American International Group Inc. and insurers at Lloyd’s of London are among firms that may face a combined total of more than $100 million in claims tied to the Washington Metro crash that killed nine people last month. The costs to the pool of insurers, which also includes Bermuda-based XL Capital Ltd. and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., will depend on estimates of medical care, loss of expected lifetime earnings and the degree of negligence by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

The cost “will easily exceed $100 million,” said Peter Grenier, a lawyer at Washington-based Bode & Grenier LLP, who negotiated a $2.3 million settlement for a man who lost his wife when she was struck by a Metro bus in 2007.  The train accident may weigh on results at insurers after investment declines and falling rates pressured the firms. U.S. property and casualty carriers posted a record $1.3 billion first-quarter loss, compared with profit of $8.5 billion a year earlier, according to Insurance Services Office Inc. The June 22 Metro accident, the deadliest in the city’s history, occurred when one train, operated by a computerized system, collided into another, National Transportation Safety Board member Debbie Hersman said June 23 in a press conference.

Read more here

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aHTaxTWmLmzY

Pfizer Inc. resolved all but three of 35,000 claims over its withdrawn diabetes drug Rezulin for a total of about $750 million, 21 percent less than what it set aside for the cases, people familiar with the litigation said.

Pfizer, which is acquiring rival Wyeth for almost $64 billion, paid about $500 million to settle Rezulin cases consolidated in federal court in New York, according to court filings. The company also paid as much as $250 million to resolve state-court suits, two people familiar with the cases said. In 2004, it set aside $955 million to end Rezulin cases.

1.9 Million Diabetics

Rezulin, a drug taken by about 1.9 million diabetics to help regulate insulin levels, was pulled from the U.S. market in 2000 after it was linked to at least 63 deaths from liver failure. Pfizer officials said in 2004 the company faced about 35,000 personal-injury claims over the drug. Pfizer acquired the drug when it bought Warner-Lambert Co. in May 2000 for about $116 billion.

About 15,000 of those claims were consolidated before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in New York. The company has resolved all but three through dismissals or settlements, according to transcript of a Jan. 16 hearing in New York.

Read more at
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a7VBROxSloUY&refer=us

Despite all the abuses attributed to bankers and Wall Street power brokers in the news as of late - bad judgment and big bonuses - relatively little illegal activity has been revealed.

Pharmaceutical-industry bigwigs largely have been spared public scrutiny, despite decisions that have been unethical at best and in many cases downright illegal. What's worse, despite stiff fines, many drug companies are repeat offenders.

Recently, drug giant Pfizer agreed to pay a record-breaking settlement of $2.3 billion. The federal government has been investigating whether Pfizer marketed its painkiller Bextra for purposes the Food and Drug Administration had not approved.

Read more at
http://www.cleveland.com/health/plaindealer/
index.ssf?/base/news/123546788399830.xml&coll=2

Slip and Fall Injury Settlement Updated

Injured person Horn appeals the trial court's final judgment as to partial summary
judgment1 as to the causation element of her premises liability claim for damages
against Tandem Health Care of Florida, Inc. (Tandem). In her amended complaint,
Horn, who was employed by one of Tandem's contract vendors, alleged that she slipped
and fell on the wet floors of Tandem's health care facility on March 25, 1997. She
immediately complained of problems with her right knee and sought medical attention.
Dr. Lance Sisco performed surgery to repair a torn meniscus in Horn's right knee on
May 15, 1997. Although Horn also complained of pain in her left knee, similar repair
surgery on that knee did not occur until April 19, 2001. Because of continuing pain in
both of her knees, Horn underwent total knee replacement surgeries in 2005 and 2006.
Prior to trial, Tandem moved for partial summary judgment, arguing that
no genuine issue of material fact existed as to the cause of Horn's injury and her
resulting bilateral knee replacement procedures. In its motion Tandem maintained that
the need for Horn's total knee replacement surgeries was caused by degenerative
osteoarthritis that predated her fall at Tandem. In support of its position, Tandem

The trial court entered its final judgment as to partial summary judgment after
granting Tandem's motion for partial summary judgment. Because the trial court
concluded that Horn had failed to prove the alleged accident was the cause of her
alleged permanent injury, the trial court's final judgment was dispositive of her
complaint.

quoted two of Horn’s medical witnesses, who stated that the knee replacement
procedures were necessitated by the osteoarthritic condition found in both of Horn’s
knees in 2005.

The trial court granted Tandem's motion for partial summary judgment
and, in its final judgment, concluded that "the record evidence does not show a triable
issues [sic] as it relates to the legal causation issues within a reasonable degree of
medical certainty between the knee replacement of 11/29/2005 (right knee) and
03/07/2006 (left knee) and the trauma incident of 03/25/1997 upon which this premises
liability case is predicated."

Based on the deposition testimony of Drs. Barden and Cherry, we
conclude that the trial court erred in granting Tandem's motion for partial summary
judgment on the issue of causation. "It is settled law that where injuries aggravate an
existing ailment or develop a latent one[,] the person whose negligence caused the
injury is required to respond in damages for the results of the disease as well as the
original injury." C. F. Hamblen, Inc. v. Owens, 172 So. 694, 696 (Fla. 1937).
Furthermore, Florida Standard Civil Jury Instruction 5.1(a) advises that the defendant's
negligence is the legal cause of the injury or damage if "it directly and in natural and
continuous sequence produces or contributes substantially to producing" the injury or
damage.

see more of this at  

Florida Second District Court of Appeals

http://www.2dca.org/opinions/Opinions_Yearly_Links/2008/nov_08.shtml