of a boy who filed a wrongful death lawsuit against police and awarded the relatives a record $28 million. The jury said Troopers Samuel Nassan and Juan Curry acted intentionally when the boy was shot Christmas Eve 2002.

The jury deliberated for four days before reaching their verdict.

The $28 million appears to be the largest award ever granted against state police. The boy died of a gunshot wound that severed his spine and sliced through major arteries around his heart.

His father filed the lawsuit stating police used unreasonable force on his unarmed son.

This is another example of how "We the people" (through the jury system) place a great deal of value on life.

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Posted In: Verdicts & Settlements

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