Atlanta Personal Injury Lawyers Blog

After a week and a half of trial, a Clayton County jury returned a wrongful death verdict for $753,000 today in favor of our client. While at a local Atlanta restaurant last year, our client's husband died after being served the wrong meal. He had a severe shellfish allergy and, although he ordered a dish without shellfish, the meal that was served to him contained crab meat. Within, minutes of eating the meal he went into anaphylactic shock and died.

The restaurant claimed the husband ordered the meal that killed him. They relied on the order ticket filled out by the waitress. However, through the use of a forensic handwriting witness, we were able to show the waitress had created the order ticket after the fact. Additional medical expert testimony was used to educate the jury on food allergies and anaphylactic shock.

While the restaurant countered they had no responsiblity for whether our client received the proper order or not, we tried the case on general negligence grounds which allowed the jury to find that the restaurant owed a duty to our client and her husband to accurately take their order and deliver the meals as ordered.

Shellfish allergies are one of the most common allergies ranging from mild to severe. While anaphylaxis is rare, it interferes with breathing, causes a severe drop in blood pressure, a rapid pulse and loss of consciousness. In the most severe instances, it causes death.

A California jury yesterday awarded $16,577.118 in a wrongful death action to the family of a woman who died of acute water intoxication after participating in a radio station contest to see who could drink and hold the most water in 2007. Tragically, Jennifer Strange lost her life for the grand prize of a Nintendo Wii, while the radio DJs joked about the possibility of contestants dying from drinking too much water.

Her family sued the radio station for wrongful death alleging the station was negligent in running the contest. The defense argued that the death was unforeseeable and if the jury found liability they must also find contributory negligence on the part of Ms. Strange.

If you have ever scanned the radio stations available in the metro Atlanta area, you have come across channels where the DJ's seem to be allowed to say and do just about anything to create a reaction. In the California case, they went too far through reckless conduct and abandonment of common sense adding up to negligence and liability. And although there is usually an argument to be made for contributory negligence, the majority of the liability will almost always rest with the purveyor of the contest.

More on the story:
Jury Awards $16.57 Million in Girl's Water Intoxication Death