In Brentwood, New Hampshire in the summer of 2014, a woman was killed by a garbage truck that was traveling through a construction zone. Now, over a year later, her brother, James Rugg, is filing a lawsuit through the Rockingham County Superior Court on behalf of his deceased sister Margaret Rugg’s estate.
The suit states that Margaret was forced into an area that was narrow and unsafe. This led to Ms. Rugg being hit by the back tires of the garbage truck. The commercial trash truck injured Margaret severely and eventually lead to her death. The state police reported that on July 22, 2014, Rugg rode her bike through a breakdown lane located on Epping Road in Exeter. She tried to maneuver her bike through a construction lane closure. During this time, Rugg lost her balance and fell. When she fell, she was in the path of a garbage truck driven by Pinard Waste System’s Mark Lancey.
Pinard Waste Systems Co. Inc. of Hooksett, Bourassa Construction of Stratham and Martini Northern LLC are the three defendants named in the suit. Martini and Bourassa are being accused of negligence. However, they claim to have retained traffic control personnel and flaggers. This wasn’t the only accusation. One of the other ones were that Martini Northern failed to comply with regulations on local, state and federal grounds regarding trenching. They’re being accused of failing to put up signs and roadside markings. Additionally, they didn’t leave enough space for cars, pedestrians large trucks or bicycles to pass safely. The suit makes similar allegations toward Bourassa. Margaret’s suit claims that Pinard didn’t train employees adequately in regards to operating a vehicle in a construction zone.
Rugg died at age 64. She retired the year prior to her death. She was in the education field throughout the entire course of her life. She retired as the preschool coordinator for the Windham School District. In addition to her passion for teaching, she was also very interested in biking.
Although nothing can bring her back, if the settlement is won, it may just give her family a bit of closure over the ordeal.
A Florida jury is holding two tobacco companies 94% responsible for the death of a woman who smoked for 41 years before succumbing to cancer. On December 22, 2015, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Phillip Morris USA Inc., were ordered to pay a total of $35 million to the deceased woman’s husband – $12.5 million apiece in punitive damages, as well as $10 million in compensatory damages.
The girl’s father, Fred Fletcher, filed a lawsuit against the Atlanta Braves. In the filing, Fletcher cited the fact that Cabrera (who now plays for the Chicago White Sox) was suspended for 50 games due to testing positive for testosterone. The filing requested that MLB turn over documents relating to that investigation. Lawyers for Fletcher contend that the use of steroids makes players hit the balls harder, giving fans in the stands less time to get out of the way of foul balls.
The Two SIdes
During a 2011 eight-month worldwide sailing trip on the cruise line’s M/S Amsterdam, James Hausman of Illinois was walking out to the pool deck when the ship’s automatic doors struck him on the side of the head. Following the incident, a physician diagnosed the successful businessman with a minor brain injury and post-concussive syndrome. Reportedly, Hausman continues to suffer from seizures, fatigue, and bouts of dizziness because of the injury. An eight-person jury came to a unanimous decision after hearing witnesses on both sides during the course of a nine-day trial. Holland America Line was ordered to pay Hausman millions for pain and suffering as well as emotional distress. Over the course of the trial, attorneys for Hausman accused the cruise line of suppressing documents for over 30 cases of automatic glass door incidents occurring on other sailings in the past three years.
This case involves more than 500 class actions that allege that Volkswagen purposefully set out to deceive consumers by claiming in advertisements that it was producing clean diesel cars. The truth is that Volkswagen vehicles which were produced under the clean diesel brand were actually as much as 40 times higher than the standards for nitrogen oxides allowed by the United States law. Volkswagen admitted that around 11 million of their purported clean diesels had a rigged system set up to “defeat” emissions tests when the system sensed it was being evaluated. The vehicles were temporarily cleaner while the testing equipment was connected to the cars, then went to normal operations when the equipment was removed.
A Statesville, North Carolina resident, Bill Warner, died after being infected by “lethally drug resistant bacteria,” (called a “superbug”) which remained lodged in the crevices of a duodenoscope after failed sterilization of the instrument. Deadly design flaws apparently made it impossible to properly and adequately cleanse the scope of deadly brown scaly deposits after previous use.
Police say that in October of 2012, emergency responders arrived at a home in North Bend, Washington to investigate April and Jeff Henderson; a couple who was supposedly caring for then 19-year-old Heather Curtis. Detectives say they found Heather Curtis in a room with a bunk bed, lying on the mattress with only a light blanket to cover her. Among the dirty diapers, feces, garbage, smell and flies milling about was Heather; naked except for a very soiled diaper. Investigators say they originally thought Heather was a child of 7 or 8 years old because she was extremely malnourished, emaciated and writhing in pain. Heather Curtis is blind, has spastic quadriplegia and cerebral palsy. Her teeth had decayed to the point where she, after being removed from the home, required 19 root canals. At the time of her rescue she weighted only 68 pounds.