Arizona updates in category: Wrongful Death

"Attention Safeway shoppers, business owners now owe nondelegable duties to their invitees to keep their premises reasonably safe."Steven H. Simon sued Safeway after he was injured during a store altercation with a security guard who "physically and sexually" assaulted him. The guard was employed by a third-party company who had contracted with Safeway. He mistakenly concluded that Mr. Simon...

A mother of a 17 year-old month boy went in to work at Hooters Tuesday morning and when she returned to her car when her shift was over she realized she had forgotten her son was still in the vehicle. Unfortunately the toddler died because of the temperatures in the car.Ashly Duchene was booked with a felony count of negligent homicide. She normally dropped her son off at daycare before work,...

New decision from Division One, Bohreer v. Erie Ins. Exch.. Bohreer holds that an Arizona court has general personal jurisdiction over a foreign insurer which has appointed the Director of Insurance as an agent for service of process and has not withdrawn such qualification or appointment, but has ceased doing business in the state prior to the acts underlying the complaint. The Court held...

These are complicated times. It seems that, in addition to proving wrongful death, when the decedent is an unborn child, you had better be able to prove paternity as well.In the case, Aranda v. Cardenas, both the mother and her unborn child were apparently subject to fatal medical malpractice. The Defendants, however, disputed whether the unborn child's father was indeed the child's father,...

Division One just put out an opinion in Girouard v.Skyline Steel involving interpretation of the wrongful death statute. The case involved admitted liability, but disputed damages where the decedent burned to death in car accident. The Court clarified that, while pre-death suffering is not compensable in a wrongful death action, the horrific circumstances of the death, the necessity of closed...

Arizona law provides for two causes of action when someone dies: a wrongful death claim and a survival action. The purpose of providing both actions is to give the parties damaged a complete remedy and opportunity to recover the loss sustained.The wrongful death action is intended to benefit certain survivors -- called statutory beneficiaries -- such as the decedent's parents, children, and...

Arizona's wrongful death statute still has some ambiguity. For example, ARS 12-612 permits a wrongful death claim to be brought "on behalf of the surviving husband or wife, children or parents, or if none of these survive, on behalf of the decedent's estate." What does this last part mean?What damages can the estate recover in a statutory wrongful death action (as opposed to a statutory...

Unlike most injury claims, wrongful death claims are governed by statute. This has some important and surprising consequences.By way of some background, the reason wrongful death statutes were enacted was because, at common law, there was no such cause of action. As a result, it was often cheaper to kill someone than it was to simply injure them (there was a saying that, "if your carriage runs...

Unlike most injury claims, wrongful death claims are created and governed by statute. Those statutes typically permit claims by certain family members for the negligent loss of a loved one or, in pure legal terms, a "person." But what qualifies as a "person" is subject to a great deal of political, philosophical and even legal debate.What about frozen embryos? They are genetically complete...

A wrongful death lawsuit involving a 16-year-old girl who was killed by a motorist on her way to school, has settled for $225,000 with the city paying up.The suit was filed by the Mother of a junior at Alhambra High School that was killed on November 20, 2004 while she was attempting to catch a Valley Metro bus to get to class.The lawsuit accused the city of negligence in its operation of...

In early February, the families of three teenagers sued a bar in a Texas court, claiming that the bar should be held responsible for causing the motor vehicle accident and the teens' deaths. The accident was caused by a drunk driver who drove the wrong way and crashed into the teens' vehicle. In Arizona, bars can be held responsible for causing injuries and deaths when they overserve alcohol...

The trial of Enron executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling began this last week in a Houston, Texas courtroom. This corporate scandal and the beginning of the trial of its former executives has reinforced my opinion about why jurors rathern than government or corporate America should have the final say about what corporations should and should not do, and when corporations should be held...

According to a 1999 report issued by the Institute of Medicine, medical errors by pharmacies, hospitals and nursing homes have been responsible for the deaths of between 44,000 and 98,000 people per year! This astounding statistic can be attributed to some very simple problems within our health system. For example, placement of similarly sounding medication in different locations on the...

Today, Senate confirmation hearings begin for Samuel Alito, the newest nominee to the United States Supreme Court. His elevation to the highest court will have a profound affect on our judicial system. If confirmed, Judge Alito will be able to shape how and under what circumstances corporations will be responsible for failing to make products safe. He will provide input to determine under...

Scottsdale-based stun gun manufacturer Taser International announced Friday that a Texas court has dismissed yet another wrongful death lawsuit against the company. This is the 10th dismissed or Taser-won lawsuit in the last 18 months."We feel vindicated by this dismissal, and we will continue our ongoing strategy of aggressively defending this type of litigation," said Doug Klint, vice...