Articles Posted in Wrongful Death

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It’s summertime in Chicago and for many that means hot days, no school, and summer camp. Summer camps are a way for children to socialize with their peers, occupy their days, and give mom and dad an occasional break. But what happens when the people we entrust our children to do not protect our children? The Illinois wrongful death lawsuit of Estate of Barnabe Lucas, deceased minor v. Christian Youth Center Ministries, et al., 06 L 29, is a parent’s worst nightmare.

In 2004, nine year-old Barnabe Lucas was enrolled in a Will County day camp. Like many summer camps, the Christian Youth Center Ministries day camp included several day trips with its campers, including a weekly trip to a nearby wading pond. The pond was owned and operated by Leisure Lake Membership Resort, who did not provide lifeguards, a fact which it alerted bathers to with a clearly posted sign.

Within 30 minutes of arriving at the pond, a fellow day camper discovered Lucas unconscious in 3.5 to 4 feet of water. The camp director immediately pulled Lucas out of the wading pond and began administering CPR; shortly thereafter Lucas was transported to nearby Provena St. Joseph Hospital. He remained unresponsive on a respirator for four days and was then transferred to University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago for further care. However, just two days after his transfer Lucas died.

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Certain jobs carry a degree of risk. For example, while an office worker would not typically be in danger of falling from a scaffold, this is a reality for many construction workers. As a result, these higher risk jobs often have various safety standards and procedures in place to try and minimize the risk for workers. Yet these safety rules are not always followed, which opens manufacturers and construction companies up to liability for workers’ injuries.

The Cook County wrongful death lawsuit of Jensen v. Earle M. Jorgensen Co., et al., No. 09 L 2754, involved the death of a worker killed during an industrial accident. The Illinois lawsuit alleged that various entities were involved in maintaining an unsafe environment which resulted in the circumstances that led to Jensen’s death.

Twenty-eight year-old Brian Jensen was working as a service technician for Katso, Inc.; in the capacity of his employment, Jensen performed maintenance on Katso products housed at various facilities. At the time of his death, Jensen and some co-workers were performing maintenance and repair work on an automatic storage and retrieval system manufactured by his employer’s parent company, Katso Machinenbau GMBH & Co. The machine itself was located at Earle M. Jorgensen, Co., an industrial plant located in Schaumburg, Illinois.

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On June 24, 2011, a Union Pacific train traveling from Chicago to California was involved in a railroad crossing accident in rural Nevada. A semitrailer truck ran the crossing and struck the moving train, injuring several passengers and killing the truck driver and a crew member. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is currently conducting an investigation of what caused the crash and how it might have been prevented.

One of the avenues the NTSB is pursuing is whether or not the truck driver’s judgment was impaired by drugs or alcohol at the time of the train crossing accident. However, because the driver died as a result of the crash, the NTSB must examine autopsy records in order to make this determination. In addition, the NTSB is reviewing the truck driver’s driving history in order to gain insight into what might have happened.

The NTSB is also investigating the extent that the railroad itself contributed to the train accident. The NTSB will make sure that its safety standards were followed and that both the crossing lights and gates were operating correctly at the time of the train accident. However, report released by the Nevada Highway Patrol, who is also investigating the crash, stated that the warning lights and railroad gates were working at the time of the train accident.

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Jeep Grand Cherokees might face a recall due to a product defect that causes the increased risk for fuel fires following rear-end collisions. The auto recall would affect 1993 to 2004 Grand Cherokee models; however, Chrysler denies the need for a Jeep recall and the National HIghway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has not yet instituted one. Yet there are at least different three crash tests showing that Grand Cherokees are more likely to catch on fire following rear end collisions that similar SUVs manufactured during the same time period.

The various crash tests were conducted by Karco Engineering and The Federal Outdoor Impact Laboratory; Karco has previously performed crash testing for the NHTSA. One test conducted on 1995, 1996, and 1999 Grand Cherokees resulted in significant gasoline leaks following rear-impact crashes. These gasoline leaks not only put the Jeep passengers at risk, but could also pose a fire threat to the occupants of the striking vehicle.

Likewise, another investigation of Grand Cherokeesfrom 1993-2004 was conducted because of over 254 deaths resulting from “172 fatal fire crashes” involving those Grand Cherokees models. The majority of these investigations are focusing on the Grand Cherokee because of similar results showing that the Grand Cherokee’s fuel system is much more likely to pose a fire threat than those used in similar vehicles. For example, comparable Ford Explorer models were much less likely to catch fire following a rear-end collision; in crash tests, Ford Explorers’ fuel system typically remained intact following these collisions.

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The Illinois Appellate Court clarified definitions of “next of kin” according to the Illinois Wrongful Death Act in its ruling on Judith Baez, etc. v. Garrett Rosenberg, et al., No. 1-10-0090. The appeal in Baez dealt with the allocation of funds from the settlement resulting from a fatal car crash.

In 2008, Rafael Marquez was killed in a Chicago car crash. He was unmarried and survived by his parents. However, within five months of his death, his girlfriend, Jesenia Laureano, gave birth to a baby girl; DNA tests proved that Marquez was the father.

Both Laureano and Marquez’s parents brought wrongful death claims against the defendant driver, which were consolidated into one claim in a Cook County court. A $100,000 settlement was reached with the driver’s insurance company, which was the amount of the policy’s limits.

The $100,000 was distributed among both Marquez’s parents and his daughter as follows:

-$27,426 went to Marquez’s parents for the loss of their son;
-$27,427 went to Marquez’s daughter for the loss of her father;
-$13,041 went to Marquez’s parents for reimbursement for funeral expenses;
-$22,222 went to the parents’ attorneys’ fees; and
-$9,120 went to the baby’s attorneys’ fees.

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A second jury verdict has been entered in a wrongful death lawsuit arising out of a Chicago construction site injury that occurred in 2006. The decedent, Charles Ingolia, had been assisting with renovations being made at a Chicago Brown Line El station located at 3360 N. Clark St. The 57 year-old was severely burned in an electrical explosion at the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)’s substation and died of his injuries three days later. He was survived by his wife and four adult children.

A Chicago jury decided that negligence on behalf of Target Electric, Inc., the company overseeing the electrical components of the renovations, had contributed to Mr. Ingolia’s death and entered a jury verdict of $4.1 million in The Estate of Charles Ingolia v. Target Electric, Inc., 06 L 13106. A previous verdict of $6.3 million had been entered in a wrongful death case filed by Mr. Ingolia’s family against the CTA; Estate of Charles R. Ingolia v. CTA, et al., 06 L 013106.

Immediately prior to the electrical explosion, Mr. Ingolia had been cleaning a new switchgear cabinet as part of the modifications to the CTA’s Brown Line rectifier system. According to the Illinois wrongful death complaint, Ingolia believed that the cabinet’s power was off, which influenced his decision to raise his protective shield. When he did so, he essentially exposed himself to 12,600 volts of live electricity, which in turn caused the electrical explosion.

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It is one of the first things you learn in driver’s ed and is repeated over and over again to new drivers: always keep your eyes on the road. However, this advice is useful not only for new drivers, but for experienced drivers, too. Take for instance the case of Benton Chapman, a 44 year-old truck driver who took his eyes off the road to adjust his radio and caused a multiple car accident on an Illinois expressway, Estate of Lafi Nofal, M.D., deceased, et al. v. Benton Chapman, Cardinal Transport, et al., 06 L 2263.

Immediately prior to the Illinois car crash, Chapman was driving a tractor-trailer truck along Illinois Interstate 55. Traffic was flowing at a reasonable speed and Mr. Chapman looked away from the road for a minute to adjust his XM Satellite radio. However, when he looked back to the roadway, Chapman discovered that the flow of traffic had slowed significantly and that he was driving way too fast.

Unfortunately, Chapman didn’t even have enough time to brake before crashing into the car immediately in front of him. Dorothy Walsh, that car’s driver, was killed as a result of the rear-end collision. However, Chapman’s truck did not stop there, but continued in its path, striking another vehicle driven by Magdi Hussein, a bobtail trailer, and three other vehicles. The severity of the Cook County highway accident caused the Stevenson Expressway to be closed for five hours.

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Crib bumper pads have been the topic of debate for several years. While some claim that they are perfectly safe and harmless, others claim that crib bumper pads put infants at risk for suffocating in their cribs. A recent report that the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has not taken adequate steps to investigate crib bumper pads calls into question the product’s safety.

Over the years, the CPSC has investigated allegations of babies’ dying as a result of suffocating in their crib bumpers. However, it now seems that at least 17 of those cases were not fully investigated by the CPSC. While the agency did look into the infant deaths, it determined that in at least 12 of the 17 cases it was difficult to clearly implicate the crib bumper pads in the infants’ deaths. The CPSC instead suggested that the deaths were caused not by the defective bumper pad design, but instead were the result of infants suffocating from pillows or blankets that were also in the cribs.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has taken a much firmer stance than the CPSC, going so far as to urge parents not to use crib bumper pads because of the risk of suffocation. These claims have been supported in autopsy reports conducted by medical examiners and coroners, who have affirmed that bumper pads were involved in the infant suffocations. In light of all this evidence, the CPSC must now decide whether it is safe for parents to continue using this crib product.

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A $2.5 million settlement was reached in the Illinois wrongful death case of Estate of Shelty J. Jones v. Stimson Lumber Co., et al., No. 06 L 1611. The claim against was filed on behalf of a Home Depot employee who was injured at work in 2004 and then died five years later from a prescription drug overdose. The medication, Fentanyl, had been prescribed for pain associated with the worker’s 2004 injuries.

In May 2004, Jones was working at a Home Depot warehouse as a forklift operator. As he was attempting to load a thousand pounds of stacked lumber into a train boxcar, the lumber fell onto Jones. As a result, Jones suffered a severe pelvic injury, which required five surgeries.

During the course of Jones’s treatment and recovery he was prescribed Fentanyl to relieve his back pain. Fentanyl is an opiate analgesic that is typically prescribed to treat severe pain, but can sometimes be prescribed to treat chronic pain. Fentanyl is similar to morphine, but is more powerful.

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An Illinois judge approved a $5 million settlement in a trucking accident lawsuit brought by the estate of an Illinois civil attorney who was killed in a two-vehicle accident near Streator, Illinois. The settlement in Estate of Richard J. Berry v. OSF Healthcare System Corp., et al., No. 10 L 14, represents one of the largest personal injury settlements in LaSalle County, Illinois.

The decedent, Richard Berry, was a partner in his own firm and had been practicing law in Illinois since the mid-1970s. Mr. Berry was widely respected in the legal community and was known to be a very capable trial lawyer. The Illinois wrongful death lawsuit was brought by his wife and three adult children, all of which will receive a portion of the Illinois settlement.

The Illinois wrongful death lawsuit was brought against OSF Healthcare System Corp., a Peoria-based company; its subsidiary, OSF Saint Francis, Inc.; and David DeFrance, the other driver involved in the two-vehicle accident which led to Berry’s death. All parties involved contributed to the $5 million settlement to Mr. Berry’s surviving family members.

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