Grand Rapids Personal Injury Lawyer - Wrongful Death

City of Detroit to pay $2 Million for contributing to a death during lockup

Timothy Smith — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:19:05 GMT

In August 2005, James Stone was arrested on a parole violation. While in lock-up/jail, he complained for over an hour about chest pains, but the City did nothing. He later had a heart attack and died. Had he received proper medical care and treatment, it was argued that his death could have been avoided.

It seems that one of the reasons the case settled was what the presiding judge called, "egregious misconduct" by the City's attorneys during the discovery phase of the litigation. U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Pepe accused the City's attorney of repeated violations of discovery orders and court ordered deadlines.

Magistrate Pepe took the rare step of recommending to the trial judge, U.S. District Court Judge Denise Page Hood, that the City of Detroit be defaulted for their flagrant abuse of discovery. Before Judge Hood had a chance to rule on that issue and just before the jury was picked, the City settled the case for $2 million.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Timothy Smith

Lower than a snake's belly......

Timothy Smith — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 15:02:06 GMT

Even for insurance companies, this is pretty low. Great American Insurance Company insured a building that caught fire. Three people died in that fire. Suit was filed against the building owner and its insurance company, Great American, has asked the court to dismiss them from the lawsuit claiming the fire didn't kill the three people.

What does Great American claim the cause of their deaths to be???? Are you ready for this....

Great American has argued to the court that the fire didn't cause the deaths. They argue that the deaths were caused by smoke inhalation, not the flame of the fire. And...... since smoke is a pollutant..... and........pollution is specifically excluded under the Great American policy, the insurance company doesn't believe they have to pay. Wow.......

If you are as appalled as I was by this attempt to avoid their responsibilities under the contract of insurance, you can let them know about it. I did by sending an email to this address.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Timothy Smith