A Mount Pleasant kayaking company’s insurer has agreed to pay $500,000 to settle a wrongful death case arising from an employee’s car crash. The suit alleged that an employee of Natures Adventures Outfitters caused a fatal crash on Highway 17 near Charleston in September 2009. The employee, John Dupre, was attempting to cross the highway in a Jeep hauling a kayak trailer when he pulled out in front of a car driven by James Blair.

Tagged with: Car Crash Verdicts & Settlements wrongful death

McCutcheon v. THI of S.C. at Charleston, LLC Plaintiff cannot seek to enforce the terms of a nursing home admission agreement while simultaneously seeking to escape enforcement of the arbitration agreement he signed at the same time. Defendant’s motion to dismiss and compel arbitration is granted.

Tagged with: Arbitration Tort/Negligence wrongful death

A mother of four young children died of heart complications after being misdiagnosed during several visits to the same hospital, according to the attorneys who helped her husband win a six-figure verdict in McDowell County Superior Court. The defense is appealing the decision. William H. Elam (pictured) and his son William R. Elam of Elam & Rousseaux in Charlotte sued three physicians at McDowell Hospital in Marion, alleging that they bungled the treatment of Aziza Katy and caused her tragic death. A jury awarded Katy’s estate $667,000 in September, and the defense filed an appeal Dec. 12.

Tagged with: Verdicts & Settlements wrongful death

QBE Insurance Corp. v. Sellers In the underlying state-court wrongful death action, defendant Sellers is suing plaintiff’s insured. In this action, plaintiff seeks a declaratory judgment that its general commercial liability policy does not require plaintiff to defend or indemnify its insured in the wrongful death action. Even though, under S.C. law, Sellers might not have standing to assert a counterclaim alleging that an additional policy applies, under federal law, Sellers has standing to assert such a counterclaim.

Tagged with: Civil Practice Declaratory Judgment Action Insurance Standing Tort/Negligence wrongful death

Trial attorneys relish a challenge. Whether it’s the sympathetic plaintiff, the unpopular client, the witness with a past, or the formidable adversary, challenges present opportunities to explore new theories, adopt different strategies and polish skills. And overcoming them makes a win all the sweeter. Rarely, though, do multiple challenges come packaged in a single case. For Raleigh, N.C., lawyer Mike Hurley (pictured on right), that case arrived just before Thanksgiving last year, when he took over the defense of a wrongful death action against Britthaven Nursing Home in Chapel Hill, N.C., scheduled for trial in just six months.

Tagged with: Nursing Home wrongful death

In the Matter of the Complaint of Vulcan Materials Co. v. Massiah v. U.S. In this appeal of a $1.25 million wrongful death award against Vulcan Materials Company in a suit in admiralty after the death of a 19-year-old seaman when his rigid-hull inflatable boat collided with a tug during a Navy training exercise on the James River, the 4th Circuit affirms the district court award to the seaman's family members and its decision that the U.S. can't be held liable for contribution.

Tagged with: wrongful death

Holst v. South Carolina State Port Authority The defendant-port authority presented evidence of OSHA regulations, not to shift liability to the decedent's employer, but to show what safety regulations the decedent knew. The trial court did not err by instructing the jury about the OSHA regulations at issue.

Tagged with: Jury Instructions wrongful death