Articles Posted in Wrongful Death

A tour bus carrying 43 passengers rolled over yesterday on Highway 38, just north of Yucaipa in San Bernardino County. According to reports, the bus, registered to a company called Scapadas Magicas LLC in National City, was traveling down a slight grade when the driver stated he was having difficulty braking. At around 6:30 p.m. it rear-ended a Saturn, and then rolled over.

News accounts state that seven people were killed in the accident, and at least 17 suffered serious injuries.

Both the coroner and the California Highway Patrol’s multidisciplinary accident team was on the scene throughout the night in what some law enforcement officers are calling the worst crash they have ever seen.

The family of Jose Lucero, a Rosamond man, who they contend was beaten to death by four Kern County Sheriff’s deputies in 2010, was awarded a $4.5 million judgment in their civil lawsuit against the deputies, the sheriff’s department, and Kern County. The jury found that the defendants acted negligently, causing the death of Mr. Lucero and serious emotional distress to his parents, who witnessed the confrontation. Mr. Lucero’s official cause of death was cardiac arrest following police restraint in association with methamphetamine intoxication, the coroner’s office reported in March 2011.

On December 18, 2010, sheriff’s deputies went to Mr. Lucero’s home, because he had been repeatedly making calls to the 911 emergency center, saying that a friend in Lancaster was being assaulted and murdered. Mr. Lucero had mental health issues and was a recovering drug addict, with the coroner reporting methamphetamine discovered in Mr. Lucero’s system.

Originally, three deputies responded to the situation, with a fourth arriving later. The entire incident took approximately six minutes. It is estimated that Mr. Lucero was shocked with a Taser twenty-nine times. One of the deputies also used pepper spray in the closed environment of the home, causing the deputies to suffer the pepper spray’s symptoms, which made the situation worse. Mr. Lucero’s parents were repeatedly told to leave the home during the altercation, but kept returning to see what was happening. Unfortunately, the fact that Mr. Lucero’s parents kept returning meant they witnessed the deputies beating him to death.

The nation was shocked this week by a senseless act of unimaginable terror in Aurora, Colorado. Our Southern California wrongful death attorneys were incredibly saddened to hear the ABC 8 News report that 24 year old graduate student, James Eagan Holmes, has been accused of killing 12 people and wounding 59 others in a shooting rampage at a midnight showing of the film “The Dark Knight Rises”. Holmes is accused of setting off either smoke or chemical bombs in the theater before beginning to shoot into the packed theater. He was arrested behind the theater, dressed in all black tactical equipment on, including a riot helmet, gas mask, and bulletproof vest. He was allegedly in possession of an AR-15 assault rifle, a 12 gauge shotgun, and two .40 Glock pistols at the time of surrender. In addition to the shooting rampage, his apartment was booby trapped with apparent explosive devices.

Holmes grew up in Ranch Penasquitos, California, where his parents still live. He graduated in 2006 from Westview High School, and in 2010 graduated with honors from University of California – Riverside with a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience. In 2011 he began a phD program at the University of Colorado. The University reported that as of last week Holmes was in the process of completing voluntary withdrawal paperwork from the program. San Diego Police are devoting extra attention to the neighborhood that Holmes grew up in to preserve the peace of the neighborhood and provide protection for the Holmes Family after media swarmed in upon confirmation that his family lived there. Neighbors were shocked to learn that the quiet, science genius they knew as a child was being accused of such horrific acts.

In extreme cases like this one, prosecutors will act swiftly to bring the accused to justice. However, civil action can also be taken in order to help victims and their families through the healing process, as well as financially. An example of such a civil action is a wrongful death action. These cases are generally brought by surviving spouses, children of the victim, or the victim’s dependent parents. Damages are meant to compensate the survivor for what they lost due to the victim’s death. This can include economic support for loss of wages, funeral expenses, etc. Wrongful death suits must be brought within statutory time limits so it is vital for family members to seek legal advice as soon as possible.

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A Border Patrol agent was the party at fault in a car collision this past Tuesday. According to an article in U-T San Diego, the agent collided with a car driven by a woman at an Imperial County intersection. The woman was traveling on Heber Road while the Border Patrol agent was heading northbound on Bowker Road. According to a report by the California Highway Patrol, the agent had a stop sign and failed to come to a complete stop at the intersection, striking the woman’s vehicle and sending her car into a nearby canal. The woman suffered a fractured neck and was treated at the El Centro hospital. Our San Diego automobile accident attorney recognizes that anyone, even law enforcement authorities such as Border Patrol agents, can exercise unsafe driving behavior at times, causing serious injuries to others on the roadways.

History of Accidents
A similar accident occurred at the same intersection three years ago in December 2009 where an on-duty federal agent struck a car, causing the deaths of three women. Journalistic reports explained that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent was chasing a suspected drug smuggler and was traveling at a speed of 100 mph just before the collision. The agent was charged with vehicular manslaughter by the Imperial County district attorney, but due to his position as a federal agent, a federal San Diego judge deemed Dotson immune from the criminal charges since he was acting in the line of duty at the time of the incident. However, his status as a federal agent does not provide immunity from civil lawsuits brought against him. The family members of the three women killed in the accident brought suit – likely a wrongful death suit – against Dotson and was awarded a settlement in the amount of $11 million.

Investigations do not state whether the Border Patrol agent in this particular accident was acting while in the line of duty at the time the incident occurred. However, in regards to criminal proceedings, this detail is irrelevant since criminal charges have not been brought against the agent. Whether the agent was acting in the scope of employment at the time of the accident may affect who can be named a party in a civil suit. Regardless of whether he was acting in the line of duty, the agent was nonetheless negligent in his failure to make a complete stop at the stop sign. Therefore, his failure to exercise reasonable care ultimately caused the woman in the other vehicle to sustain serious injuries, allowing her to seek compensation for her recovery.

Unfortunately, failure to obey simple rules on the roadways creates a hazard for all other law-abiding drivers. Simply failing to stop at a stop sign can cause serious accidents such as the particular collision in this case. In the event that you are the victim of an automobile accident or any other accident causing personal injury, please contact our San Diego personal injury lawyers at Walton Law Firm.

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Memorial Day weekend is a time to honor and show appreciation to all who selflessly serve our country. Of course, unofficially it marks the beginning of the summer season and a time to celebrate and spend time with family and friends. Traditional Memorial Day weekend festivities involve a lot of food and drink. The three-day hiatus compels the masses to overindulge on these amenities – sometimes alcohol – often creating dangerous situations that cause serious accidents on our roadways. Our San Diego automobile accident attorney recognizes the increased risk of car accidents during this time.

This year there was a bit of good news locally.

During this past Memorial Day weekend, according to an article in CBS8.com, the California Highway Patrol arrested 68 motorists on suspicion of driving while intoxicated in the San Diego area. As reported by the California Highway Patrol, this number was 15 fewer than last year. Even more encouraging news is that no fatalities occurred on the local roads in the San Diego area during the Memorial Day weekend.

The heirs of two young women, cousins ages 35 and 25, who died in the same accident in Hawaii were awarded a total of $15.4 million dollars in a personal injury settlement. The heirs of one of the women received just under $15 million, and the heirs of the other just $425,000.00. This begs the question: if the women are both young, healthy, and facing a long life ahead of them, how could the “value” of their lives be so starkly different?

This unfortunate tragedy highlights how personal injury cases are valued in the eyes of the law. First, the true value of a life is worth far more than what is ever available in an injury case. Here’s an illustration of that point. If you were visiting the Louvre in Paris and there was a fire, and before you was the Mona Lisa, a painting with a value of $100 million. Standing next to the Mona Lisa was a person needing help to exit the museum. As the fire grew, you could save the person or the Mona Lisa but not both. Which would you choose? You see, there isn’t enough money in the world to compensate families for the loss of a loved one.

But in the context of a wrongful death case, the law requires that the life be given a monetary value, and provides some guidelines as to how that value should be calculated. As a starting point, the person who died does not have his or her own case. The case is that of the heirs, and, generally speaking, the closer the heir the more valuable the case. A young spouse and minor children tend to be considered more valuable than an elderly spouse with grown children. Probably because wrongful death damages are prospective looking, asking, “what kind of future is being lost by the death of the decedent?” Most would agree that a young child losing a 35-year-old mother, is greater than a 55-year-old child losing an 85-year-old mother.

Most of us have at least one friend or family member who has some kind of special needs, so we know how painful it can be to see our loved ones being mistreated because of their physical or mental limitations. Sadly, as one local family discovered, sometimes they are not even safe in the state care facilities where many of them spend their lives. This is something that our San Diego injury attorneys know all too well. In 2007, a man named Van Ingraham passed away at the Fairview Developmental Center after suffering a severe spinal cord injury and a broken neck. Ingraham suffered from severe autism, which made him unable to speak, so he could not tell anyone what happened to him. He had lived at Fairview for 42 years and required around-the-clock care.

As with any death that occurs in a state run facility, an investigation was launched to determine what caused Van Ingraham’s injuries and, ultimately, his death. The investigation was conducted by an internal police force, and from the start there were signs that it was not being done properly. For example, only one photograph was taken on the day Ingraham sustained his injuries, and no one even bothered to collect fingerprints, blood samples, or other forensic evidence from his room.

Several doctors were asked to provide their opinions on how his neck and back were hurt. Two doctors said they believed he had been placed in a violent headlock, and at least one said that his death was a most likely a homicide. However, when the lead detective, a former nurse who had never worked a suspicious death case, compiled her report, there was no mention of these opinions. Instead, speculations were made that Ingraham’s broken neck and crushed spinal cord were the result of him falling out of his bed, a drop of about two feet. Given the severity of his injuries, doctors have said that it is highly unlikely a fall from that height would have had enough force to cause them.

Our San Diego wrongful death lawyer has seen more than his fair share of tragedy—it’s a natural part of working in this field. No San Diego wrongful death case is more heart-wrenching than one that involves a child. Sadly, many local families continue to deal with the pain of losing a child, often following preventable tragedies. For example, in August of last year, Danny and Aja Howell lost their 3-year-old son Tyler when he choked to death on a pushpin while at his preschool, the Montessori School of Oceanside. According to an article by NBC San Diego, rescue workers attempted to save his life, but little Tyler passed away shortly after being transported to a local hospital.

Following Tyler’s death, the California Department of Social Services (“CDSS”) conducted an investigation into the school’s actions to try to determine what happened on that terrible day. After looking into the events leading up to Tyler’s death, the CDSS concluded that the school had not accurately followed all relevant safety rules. In particular, the CDSS found that the school failed to provide adequate care and supervision, properly store classroom supplies, and provide proper accommodations for students.

At the time of Tyler’s death, his mother reportedly stated that she and her husband did not blame the school for the loss of their little boy. However, a few months later, after the shock of their son’s death has started to wear off, they have understandably come to learn more about what actually happened. Although people who have never suffered a loss like this one often criticize those involved in the situation, their response is not an uncommon one. Often, in the immediate aftermath of a tragedy, people are not able to think clearly about the details of the event. Instead, they are just trying to keep moving forward and make it through each day. Sometimes, it is not until weeks or even months later that families are able to fully process what happened and make rational decisions about how to move forward.

A tragic San Diego bike accident took the life of a 30-year-old San Diego resident named Justin Newman this week, according to CBS News 8. Like so many other commuters do every day, Newman was riding his bike past several parked cars on a busy city street when a driver of one of the parked cars swung his door open directly into Newman’s path. Newman ran into the car door with his bicycle, lost control, and fell. When he hit the ground, he struck his head on the pavement, which caused trauma to his brain and ultimately resulted in his death. At the time of the incident, Newman was not wearing a bicycle helmet.

The devastating death of this young man raises many questions for his family. How could this have been prevented? Who is responsible? Losing a loved one is never easy, but it is even harder when it just did not have to happen.

Our San Diego wrongful death attorney knows that in situations like this one, there are no easy answers for the grieving family. The law does not typically punish people as criminals for their acts of negligence, but those who are left behind often feel a natural desire to seek justice and to make the responsible party provide redress.