KCLawyer
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
Soup Claim
A jury rejected a man's claims he should be compensated for a sleep disorder suffered since was served the wrong soup at a restaurant. Donald Johnson, 64, sought $55,356 from the Shoney's restaurant chain. The jury instead awarded him $407 for medical bills. Johnson, of Lake Worth, said he had to have emergency medical treatment in 1995 after eating clam chowder when he had ordered potato soup. He said an allergic reaction left him with psychological and sleep disorders. He rejected a $1,000 settlement in 1999.
Workers' Compensation Bad Faith?
A former nursing home worker has been awarded more than $12 million in a judgment against three insurance companies that denied her workers' compensation claim. A Rapid City, S.D. jury returned its verdict - $60,000 in compensatory damages and $12 million in punitive damages - last week after a a four-day trial in federal court. The suit was originally filed in U.S. District Court in Rapid City in July 2001. The plaintiff accused the companies of bad-faith dealing, barratry, abuse of process, and interference with business and contract relations. In 1999, Alice Torres, a cook at Meadowbrook Manor nursing home in Rapid City, filed a workers' compensation claim for carpal tunnel syndrome. She had sought about $8,000 for medical bills, lost time and physical impairment. But insurance adjusters denied the claim. The defendants in the case were Travelers Insurance Co., Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania, and Constitution State Services, a subsidiary of Travelers. All were involved as claims administrators or insurers for Beverly Enterprises, parent company of Meadowbrook Manor.
Monday, January 26, 2004
Cellphone Airtime Minutes Litigation
Plaintiff's challenge, arising from cellphone airtime minutes alleged to have been incorrectly billed, is neither a challenge to the reasonableness of defendant's rates nor a challenge to market entry, and therefore is not preempted by the Telecommunications Act. Thus, plaintiff's motion to remand the case to state court should have been granted.
U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, FEDOR v. CINGULAR WIRELESS CORP. (01/22/04 - No. 02-3332).
