10 Years After Car Crash, Insurance Company Hit with $18 Million Bad Faith Settlement
By Dean I. Weitzman, Esq. on December 20th, 2013
The family of a then-15-year-old car crash victim who was critically injured in February 2003 in Lawrence County, Pa., has been awarded $18 million in a settlement that resolves a bad faith case against their insurance company, Erie Insurance Exchange. The case had dragged on for more than 10 years when the insurance company continually delayed payments that originally would have topped out at the $100,000 bodily injury limits of the family's policy, according to...
$3.8 Million Settlement in I-83 Wrongful Death Crash Lawsuit in York, Pa.
By Dean I. Weitzman, Esq. on December 6th, 2013
The family of a Monroe, N.Y., woman who died in a multi-vehicle crash on Interstate 83 near York, Pa., on May 30, 2011, will receive a settlement of $3.8 million to end a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family after the tragedy. Susan Gunther, who was a 53-year-old school teacher at the time of the crash, was heading back home to Monroe after dropping her daughter off at nursing school in York when a...
$11.6 Million Settlement for Woman Who Fell Through Building Skylight
By Dean I. Weitzman, Esq. on November 27th, 2013
While visiting with other members of her college a cappella group during an informal gathering at a house in Philadelphia near the University of Pennsylvania, Lorna Bernhoft, a junior at the school, sat on a board across a raised fourth floor skylight and fell through to a staircase below. She then slid down the stairs and landed on her head, causing massive injuries which left her a paraplegic. The woman, who was 20 years old...
$3.5 Million Settlement to Family of Construction Worker Killed by Falling Crane Bucket
By Dean I. Weitzman, Esq. on November 22nd, 2013
When a metal piece from a heavy, overhead crane bucket fell to the ground at a construction site in Middleburg, Pa., on May 2, 2008, it struck a construction worker who was working nearby, causing grave injuries. The worker, 49-year-old Ray Doan, Jr., was struck in the back of the neck by a piece that came loose from the bucket, while he worked on the site for Advanced Concrete Systems Inc. (ACS) of Middleburg, Pa.,...
Family of Chicago Pedestrian Killed by Tour Bus Receives $6.75 Million Settlement
By Dean I. Weitzman, Esq. on November 15th, 2013
After more than two years, the family of a 26-year-old Polish woman who was killed on a Chicago street when she was struck by a private tour bus in May 2011 has received a $6.75 million settlement from the bus company that employed the driver. The driver of the bus had cocaine in his bloodstream while he was operating the vehicle on May 3, 2011, just before it struck and killed Justyna Palka, who was...
$12.7 Million Settlement in Bethlehem, Pa., DUI Crash That Killed 3 People in 2010
By Dean I. Weitzman, Esq. on November 8th, 2013
The families of three people who were killed by a drunk driver in Bethlehem, Pa., in 2010 have reached settlements totaling $12.7 million from a series of businesses and bars that served the driver of a pickup truck who caused the crash. The settlements were made to the families of the victims who were killed in the crash, which included Chad Horne, 22, of Freehold, N.J.; Robin Villegas, 52, of Staten Island, N.Y.; and Terri...
Two Oklahoma Families Reach $1.5 Million Settlements with Toyota in Fatal Unintended Acceleration Crash in a Camry
By Dean I. Weitzman, Esq. on November 1st, 2013
An Oklahoma jury has awarded a $3 million verdict to two families after a 70-year-old woman died when the Toyota Camry in which she was a passenger accelerated suddenly and crashed into an embankment in 2007. The case is the first which Toyota has lost on a plaintiff's claim of unintended acceleration in one of its Camry midsize automobiles, which have been accused several times in recent years for accelerating on their own without any...
New Jersey Motorcyclist Critically Injured By Buses in 2011 Receives $2.5 Million Settlement
By Dean I. Weitzman, Esq. on October 25th, 2013
As Keith Nystrom rode his motorcycle through the Lincoln Tunnel into New York City from New Jersey on Feb. 24, 2011, he was critically injured in a chain reaction crash involving three New Jersey Transit buses. The crash was horrific, with one bus crashing into the rear of a second bus, which then rear-ended Nystrom and wedged him under a third bus that was just ahead of him, according to an Oct. 17 story on...
$9.5 Million Settlement to Victims of Texas Vehicle Crash Caused by Impaired Truck Driver
By Dean I. Weitzman, Esq. on October 18th, 2013
Two Texas families will share in a $9.5 million settlement reached in the case of a commercial truck driver who was driving while intoxicated when his tractor-trailer rear-ended several vehicles in an intersection in Victoria, Texas, in March 2012. Several people were seriously injured in the crash, which occurred when a tractor-trailer being driven by Johnny Raymond Rodriguez failed to stop as it approached the intersection of U.S. 59 and Upper Mission Valley Road on...