When a $12 million settlement was reached in February in a Philadelphia lawsuit against Swift Transportation, one of the country's largest trucking companies, the lawyers on both sides agreed to keep the settlement secret.
A man who suffered head, back, arm and knee injuries when a municipal pipe plug exploded in close proximity was awarded $4 million in a products liability action by an eight-member Philadelphia jury late last week.
In the case, Ruth Smith v. Mercy Health System, jurors returned from early a day of deliberations to Judge Marlene Lachman’s courtroom late Friday afternoon with a verdict against the hospital and two of its doctors.
A prescription of Tylenol with codeine could not prevent the onset of Peter Divon’s blinding eye infection or the liability of the doctor who treated him.
The jury found in favor of plaintiff John Duffy, a 45-year-old insurance salesman from Media whose left femur was shattered the afternoon of March 13, 1998, when his mini van was hit by a police car traveling in the opposite direction.
After five days of trial in Common Pleas Judge Samuel M. Lehrer’s courtroom, a jury returned a $2 million verdict in favor of a medical malpractice plaintiff who claimed that an unnecessary surgical procedure resulted in a permanent tracheotomy.
