Mecklenburg

Spike in bicyclist deaths has two-wheeled travelers ducking for cover

October 23, 2014 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question ” If an incident report was filled out, do I have a right to receive a copy?”

Scenes and outtakes from countless television shows and movies have shown cyclists speeding past people jogging or skating alongside the sands of Southern California beaches. Many of these have featured the twenty-or-so mile paved Marvin Braude Bicycle Path that runs from Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles south to Torrance.

Cyclists may enjoy a relative safety on the seaside paths, but inland things have gotten downright tragic for bicycle riders. California saw 338 cyclists killed in collisions with motor vehicles between 2010 and 2012, according to a report issued Monday by the Governors Highway Safety Association. Florida lagged not far behind Golden State, reporting 329 cyclists killed in collisions with motor vehicles in the same period.

Bicyclist deaths nationwide increased by 16-percent between 2010 and 2012, according to the report, but Florida and California reported the largest increases in deaths.

Allen Williams, a scientist who worked at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, compiled the report. He observed what he described as “remarkable changes” in the profile of those killed in crashes involving bicycles and cars. Adult males accounted for 74-percent of bicyclists killed in 2012. In 1975, by comparison, only 21-percent of bicyclists killed were adults of either gender.

Two-thirds of bicyclists killed in 2012 were not wearing helmets, while nearly a third of those killed registered a blood-alcohol content of .08 or more.

Woman “virtually decapitated” by lap belt awarded $12.5 million

October 21, 2014 | 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 17-year-old girl who was “virtually decapitated” at the waist when she “jackknifed” over the lap belt in a 1996 Toyota 4Runner has been awarded $12.5 million by a California jury. If she had brought suit in North Carolina, her case would have been dismissed.

Toyota spokeswoman Carly Shaffner said the carmaker respected the jury’s time and consideration, but she remained confident that plaintiff Chelsie Hill’s injuries “were not the result of a defect in the 1996 Toyota 4Runner.” The jury reached the opposite conclusion after four hours of deliberations.

Hill—now 22—was a passenger in the February 21, 2010 crash in Monterey, California. Driver Aaron Corn, who was only 18 at the time and was driving while under the influence of alcohol, struck a tree while driving 30 miles per hour. The jury found that Corn was five-percent responsible for Hill’s injuries and that Hill was five-percent at fault for getting into a car with a drunken driver.

Dr. Robert Lieberson, the neurosurgeon who treated Hill after the crash, said the lap belt severed the girl at her midsection, and she was only held together by her skin. Lieberson and others testified that Hill used the belt properly.

Hill’s attorney suggested that Toyota chose to install the least safe and least expensive restraint system in the seat. Videos shown to the jury depicting dummies compared crashes involving lap belts against those with shoulder belts. Test dummies with lap-only belts jackknifed violently in crashes, while dummies in lap-and-shoulder belts remained upright.

Wife of N.C. inmate who died of thirst after solitary confinement prepares to seek justice

October 16, 2014 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What exactly is a wrongful death claim?”

The wife of an inmate who died of dehydration after two stints in solitary confinement has hired an attorney to pursue potential legal claims, the inmate’s sister has revealed.

Prison officials accused 54-year-old inmate Michael Anthony Kerr of flooding his cell, according to an autopsy released in September. Prison staff are permitted to switch off the water flowing to an inmate’s sink and toilet if the inmate is found to have misused “plumbing facilities,” according to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety.

Kerr died on March 12 after he was found unresponsive in the back of a van while being transported from Alexander Correctional Institution in Taylorsville to a mental hospital at Raleigh’s Central Prison.

It is unclear whether prison officials turned off the water to Kerr’s cell. Records obtained by the Associated Press showed that Kerr was placed in “administrative segregation” in February. He was cited twice—on the 21^st and again on the 24^th of February—for flooding his cell. Kerr was also cited for disobeying orders and for “lock tampering,” although, according to WCNC, inmates can be cited for lock tampering if they “repeatedly bang on the steel doors of their cells.”

Kerr was moved into “disciplinary segregation,” or solitary confinement, on February 25. Medical Examiner Dr. Susan E. Venuti, who conducted Kerr’s autopsy, said that she was allowed to read an internal prison report regarding Kerr’s death, but she was not allowed to make a copy of the report. She said the report failed to answer key questions such as when Kerr had last consumed food or water. Venuti could not even classify whether Kerr’s death was natural, accidental or the result of a homicide, given the lack of information.

Golfer who accused Eddie Murphy of inflating his handicap has lawsuit sunk

October 14, 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 77-year-old Irish golfer who sued Eddie Murphy after a golf club told him he had a 13 handicap watched Ireland’s High and Supreme Courts sink his lawsuit last week.

The golfer, a retired insurance official from Dublin named Thomas Talbot, sued the Golfing Union of Ireland, the Hermitage Golf Club and Hermitage Officer Eddie Murphy in 2004 after the golf club sent Talbot a certificate showing he had a 13 handicap and was entitled to “General Play (Handicap Building).”

Talbot felt his handicap was lower. By assigning him a 13 handicap, he believed, the golf club accused him of cheating.

Irish Supreme Court Justice Daniel Herbert rejected Talbot’s claim. While the justice conceded that the words “Handicap Building” could have been interpreted by fellow golfers to mean that Talbot was inflating his handicap, “the words were only published in a limited form to a computer programmer who designed software for the club, including for handicap records.” The limited, intra-club publication of the words meant that it “enjoyed qualified privilege from being sued,” Justice Herbert said.

Red Bull does not really give you wings, but you can really get $10 if you bought one can

October 9, 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?”

Red Bull does not really give you wings, but since you might have thought it did, the company that makes the popular energy drink has agreed to pay $13 million to customers in the United States.

If you are one of those customers, you can claim your share of the $13 million by simply filling out an online form. On the form, you will have to certify—under penalty of perjury—that you purchased at least one Red Bull can between January 1, 2002 and October 3, 2014. If you did, you can choose either a $10 reimbursement or a voucher for $15 worth of Red Bull products.

The company was sued by Plaintiff Benjamin Careathers in 2013 in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Careathers alleged that the company misled him about the energy drink’s health benefits. Careathers—who said he had been drinking Red Bull for over ten years—said the company’s claims that the drink increased consumers’ performance, concentration and reaction speed were “deceptive, fraudulent and therefore actionable.”

Careathers’ lawsuit was certified as a “class action.” Class action lawsuits enable one or more plaintiffs to file and prosecute claims on behalf of a larger group of people, or a “class.” The class action device saves time and expense by resolving claims of potentially thousands or millions of plaintiffs in a single court action. A company like Red Bull might actually save money by settling a merit-worthy class-action suit rather than facing thousands or millions of identical lawsuits.

Man accused of sex assault of mentally disabled woman wins $1 million in defamation suit

October 7, 2014 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What constitutes nursing home negligence?”

A four-year-long pursuit of justice ended last month for a former Orangeburg, South Carolina nursing home employee who was accused of attempting to rape a mentally handicapped woman in 2010.

Then-54-year-old Ralph C. Williams was charged in June of 2010 with third-degree criminal sexual conduct and abuse of a vulnerable adult. At the time, an employee at the Orangeburg Nursing Home called Capt. Mike Adams of the Orangeburg Department of Public Safety to report that she saw Mr. Williams on top of a 42-year-old female patient with his “scrub pants down and appeared to be starting to have sex with (the patient).”

Williams was acquitted of the criminal charges in 2012. As it turned out, he was the victim of false allegations lodged against him by Patricia Johnson, Josette Peppers and UniHealth Post Acute Care, LLC, an Orangeburg jury found. Johnson, Peppers and UniHealth were named as defendants in a defamation lawsuit Williams brought to clear his name.

Defamation, in general, is defined as any statement—written or spoken—that damages a person’s reputation. The statement must be “published;” in other words, the defamatory statement must be made to a third party or third parties. The plaintiff in a defamation lawsuit must prove that he or she was damaged by the alleged defamatory statement or statements.

“White lesbian mother” sues sperm bank for sending her African-American man’s sperm

October 2, 2014 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What exactly is a wrongful death claim?”

A Uniontown, Ohio mother claims she and her partner must move out of their “all-white hometown” so that their mixed-race daughter will be accepted.

Jennifer Cramblett, described by the Daily Mail as a “white lesbian mother,” is suing the Chicago-based Midwest Sperm Bank because, she says, it sent her the wrong sperm samples. She said that she and her partner, Amanda Zinkon, picked a blonde-haired, blue-eyed sperm donor so that their baby would look like Ms. Zinkon.

However, when Cramblett’s order was processed, a clerk accidentally transposed the numbers on her order and sent her vials of sperm donated by an African-American man.

Cramblett said she and Zinkon love their daughter, but they are considering moving to a more diverse community. In her lawsuit, she complained that Payton—the daughter—“has hair typical of an African-American girl.” Cramblett said she must travel to “a black neighborhood” to get the girl a proper cut, “where she is obviously different in appearance, and not overtly welcome.”

Cramblett said many members of her family are openly racist. She said she did not meet a black person until she went to college and worries she is not up to the task of raising a mixed-race child, since she “has limited cultural competency relative to African-Americans.” Cramblett fears when Payton reaches school age, she will be the only non-white child in her class.

Marijuana now legal, so failed drug test not grounds for termination, employee argues

September 30, 2014 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Customer whose leg was broken by martial-arts-style kick from Costco worker sues

September 25, 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?”

Maybe I am an oddball, but I feel a little insulted when I am asked to present a receipt when exiting a store. The store invited me in. It is equipped with cameras to detect thieves. It employs guards—some or all of them armed—to detect and apprehend thieves. Someone is, or can be, watching literally every move I make in the store. That means someone watches me pay the cashier. In spite of all that, the man or woman guarding the door still wants proof that I bought what I am carrying. I am presumed guilty. I must prove my innocence.

I try not to make a habit of making mountains out of mole hills, so I go with the flow. I present the receipt. I move along through life. It is not the guard’s fault, after all. It is the store’s policy. If I do not like it, I do not have to shop at the store.

But I’ve always wondered what would happen if I refused to show my receipt. Would I be detained? Interrogated? Tortured?

I am kidding, of course, but a Portland, Oregon Costco customer’s refusal to show his receipt to two store employees who asked to see it was no laughing matter. Timothy Walls said he spent $103 on goods at the Costco—enough to need to transport the items to his car in a shopping buggy. When he refused to show his receipt at the exit, one employee yanked the buggy away from him. The worker then grabbed Walls by the collar of his shirt while a second worker administered “a martial arts type” kick to Walls’ leg. Walls said the kick broke his leg.

Pet killings leave pet owners with a lot of grief, little to recover in damages

July 29, 2014 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What does the “one-bite rule” mean in NC dog bite cases?”

A killer is on the loose in Union County. On Saturday, a pet owner in the county notified law-enforcement authorities that his two Great Danes had been shot by arrows.

An officer responding to the call found one dog lying near the back corner of the man’s property, while a second dog was found under a shed. An arrow was still stuck in the first dog. The officer could not find a second arrow, but observed what appeared to be an arrow wound to the second dog’s neck. Both dogs died of their injuries.

This followed the fatal shooting of a dog in Union County last week. In that case, a woman found her husky mix dead under her storage building, with four gunshot wounds. The storage building also was riddled bullet holes, according to the Union County Sheriff’s Office. The dog’s owner said the husky was valued at $500.

Last month, two dog owners in Union County reported that their pets had been poisoned with antifreeze. The dog owners theorized that hunters had put out antifreeze to ward off dogs or coyotes. The Union County Sheriff said an investigator was working on those cases, and that using antifreeze to get rid of dogs was illegal.

North Carolina treats cruelty to animals as a criminal matter, and the state routinely prosecutes those who commit cruel acts upon or who are neglectful toward animals. But what recourse does a pet owner have against one who is found responsible for the death of a beloved animal?

Believe it or not, the North Carolina courts have answered this question, but pet owners may not like the answer.