New York Wrongful Death Lawyer Blog

Did the NYC Firefighters dispatch center workers have a duty to help Eutisha Rennix last December 9, as she lay on the floor of a bagel shop where she worked, unable to catch her breath and in stomach pain? The two had stopped at the cafe to buy their breakfasts when her coworkers told them of the woman's physical distress. Although they were in uniform, they did nothing to help her, other than to place a call for emergency services.

Since she and her unborn child died at the hospital several hours later, everyone has an opinion.

The Rennix family attorney, said "It is outrageous that emergency medical technicians who have a duty to provide emergency services to individuals could ignore someone who is in need of such services."

Ms. Rennix co-workers at the bagel shop were shocked at the "cold-hearted" response of the two EMTs: "They had a callous disregard for that woman... It's like they felt as if they couldn't be bothered to help that woman".

The EMTs lawyer claimed his clients were being vilified by a rush to judgment, and that they did all they could for Ms. Rennix. The attorney continued "I am confident the true facts and evidence will establish my clients acted appropriately to the best of their abilities."

Union leaders said that the two workers were licensed as EMT's but did not work "in the field".

The State Health Department plans on investigating; officials there stated it "expects EMT's to adhere by their employers code of conduct."

Mayor Bloomberg called the EMT's failure to act "Unconscionable."

The Brooklyn District Attorney plans on investigating, as criminal charges [reckless endangerment; official misconduct] may be appropriately brought against the two.

Recently, following the exhumation of Ms. Rennix body for autopsy, the family attorney reacted to a preliminary report which indicated that an asthma attack claimed her life. "Had the asthma attack been addressed, would she be alive today? That's the question that needs to be answered."

In considering the elements of a viable wrongful death claim, the Rennix family attorney is correct, if Ms. Rennix was not "savable" by the giving of emergency medical services, the "duty" that the EMT's had towards her will not matter.

On the other hand, if the autopsy indicates that asthma treatment would have relieved Ms. Rennix's symptoms on December 9, and she would have lived, the nature of the duty owed her by the two EMT's will be very relevant to the wrongful death lawsuit that is certain to follow.

None of the news articles concerning the EMT matter read by the blogger indicated that Ms. Rennix was married, however, she had a three year old son, who is her "distributee". A wrongful death lawsuit for pecuniary damages, and an accompanying personal injury suit for "pain and suffering" would be brought by her "personal representative.

Given the public reaction to the story of the EMT's failure to act, one can imagine the emotional argument of the woman lying on the floor, gasping for breath...

The Associated Press reported on January 5, 2010, that a West Virginia mother has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a doctor, his medical practice, and the manufacturer of the filing cabinet.

Her 17 year old daughter was found, dead, pinned between a five-drawer filing cabinet and a Jeep, in a storage building where she had been filing papers.

The suit accuses the doctor, who happens to be president of the state Board of Medicine, of failing to provide a safe and non-hazardous work environment.

The New York Times conducted a study of the use of radiation therapy in New York State, and found that radiotherapy accidents were seriously under-reported to government regulators.The Radiation Boom: A lifesaving Tool Turned Deadly,

While the technology has the potential to offer new cures to some, other use of the technology, which has become ever more powerful and complex over the past few years, has harmed patients. Safety rules may be ignored. Staff may not receive proper training. Quality control guidelines may not be followed.

The story details two patients who received far more radiation than was therapeutic. One overdose was caused by a computer error that went unnoticed for three days of radiation treatment. The other patient received the proper dosage of radiation, however, a missing filter allowed a hole to be burned in her chest.

A March, 2007, radiotherapy accident involving Clifton Springs Hospital was mentioned as part of the article. In that case, the patient was "overradiated" by more than 80%, by inexperienced caregivers.

New York State health officials have warned hospitals to be extra careful in the use of linear accelerators.

The providers of radiation therapy have a duty to abide strictly by safety rules, quality control, staff adequacy and training rules in the use of these machines.

An 87 year old woman was scalded and died two days after she fell into her shower while the hot water was running. Injured by the fall, she could not stand or reach up to shut the water off.

As reported, Florida children suing California-based alert system over mother's scalding death, after she fell, she pressed the button of the "ResponseLink" alert system several times.

The system was in place so the "ResponseLink" operator would call 911 in case the elderly woman fell or had some other emergency.

Over the next 10 minutes, the operator attempted to call the woman eight times rather than calling 911. The operator finally called the woman's daughter who lived nearby. It took the daughter additional time to reach her mother, who she found in the shower, with second degree burns over 24% of her body.

The family sued the alert system, saying that their failure to call 911 was a breach of contract.

User Comments to the story were mixed but one blamed the family for their mothers' death by pointing out that the hot water should not have been set for over 110 degrees.

How would you find if you served as a juror in this matter?

According to The Buffalo News article, Mediators Aim to Settle Lawsuits Over Flight 3407, the U.S. District Court Judge handling the nearly three dozen lawsuits filed in the Western District of New York for the 50 deaths due to the recent crash appointed four attorneys to attempt mediation of the claims in an effort to avoid the time and expense that trial would entail.

Reactions to this development differed. Since discovery between parties has not begun, some plaintiffs complain that they cannot settle a matter without knowing exactly what happened. Others maintain that due to the carelessness of the Defendants, punitive damages are appropriate. Punitive damages are monies awarded to punish the negligent party or wrongdoer, and deter others from similar behaviors. Some of the defendants in this case are alleged to have allowed poorly trained, fatigued pilots fly their planes, contributing to the crash.

One of the primary defendants, Colgan Air, welcomed the direction that the judge took. Through a spokesman, Colgan said that it looked forward to engaging in mediation with plaintiffs, so that each family could receive fair and just compensation for their loss.

Other victims' families have filed suit in New York State court against the flight simulator training company which trained the pilots of Flight 3407. So far, they remain separate from the mediation process ordered by the judge.

The Judge's mediation order sets a schedule that requires mediation of the cases to be initiated by June 17. If this effort at mediation fails, the parties are not foreclosed from trying again at a later date, after discovery is complete and the parties have a better idea of who was careless or negligent and which defendants are more culpable than others.

A report critical of many of the 107 deaths of detainees held by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which is charged with detention and removal operations of illegal immigrants to the U.S., alleges behind-the-scene official cover up of substandard care or abuse, as reported by the New York Times in Officials Hid Truth of Immigrant Deaths in Jail.

Since 2003, when the agency was formed under the Department of Homeland Security, it has not been held accountable for deaths that have occurred in our nation's immigration jails, which are described by the Times as "a haphazard network of privately run jails, federal centers and county cells where to government holds noncitizens while it tries to deport them"..

The story details at several deaths of persons who, by virtue of their status as immigration detainees were owed a duty of care by ICE and the US government.

A man committed suicide, partially due to the unbearable pain he suffered. The facility's medical personnel falsified the record to show that he had received medication, however, at the time they said he received it, he was already dead;

In another case, a man with a skull fracture was left in isolation for 13 hours before an ambulance was called;

Another man made "numerous" requests for a biopsy, which he did not receive, allowing the undiagnosed spread of penile cancer.

The families of these detainees person appear to have wrongful death and survival claims against the U.S..

The air crash that occurred last February 12, 2009, in Clarence, NY, killed 50 people: 45 of them passengers, 4 crew members and 1 person on the ground.

Often people are killed as a result of the negligence of another, without any contribution to the final outcome by the decedent. This is true of passengers in todays airliners, since a plane does not fall from the sky unless someone did not do their job.

In the case of Flight 3407 there is no shortage of potential defendants who may not have properly done their job, which contributed to the cause of the crash. Both the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Air Administration have initiated studies into what went wrong with that flight.

"In aviation crashes, we rarely see a single event that leads to tragedy", said lawyer Ronald L. M. Goldman, a plaintiffs attorney.

A large number of plaintiffs' families have sued a multitude of defendants for wrongful death due to the crash, in both U.S. Federal District Court and New York State Court, because any or several of these defendants may have contributed to the cause of the crash by failing to properly do their job.

If all 50 deceased persons had distributees at the time of the crash, any of the defendants found culpable may be required to pay the reasonable funeral expenses of each decedent, as well as "pecuniary damages", which may include loss of future earnings [depending on past earnings performance and remainder of work life lost], and an amount to compensate for the pain and suffering experienced by each decedent as he/she realized the abrupt end of his/her life.

This type of civil lawsuit is a complex one. There are many plaintiffs, suing many defendants in separate jurisdictions. The potential money damages are staggering in a case such as this. Therefore, each defendant is working hard to point its finger at another party defendant as having greater responsibility for the disaster, and thus, a greater share of the damages to be paid.

In an unprecedented event, eleven days after the 9/11 attacks the U.S. Congress authorized, and President Bush signed a law creating a government fund designed to compensate those injured or killed in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, at the Pentagon, and on Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania.

Attorney Kenneth Feinberg who was selected to administer the program, paid over $7 billion during the following 33 months to injured individuals and decedent's families who waived their rights to sue any of the companies and organizations involved, including the airlines, the World Trade Center, MassPort, the Port Authority of NY, Boeing, the security guard companies, etc.

Mr. Feinberg awarded monies to the families of the approximately 2,973 individuals who were killed (98%) as a result of the attacks.

By statute, Mr. Feinberg was required to pay compensation according to what the decedent would have made over his or her lifetime. Each case was different because of the age and/or occupation of the decedent. Consequently, the estates of stockbroker or banker decedents were given much more money than the estates of waiter or janitor decedents. These sums could be regarded as much the same as the award of "pecuniary damages" available in usual wrongful death cases.

The lifetime wage calculations are the same as the calculations made by juries across the US daily, as they contemplate awards for damages in wrongful death cases.
Mr. Feinberg, did not discriminate between decedents in determining the other component of damages: theh pain and suffering of the decedent between the causal event and the death, treating everyone who lost a family member equally. He awarded $250,000 for the death of the victim, and $100,00 for the spouse and each dependent surviving.

There were only about 40 people who did not participate in the fund program, who chose to litigate their claims in court rather than accept the settlement.

In many wrongful death cases, expert economists are employed to estimate lifetime earnings of the decedent. Their estimates are submitted to defendant's attorneys as part of discovery disclosure, or used in a settlement brochure, or may ultimately be presented to a jury at trial.

The widow of a 28 year old man killed when the motorboat in which he was a passenger crashed into the Summerville Pier [Rochester, NY] on a late night ride has recently filed suit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The complaint alleges that the Corps failed to adequately light the pier at night.

The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court, and brought on her own behalf and for the couple's four children.

Two other persons died in the same crash.

The crash occurred on June 28, 2008. Since then, the boat's operator has pled guilty to second degree manslaughter and boating while intoxicated, was sentenced to prison for four to 12 years.

In addition, the widow has sued four waterfront bars in state court, for serving the boat operator, and the State of New York, for allegedly failing to maintain and light the pier.

As with many wrongful death suits, several potential defendants may be accused of contributing to the death of the decedent, and suit can be brought against them in several jurisdictions: federal court, state court, and the New York Court of Claims.

According to the New York Times The New Katrina Flood: Hospital Liability, more than 100 patients died in New Orleans hospitals and nursing homes in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when the facilities' power systems failed.

Some 200 lawsuits have been brought in Louisiana alleging that the hospitals or nursing homes had inadequate emergency power systems, failed to have a plan for evacuation of patients, or flood water protection.

A wrongful death claim was made by the family of a 73 year-old woman who was hospitalized and on a respirator when flooding from Katrina cut the power off. Without an emergency power source, hospital personnel had to hand pump air into her lungs, in the dark and in sweltering heat.

In this case, the owner of the hospital was aware that it might be vulnerable to hurricane flooding, but for budget concerns, did not safeguard the power for the facility. In pleadings, they claim that Katrina was an "Act of God", for which they are not responsible.

A jury in Louisiana will decide the issue.