Practice Areas

Settlement for two wrongful deaths on account of a defective carburetor on a Cessna aircraft that caused a crash immediately following a take-off. The carburetor in question was defectively designed. The venturi inside the carburetor could melt and get sucked into the intake manifold of the engine causing an engine failure. There was a maintenance bulletin out to replace the venture. The Cessna was in for maintenance, but the maintenance bulletin was not carried out. This case is reported in the ATLA Law reporter at 14 PLLR 48.

Jury verdict for wrongful death due to pilot negligence in a Beech 99 commuter airliner. The pilot attempted to take off without removing the control lock pin off of the controls and crashed on takeoff. The aircraft burst into flames, and our client was burned to death. This case is reported in the ATLA Law reporter at 27 ATLA L. Rep. 23.

Settlement for wrongful death of 2 men that were killed when a Hughes 269C helicopter sustained an engine failure and crashed on account of the defective aerodynamic characteristics of the helicopter following a power failure. The helicopter was defectively designed. The design defect was that if there was an engine failure, and the pilot needed to commence an autorotation, the helicopter would “tuck.” The “tuck” feature meant that the nose of the helicopter would tuck nose down and roll. When it tucked, it was virtually impossible to recover from the tuck. This case was reported in ATLA Reporter at 32 ALTA Rep. 10.

Settlement for wrongful death of parents for teenage girl, whose parents died in a fire in a hotel on account of negligence on the part of the hotel for the fire alarm system not functioning. The parents died from smoke inhalation, as they were trapped in their hotel room and could not escape. The case was reported in the ATLA Law Reporter Vol. 26 No. 6.

Settlement for wrongful death of a woman due to a certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA) negligently placing an endotracheal tube into her esophagus and not her tracheal during an elective Cesarean section. The decedent underwent a scheduled Cesarean section under general anesthesia. The general anesthesia was administered by a CRNA. The CRNA negligently placed the endotracheal tube in the patient’s esophagus, and not the trachea. The patient developed hypoxia and then a cardiac arrest. A code team was summoned, and then it was discovered that the endotracheal tube was in the esophagus. The patient died in the operating room.

Jury verdict for wrongful death due to pilot error. The pilot error was that the pilot was attempting to fly in bad weather with poor visibility in a Bell helicopter. The weather conditions required that the pilot be instrument qualified. The pilot was not instrument qualified. The pilot lost control and crashed. Following the jury verdict, the insurance carrier for the pilot successfully filed a declaratory judgment action for a judicial determination that the insurance policy did not provide coverage for the damages.

Settlement for the wrongful death of a U.S. Air Force pilot of an RF-4 on account of a defective micro-switch that allowed flares to be fired inadvertently causing a loss of control resulting in a crash. The Air Force jet was flying a mission to shoot flares. The flares were inside compartments on both sides of the fuselage. When the pilot armed the flare launching system from the cockpit, a light would come on to let the pilot know that the system was ready. For the flare launching system to work, clamshell doors had to open. The clamshell doors were opened by a series of bellcranks. When the doors were fully open, one of the bellcranks would depress a microswitch which would result in the system ready light to come on in the cockpit. On the occasion in question, the clamshell doors on one side failed to open, but the microswitch was stuck in the position it would be in if the doors had opened properly. The pilot got a ready light, even though the clamshell doors were closed. The pilot began launching flares, but because the clamshell doors failed to open, the flares exploded inside the fuselage causing a loss of control and the crash, killing the pilot. It was proved that the microswitch was defectively manufactured and had been in a position since the time of manufacture to give a ready light in the cockpit regardless of whether the clamshell doors were open or closed.

61 year old female underwent a hysterectomy for cervical cancer. The gynecologist failed to confirm that she actually had cancer. She did not have cancer. She developed postoperative bleeding and died from the complications of the postoperative bleeding.

Jury verdict for wrongful death of a man caused by emergency physician negligence in failing to recognize septicemia. The patient went to the emergency room with presumed food poisoning. However, he had an infection in his bowel that was developing into sepsis. The emergency room physician negligently discharged the patient. The patient went home, his sepsis severely worsened in a day, and he died.

Settlement for wrongful death of man who died of a heart attack after negligently being sent home from the emergency room by an emergency medicine physician after being misdiagnosed and being told there was nothing wrong with his heart. The patient had clear signs and symptoms of cardiac ischemia and a myocardial infarction. The emergency room physician negligently diagnosed the patient as having indigestion and discharged the patient. The emergency room physician told the patient there was nothing wrong with his heart. The patient went to a chiropractor the next day, believing that his pain was due to his spine. The patient went into cardiac arrest while being worked on by the chiropractor and died.

Settlement for the wrongful death of a U.S. Air Force pilot of an RF-4 on account of a defective fastener hole on the wing torque box that caused a wing to come off in flight resulting in a crash. The pilot was engaged in high g maneuvering during a training dog fight. While in a high g turn, the outboard wing separated from the aircraft, causing the fatal crash. The cause of the outboard wing separation was that a fastener hole on a structural piece of the wing had been improperly finished. There was a failure to chamfer the edge of the fastener hole. The failure to chamfer the hole led to a stress riser, which led to a fatigue failure. When the fatigue failure grew over time, it then caused the structural integrity of the wing to be unable to withstand the usual high g forces of combat maneuvering.

Settlement on account of the wrongful death of a woman who died from complications of a general surgeon failing to appropriately respond to a bile leak following a laparoscopic gall bladder removal. The patient underwent a laparoscopic cholecystectomy at the hands of a general surgeon. The surgeon perforated the common bile duct. Postoperatively, the patient’s condition deteriorated. The surgeon failed to believe all the signs and symptoms of a perforated common bile duct and did not provide therapy. The patient was transferred to another hospital, but by then, she had develop very severe infectious bile peritonitis, and died.

Settlement on account of the wrongful death of a woman who died from complications of a general surgeon failing to appropriately respond sepsis and shock following a stomach stapling procedure.

Settlement for the wrongful death of a construction worker who fell down an unguarded and unprotected elevator shaft. This was a gross negligence action allowed by the Texas Worker’s Compensation Act against an employer whose gross negligence causes an employee’s death.

Settlement on account of wrongful death of man who died as a result of a general surgeon negligently failing to timely respond to his going into shock following an emergency appendectomy.

Details Test 38

Settlement for the wrongful death of an eight year old. The child’s mother took him to the hospital emergency room. The emergency room physician decided to have the child transported by helicopter to a larger facility. The emergency room physician negligently decided to intubate the child. The emergency room physician then negligently placed the endotracheal tube into the child’s esophagus, when it should have been placed in the trachea. As a result of that negligence, the child was deprived of oxygen, which caused a hypoxic brain injury. The child died several days later.

Settlement for wrongful death of a baby who died from severe brain damage caused by asphyxia during the birthing process due to being stuck in the head with the local anesthesia being intended for the mother. A family practitioner attempted a vaginal delivery. The family practitioner gave the mother a local anesthetic of Lidocaine in preparation for an episiotomy. However, the Lidocaine was injected into the baby’s head. The baby developed severe seizures and hypoxia. The baby developed severe cerebral palsy and passed away.

Jury verdict for the wrongful death of a baby who was born with thick meconium in his mouth and was not suctioned before his chest was delivered, causing thick meconium to be sucked back into his lungs.  The baby was delivered in the labor room attended by nurses who negligently failed to be prepared for the delivery.

Settlement for the wrongful death of a man who fell off a ladder and landed on his head killing him. The man’s employer had him standing on top of a ladder with a chainsaw cutting a hole in the ceiling. The man was provided with no safety equipment or helpers. This was a gross negligence action allowed by the Texas Worker’s Compensation Act against an employer whose gross negligence causes an employee’s death.

Settlement for wrongful death of a woman. The patient was in labor and developed severe epigastric pain and showed signs of HELLP syndrome. The obstetrician did an exam of the patient’s liver with an ultrasound probe. The exam was very rough and he caused lacerations in the patient’s liver. The patient bled to death as a result.

Details Test 14

Settlement for the wrongful death of a man thrown out of a bass boat on account of a defective stick steering system. The bass boat in question had stick steering. The operator of the boat sat up in the bow of the boat with a throttle on one side and the stick steering lever on the other side. When a sudden steering input would be made, the lateral acceleration forces generated at the operator’s seat in the bow could cause the operator to get thrown out of the boat and into the water. That is what happened in this case. The operator was in the water, the bass boat was circling and continuing to circle, and it eventually ran over the operator and killed him. Case was reported in the ATLA Law Reporter, Vol. 26 No. 4

Settlement for the wrongful death of a child. The child had a cerebral shunt. The child developed signs and symptoms that the cerebral shunt was malfunctioning causing the pressure in the brain to increase to dangerous levels. The child was taken to an emergency room at a major teaching hospital about 3:30 p.m. The personnel at the emergency room did not inform the child’s neurosurgeon of the situation until the following morning. By then the child had worsened significantly and died.

A 52 year old man underwent an elective stomach stapling operation. He was dismissed from a surgery center after 4 hours and he bled to death from the procedure within 13 hours. The settlement was the surgeon's policy limits of $200,000 and $300,000 from the surgery center.