The wife of an employee who suffered injuries while operating a forklift, which resulted in his death, is entitled to keep an award of $1.5 million awarded by a jury who found that the manufacturer of the forklift beached a duty it owed to the subsequent users of the machine,…
A January 22, 2009 collision between a police cruiser responding to an auto accident and a vehicle driven by an Auburn woman has reminded us of a law little known to most, which limits the unfettered rights of official vehicles responding to an emergency. While it is well known that laws require…
Internal documents prepared by a corporation, which analyze the potential success of IRS challenges to its tax returns, is protected work product and not discoverable by the IRS as part of a subsequent investigative subpoena, according to the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals. In this case, Textron, Inc.…
Accidents often arise out of situtions where someone’s conduct causes injury to another, and it appears that the act causing injury was carried out intentionally. The most obvious type of situation is an assault and battery. Someone hits you in the face with their fist and causes injury, requiring medical…
A police officer who prevented an suspected prostitute from leaving a hotel by grabbing her in a hotel hallway and then detaining in her in a hotel room, after physically preventing her from leaving the premises, may be liable for personal injuries as the result of using excessive force, but not for…
The Massachusetts Appeals Court has reversed a Superior Court ruling reinstating a medical professional malpractice complaint, which had been dismissed for lack of service, but reinstated over one year later on a Motion to Vacate Judgment under Mass. Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 60(b). The original complaint had been filed…
The Massachusetts Appeals Court has determined that a bank, acting as a fiduciary under a family trust, was liable for ignoring the provisions in a lease, which gave the lessee of a Cape Cod property used as a tree stump dump a right of first refusal with respect to purchase…
A severe fire related accident occurred as the new year struck in Freedom, NH. The location was a lakeside private home owned by one of the group, all recent graduates from Holy Cross College. The group was outside celebrating and had a bonfire going on an old grill. It appears…
The U.S. First Circut Court of Appeals has upheld an arbitration award against the general contractor and in favor of a subcontractor who left a jobsite prior to completion of its work on a project at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. The case was Eastern Seaboard Construction Co,…
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has determined that the Workers’ Compensation Trust Fund must pay benefits to an employee of a tree cutting company who failed to obtained workers’ compensation insurance based on the employee’s total earnings, including wages earned from a second job with an insured employer. The thirty-three…