John Feroleto, Personal Injury Attorney Blog

Adressing the deadly Washington D.C. train crash Debbie Hersman of the National Transportation Safety Board said the operator of the train that "slammed into a stationary train in front of it apparently had activated the emergency brakes in a failed effort to stop before the accident." as reported in the Washington Post. Hersman said the "emergency brake button, known as the 'mushroom,' was depressed, and the steel rails showed evidence that the brakes were engaged."

As reported in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch "Attorneys general in 11 states, including Missouri and Illinois, have filed objections to General Motors Corp.'s reorganization plan. They have asked the bankruptcy court in Manhattan to reject the sale of most of GM's assets to a 'new' GM unless there is stronger consumer protection." The filing "asks that the sale exclude a product-liability shield."

According to the Buffalo News " The Federal Aviation Administration will seek to modernize rules governing when and how much pilots can fly after the Feb. 12 crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407 in Clarence raised concerns that the crew might have been fatigued.

Randy Babbitt, the new FAA administrator, announced his commitment to new antifatigue rules Monday as regional airline executives gathered with federal officials for a “call to action” on flight safety. John Feroleto

COURT SEALS DOCUMENTS AT EXPENSE OF CONSUMER SAFETY

An AAJ article June 4, 2009 looks at the practice of courts sealing litigation documents to the advantage of manufacturers in certain product cases. For example, Bausch & Lomb settled hundreds of cases involving contact solution that involved blindness where the court ordered the documents to be sealed. This essentially leaves the users of the product and their doctors without any knowledge of the causes of the infection caused by the solution.

The AAJ reported that the practice was the subject of a hearing before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law last week. The practice prevents the public from finding out about harmful products. The article discusses how corporations use secrecy such as this to avoid responsibility and public scrutiny.

U.S. SUPREME COURT RULES THAT JUDGES MUST RECUSE THEMSELVES IF THERE IS AN APPEARANCE OF BIAS

An AAJ article today reported on the case of Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co. in which the Court held in a 5-4 decision that state court judges that get big campaign contributions cannot sit in judgment of their biggest contributors. In this due process decision the court ruled that a judge must step down when one of the litigants is a major campaign contributor to that judge to avoid an inference of bias.

In this case a coal company executive spent $3 million to get Judge Brent Benjamin elected to the state supreme court. He then ruled in favor of that coal company in a $50 million case.

Kennedy, writing for justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Souter, John Paul Stevens and Stephen Breyer, stressed that 'not every campaign contribution by a litigant or attorney creates a probability of bias that requires a judge's recusal' and that this was an extraordinary case.

COURT OF APPEALS RULES ON SUM CLAIMS

In a decision dated June 4, 2009, In the Matter of Allstate Insurance Company v. Rivera, the Court of Appeals handed down a ruling regarding SUM claims. Essentially the Court ruled that insureds under a SUM policy are "able to reduce the coverage limits of the tortfeasor's policy only when payments made under the tortfeasor's policy are to individuals -- such as occupants of the tortfeasor's vehicle, injured pedestrians or those operating a third vehicle-- not covered under the SUM endorsement [to which they are making claims]." The court held that this guarantees that those who have purchased SUM coverage will receive the same recovery they have made available to third parties they injure--but no more.

Each co-occupant in the covered vehicles contended that he or she should have been allowed to deduct the payments made to other co-occupants, thereby reducing the tortfeasor's bodily injury liability coverage to an amount less that the coverage limits on their vehicle, triggering the SUM coverage.

In Rivera, the claimants making SUM claims were covered by an Allstate auto policy issued to Petra Mercado that provided bodily injury liability and SUM coverage of $25,000 per person/$50,000 per accident. While the policy was in effect, the insured and 5 passengers were injured when struck by another vehicle which also had a 25/50 policy issued by GMAC. GMAC coughed up the $50k, paying $25k to the driver Mercado and $5k each to each of the 5 passengers. The five passengers then sought SUM benefits under the Allstate policy, which Allstate denied. Allstate claimed the SUM policy was not triggered since the $50k policy of the offending vehicle was an offset to their SUM coverage. The court of Appeals upheld the denial of coverage. For a copy of the decision see www.nycourts.gov/ctapps/decisions/2009/jun09/89&90opn09.pdf.

As in the Buffalo News "The days of going back and forth to Canada over the Peace Bridge with just a verbal declaration of U. S. citizenship officially ends.
Instead, travelers returning home from Canada will be required to present a U.S. passport, passport card, enhanced driver’s license or Trusted Traveler Program card such as NEXUS" Goe are the days of "Anything to declare? "No." " Have a good day." John Feroleto