Car Wreck

Definition of “humiliation” means no coverage under insurance policy for company

January 8, 2015 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “The insurance adjuster is saying I am partially negligent what does that mean?”

The owner of an Ohio dance franchise will have to defend against a lawsuit brought by angry customers on its own after its insurer successfully denied coverage under two insurance policies.

Peggy and Rick Lavinsky prepaid Christopher Cloud and his Fred Astaire Dance Studio a whopping $500,000 for ballroom dancing lessons, coaching, dance camps and other services. In December 2010, after Cloud abruptly closed the studio without providing notice to students, the Lavinskys sued, asserting claims under Ohio’s consumer protection laws and alleging fraud and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

In their lawsuit, the Lavinskys named Fred Astaire Dance System in Ohio, G & K Management Services, Inc., G & K’s president Guy Schiavone, and In Time LLC as defendants. G & K owned the Fred Astaire Dance System franchise. Cloud, who ran his own dance studio—In Time—became a Fred Astaire franchisee in 1990.

G & K and Schiavone were the named insureds under an insurance policy issued by Auto-Owners Insurance Company, and they were also “additional insureds” under an Auto-Owners policy issued to In Time.

When Auto-Owners told G & K that it would not defend the company against the Lavinskys’ claims, G & K brought an action against Auto-Owners seeking a declaration that the insurance company had a duty to defend G & K in the Lavinskys’ lawsuit.

“Parked” car accidents illustrate danger of being run over by your own car

January 6, 2015 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What if the accident was my fault?”

A spate of recent tragic incidents shows the dangers posed by motor vehicles do not end when we park them—or when we think we have parked them.

A tragic accident involving a “parked” vehicle took the life of a well-known New York realtor this past Saturday.

Realtor Jennifer Feuerman died on Saturday evening after she got out of her 2012 Mercedes Benz outside a house she had listed on Bowditch Lane in Center Moriches. Center Moriches is on Long Island, to the east of New York City.

Feuerman evidently left the vehicle running and forgot to shift the transmission to “Park.” The vehicle backed over Feuerman and pinned her under the driver’s side door, Suffolk County police reported. Feuerman, aged 50, was pronounced dead at the scene. Police impounded the Mercedes in order to conduct a safety inspection.

Also on Saturday, a 79-year-old woman in City, Idaho became trapped under her own car when it slid backward as she tried to get out. A 17-year-old boy who saw the incident tried to assist the woman, but police said the car pushed both the boy and the woman across the road and over an embankment, pinning them both under the driver’s side door. The woman suffered significant injuries, while the boy was able to free himself and summon help.

Lawyer thinks self-driving cars may be a bust for personal injury attorneys

January 1, 2015 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question ” Is a tractor-trailer accident the same as an automobile accident?”

Motor vehicles and the virtually unfettered freedom of movement throughout the United States they have afforded have become staples of American life over the past century.

Those staples are not likely to disappear anytime soon, but if technology giant Google, Inc. has its way, the manner in which many people move around the country in motor vehicles may be in for a drastic change.

The company recently announced that it had developed a “fully functional” prototype of a self-driving car. It is now seeking corporate partners in the automobile industry to bring self-driving cars to market within the next five years.

New York personal injury lawyer Eric Turkewitz said the self-driving cars will have the ability to “see the other cars/pedestrians and slow down or stop despite the driver being lost in thought elsewhere. Or drunk. Or asleep…” As Turkewitz notes, the self-driving car software automatically slows or stops the car when it senses an impending collision. Turkewitz thinks the software may lessen or eliminate crashes caused by human error. As a consequence, the number of crashes will be reduced and, Turkewitz speculated, less people will die or be injured in car crashes each year. That will lower insurance premiums for drivers and may reduce the number of personal injury lawsuits brought by claimants injured in car crashes. That would mean, in theory, less work for personal injury attorneys.

Maryland’s first female Bishop accused of striking cyclist, leaving him to die on road

December 30, 2014 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What if a loved one dies from the injuries sustained in a serious accident while the case is pending?”

The State of Maryland’s first-ever ordained female Episcopal Bishop is in the news over the holidays for all the wrong reasons.Heather Elizabeth Cook is the second-most-powerful officer in the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland. The diocese confirmed on Sunday that Cook was behind the wheel of a Subaru that sustained damage in a “massive impact” with 41-year-old custom bicycle builder Tom Palermo. Palermo was riding a bicycle when Cook’s vehicle collided with him.

Palermo was killed in the accident. Cook initially fled the scene, but returned about twenty minutes later to take responsibility for the accident. The diocese insisted that since Cook returned to the scene, the accident was not a “hit-and-run.”

Lora Peters, a cyclist who encountered Palermo after the crash, said Palermo was still alive when she found him. Peters said Cook may have been able to help Palermo or to call for help if she had remained on the scene. A local biking advocacy group, Bikemore, released a statement alleging that “the driver of the car involved initially fled the scene, leaving Tom to die on the street.”

Cook has not released any public statements about the accident, however the Episcopal Diocese has revealed that she has been suspended from her post because she may be facing criminal charges related to the accident.

Vehicle owners can be liable for crashes caused by family or household members

December 18, 2014 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What if a loved one dies from the injuries sustained in a serious accident while the case is pending?”

If you have imbibed, over the holidays, a little too much of the alcohol-spiked eggnog, you should think twice before handing the keys over to your teenage child or relative to run out for supplies or snacks.

One Pennsylvania father has learned that the hard way.

Michael Ware initially told investigators that his 15-year-old daughter had taken his Sports-Utility Vehicle out for a drive without his permission. Authorities later learned, however, that Mr. Ware allowed his daughter—who did not have a driver’s license at the time—to drive his 2001 Chevrolet Suburban to a nearby barbecue restaurant.

Ware even walked his daughter and her three friends out to the car and asked them to bring him back a sandwich as they pulled away. A short time later, the daughter wrecked the Suburban, killing friends Cullen Keffer, Shamus Digney and Ryan Lesher. All three boys were just fifteen-years-old.

A witness to the accident said she could hear the boys crying out for the daughter to slow down before speeding around a sharp curve. The vehicle flipped, ejecting two boys from the vehicle and pinning a third beneath it. One of the boys passed away on the scene; two more passed away at a nearby hospital.

“Reasonable person” standard an issue in nearly every personal injury case

December 4, 2014 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “Can I wait a few months to pursue a personal injury claim?”

Knowing what a “reasonable person” would have done in the circumstances of your personal injury case may determine whether you receive the compensation you deserve.

Of course, anyone who has been injured in an accident or as a result of someone’s intentional conduct believes one is entitled to compensation—a lot of compensation.

A lawyer may excuse potential clients for having unreasonable expectations. The lawyer sees and hears all the same online, television and radio advertisements exhorting people to call such-and-such law firm because, they are told “You may be entitled to significant compensation.”

Lawyers frequently battle over words and their meaning, and “significant compensation” could mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

In any case—and I mean any personal injury case—what does it take to get to there from here? In practical terms, how does an injured person wrest compensation out of the person or persons who caused one’s injury?

“Mom of the year” settles lawsuit with neighbor she impersonated for rape solicitation

December 2, 2014 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question ” I have been injured on another person’s property. What should I do now?”

The owner of a Carmel Valley, California property has settled a lawsuit out of court with the 2007 winner of the local “Mother of the Year” award.

The now 53-year-old award winner—Kathy Rowe—had her eye on the Carmel Valley property but was outbid by a woman and her husband.

Rowe said she became enraged when the home she wanted was sold to the couple. She decided to make life a living hell for the new owners.

Rowe sent some $1,000 worth of magazines and books to the Carmel Valley home, advertised a high school New Year’s Eve party listing the home’s address, and also advertised a free Mexican fireworks giveaway on the Fourth of July.

Rowe asked members of religious groups to visit the home, and even sent out Valentine’s Day cards to other women in the Carmel Valley neighborhood under the male homeowner’s moniker.

When this “prankish” behavior failed to summon hellfire upon the homeowners, Rowe decided to step up her game. She went online and created a sexually-explicit advertisement titled “Carmel Valley Freak Show.”

Speeding truck driver jackknifes, flips truck on US 74, killing sheriff’s deputy

November 20, 2014 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question ” Is a tractor-trailer accident the same as an automobile accident?”

A Union County Sheriff’s Deputy was killed early Wednesday morning after a tractor-trailer jackknifed and tipped over, falling on the deputy’s car and crushing him to death.

The deputy—identified by the Union County Sheriff’s Office as Sgt. Jeffrey Wayne Greene—was sitting in the left-hand turn lane on westbound U.S. 74 at the intersection of S. Sutherland Avenue in Monroe when a truck came barreling over a low hill in the right lane.

The truck’s driver—Eddie Ray Weeks of Fayetteville-based Weeks Trucking—swerved to avoid striking a tanker truck stopped in the right lane, causing Weeks’ truck to jackknife as it slid forward, falling on Sgt. Greene’s patrol vehicle and partially on a Kia vehicle sitting in the left traffic lane.

Weeks and the driver of the Kia were taken to nearby Carolinas Medical Center-Monroe for treatment. State Troopers said Sgt. Greene was crushed inside his vehicle and died on the scene.

Weeks will be taken after his release from the hospital to the Union County Jail, where law-enforcement officials said he would be charged with misdemeanor death by vehicle.

Mayor, city councilman, fire chief charged with DWI, sued by victims of crash he caused

November 13, 2014 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “Can I wait a few months to pursue a personal injury claim?”

A former mayor and Murrieta, California city councilman is facing a personal injury lawsuit brought by four teenage cheerleaders who were injured in a rear end automobile crash on October 16.

The girls allege that the vehicle in which they were riding was struck by a pickup truck being driven by then-Mayor Alan Long. The cheerleaders say Long was drunk when he caused the crash. Long was arrested at the crash scene and was charged with felony drunken driving.

Long’s blood-alcohol content at the time of the crash was .08, according to the Riverside County District Attorney’s office. Officers concluded that Long was impaired after he failed field sobriety tests. Long is due to be arraigned on a charge of driving while under the influence of alcohol causing bodily injury on December 11.

The cheerleaders, who range in age from 14 to 17 and attend Murrieta Valley High School, suffered “severe personal injuries” that necessitated medical treatment and have caused them to incur medical expenses and to lose earnings, according to their lawsuit.

They were waiting to make a left turn at around 8:15 p.m. on October 16 when Long approached from the rear in a full-size pickup truck and plowed into the back of the girls’ car, according to Murrieta police Lieutenant Julie Hoxmeier.

Causation, foreseeability vexing issues for lawyers, litigants

November 6, 2014 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “Are the laws or rules applying to a wrongful death claim different from a personal injury not involving death?”

This may sound like a simple question, but did the person you want to sue cause your injuries? If so, were your injuries a reasonably foreseeable result of the person’s actions?

If not, you may be out of luck in your personal injury case.

The issue of causation can lead personal injury litigants and their lawyers into a labyrinthine maze of legal concepts fit for a law school-level philosophy course. While the issues and doctrines that accompany causation and so-called “foreseeability” may be complex, the practical day-to-day application of these principles mean the difference in who wins and who loses in personal injury lawsuits.

In many cases, causation and foreseeability are not issues of contention. An analysis of a recent Australian case shows how the issues can arise, however, even in cases involving relatively straightforward facts.

A driver’s negligence caused a motor-vehicle accident. A person injured his neck in the accident. Several witnesses testified regarding the driver’s negligence and a police officer concluded the driver was at fault. The issue of whether the driver caused the person’s whiplash injury was uncontested.