Employee Froman died in an on-the-job accident. Darling, one of the owners of the employer, threw away the equipment involved in the accident after being asked by an Indiana OSHA employee to keep it for inspection. Froman’s estate filed suit against the employer; the suit included claims for negligent and intentional spoliation…
Is there anything duller than the rules of service of process? Perhaps not. Unless the only thing standing between you and collection of a $53,000,000 default judgment is application of those rules. Or unless your defense to a $53,000,000 default judgment is failure of service of process. Then Rule 4…
Plaintiff received neck and spinal cord injuries in a motor vehicle accident. He was taken to the local ER; the ER doctor thought he needed to be seen by a neurosurgeon. The on-call neurosurgeon (Ebeling) said he was very tired and would not be coming to the hospital and recommended…
The Supreme Court of Connecticut recently determined that a cause of action exists for intentional spoliation of evidence. Plaintiff was hurt in a ladder incident (it collapsed), filed suit, and repeated asked the defendant to preserve the ladder and requested the opportunity to inspect it. Defendant’s expert examined the ladder,…
Some of you will recall that a couple of years ago former Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Penny White, former Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Joe Riley and I started "Justice Programs." For the third consecutive year Justice Programs is offering a 15 hour seminar program in Memphis, Knoxville, Chattanooga and…
Plaintiff filed a wrongful discharge and whistle-blower suit against his employer. The employer sent him a letter advising him to preserve all data on his company-issued laptop (which Plaintiff retained in his position for a period of time after the litigation began). Plaintiff destroyed 2200 personal files of data before…
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled that a party may conduct discovery into the financial records on a non-party’s expert witness "to facilitate an inquiry into bias." As explained in more detail below, it is clear that such discovery will not be permitted of every expert. In Cooper v. Schoffstall,…
How can a Rule 10 opinion be noteworthy? Those of you who have no life other than the law know that a Rule 10 opinion is one that "shall not be published, and shall not be cited or relied on for any reason in any unrelated case." So why discuss it…
On June 21, 2006 I wrote a post about the status of prejudgment interest in Tennessee. The recent case featured in that post was Francois v. Willis, No. M2005-01263-COA-R3-CV (June 6, 2006). The Tennessee Supreme Court has denied the plaintiff’s Rule 11 Application in the case. So, is prejudgment interest…
The Supreme Court of Vermont has held that the sibling of a decedent may maintain a wrongful death suit seeking damages for loss of companionship where the sibling is the "next of kin." The Vermont statute provides that in a wrongful death case the court jury may "give such damages…