The Lombardi Law Firm Blog

Pit Bull Attacks 62-year-old Woman from Newton

When a pit bull attacks serious injury or death is certainly possible. In this dog attack the female pedestrian was jogging in the neighborhood. The dog owner owned three dogs and all three were put to sleep. Luckily a witness happened by and helped the female runner before it more damage. According to reports she was injured. Afterwards the animal control officer took possession of all three dogs and put them down. The witness is lucky he didn't have a heart attack.

Age of Victim: 62-years-old

Dog owner reported to be Tony and Beth Audas

Dog's Name: Rufus

Breed: Pit Bull

Newton Police Department, Officer Lt. Pat Richardson

Witness to Attack: John Jennings

Location: S4th Ave. West and West 4^th Street South, Newton, Iowa.

Outcome: That dog and three others (all pit bulls) were euthanized.

Questions to be answered:

Did the dog's owners carry liability insurance?

Why wasn't the dog chained or in some other way restrained?

---

 

http://www.kcci.com/video/24679214/index.html

Private Railroad Crossings Pose Different Risks for Injury or Death

In other personal injury news a 68-year-old Ryan man died after colliding with two locomotives at a private Canadian National Railroad crossing in northeast Iowa. He is Kenneth Elmer Sweet who lived in rural Iowa near Cedar Rapids in Delaware County. Interesting enough the Iowa Highway Patrol technical investigator is quoted as saying warning signs and flashing lights are not, the big N-O-T, required at private crossings and trains don’t have to sound their horns or whistles at private crossings. Wouldn’t it be nice if warning signs saying this is a private railroad crossing were posted? That way we’d know they weren’t going to warn us before mowing us down.

Is it lights out for the City of Pella Pool Party?

The City of Pella won its lawsuit against Central Electric, Co. but in this case, that win is going to prove to be very expensive. The Knoxville jury came back with an award of $788,000 for damages having to do with the breach of contract claim over the lights, wire and encasings.

Pella’s Public Swimming Pool Inspection Program Drowning in Dutch Pride

wo young boys, Gael Paulettee (also known as Gael Chrispin), 14, and Nehmson Sanon, 15, both from Kansas City, Mo drowned at the Pella city pool last Wednesday. Does the City of Pella lawsuit against City Electric delay they in making the necessary changes that affected safety? Read “The Verdict” today and see if Lombardi’s legal analysis is right on the money.

Youngster Washing Down Horse is Electrocuted in New Lenox

When you're injured or someone is killed by what you think may be a defective product or even on someone's property you need to save or preserve the product. In this instance a young boy was electrocuted by a fan while washing a horse and it provides an opportunity for us to consider how to think about personal injury investigation and how to preserve our potential claims.

No chance of carbon dioxide "poisoning" at Des Moines' Southridge Mall.

So here is today’s legal principle. There are four parts to any lawsuit based on tort principles. A tort is a civil wrong for those of you who are asking, what’s a tort? Those four parts all need to be present for there to be any legal liability. They are a duty, a breach of duty, damages and those damages must be proximately caused by the breach of the duty owed.

Who pays when someone or something is injured or damaged on your property?

So in each of these instances when is the homeowner liable? Either there has to be a "defect" in the property itself or someone with permission to be there has to do something negligent to cause an injury. Just being on someone's property and getting hurt isn't enough for the insurance to cover you under the liability portion of the policy. The medical payments section, which normally has very low limits of coverage, will pay for related medical expense without regard to defects or negligence.

Barn Dismantling Leads to Young Boy Being Injured

Another news story did make the Des Moines Register they discuss a premise liability news story. Apparently a barn in Jones County collapsed and a 12-year-old boy was flown to the hospital. The barn location was Morley. From the report the barn was being dismantled when it collapsed without the adults anticipating it that was about to happen. The boy was inside the structure.

Young children bouncing right out a second story apartment window

With young children parents always have to anticipate the unexpected. Young children, whether bouncing on the bed or climbing on furniture have fallen out open or even screened windows. In today's blog post a very young child fell out the second story window but was seemingly uninjured.

Where did the 3,000 gallons of gas go?

When businesses, like Kum & Go, have gas leaks it sometimes leads to insurance claims by neighbors whose homes surround the store. In this case today there is 3,000 gallons of gasoline missing from the Kum & Go in Centerville, Iowa. But is it in the ground? And why did the tank leak? That's a big assumption because so far no one has been able to show it did leak.

Unkept foreclosed homes create challenge in the City of Des Moines

We need to re-instill pride back into the community but more so into the individual community members. Common sense would be nice too. Get the mayor to call the owner and lender to ask them for the solution. This unkept lawn shouldn't be one more problem that lenders and borrowers create that ends up as a problem the responsible homeowner-taxpayers clean up.

Know the signs of symptoms of formaldehyde poisoning.

How did formaldehyde get inside a bottle of cough syrup? That is the question being asked by Olivia Hawn (18) and the Windsor Heights Police Department. Was it an accident, a mistake, or was someone trying to poison her? The story from the Des Moines Register describes how this student at Vatterott College drank from a cough syrup bottle and a short time later became ill; as a friend was driving her home she stopped talking and then started foaming from the mouth. Emergency responders were called and she ended up in the hospital at Iowa Methodist Medical Center. At the time of that article she was listed in serious condition.

Why is this nursing home being fined $10,000?

Of course you can’t assume the nursing home is automatically at fault for the broken leg. This fine may have nothing to do with how the patient was injured; only about their record keeping. As for who is at fault for the broken leg, that’s a whole other case of course; one separate and distinct from the duty to keep charts current and entries timely. As for the broken leg well that could just be a natural occurrence of aging. Was there trauma to the skin? Was the resident able to walk, prone to falling or even suffering from osteoporosis; a condition in which the bones lose calcium and become brittle?

Is this a property liability case?

Can the owner of a gun be liable if someone helping him move accidentally fires a rifle shooting himself in the leg?

What allows a car to drive into a building?

The lady running Rumors Salon may in the future have a problem with getting customers to sit quietly and not to keep a constant vigilant watch over their shoulders. On April 8, 2010 for the third time a car drove into her salon’s front window. But as you know more facts the story just keeps getting better. The driver, Carol Jane Larpenter, 70-years of age, was driving a Toyota when instead of braking it accelerated while she was parking in the handicap parking space. Follow the link for KCCI’s video clip. The larger video clip doesn’t show any tire stops. The landlord would be wise to install tire stops along the front of that strip mall.

Mailbox bomber still at it.

The mailbox bomber is still at it in West Des Moines, Iowa. Who is it and when will they get caught? Are they kids pranking or is it more serious? Only time will tell.

Deciding Negligence - Faulty Stove versus Poor Judgments

Today's post is about the ATF investigation of the infant death in Newton, Iowa involving the cook stove top with the touch button controls. A father placed his infant on top of the stove in a child seat to protect it from a dog. The rocking of the seat applied pressure to the controls turning the burner on and igniting the cloth and plastic materials which soon engulfed the baby.

Baby Slings - Injuries or death from unexpected falls or suffocation.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued a warning about baby slings. A baby sling is a piece of cloth fashionably designed for carrying an infant across the front of the parent. In the last 20 years there have been 13 infant deaths associated with the slings; so if you're using one know the limits and how accidents can happen. Most of the deaths, 12 to be exact, were babies younger than 4 months of age.

Des Moines' Redbox Robbers

Des Moines, Iowa – Redbox, the DVD kiosk company is attracting a lot of attention on Wall Street. Apparently that’s not all who are paying attention to the company’s product line. Two robbers attacked a man refilling the kiosk. The man, Alex E. Currie was just doing his job of refilling the kiosk when he was attacked by two men who punched him so hard he was temporarily knocked unconscious.

Who is selling counterfeit surgical mesh for hernia and chest wall repairs?

Various sizes of counterfeit flat sheets of polypropylene surgical mesh are being marketed in the United States labeled with the C. R. Bard/Davol brand name. These meshes, specifically identified below, are NOT Bard-manufactured products. Surgical meshes of this kind are used to reinforce soft tissue where weakness exists in the repair of hernias and chest wall defects.

Iowa and Midwest News for the Day - Cisterns, Water Wells and 911 Calls

An elderly woman somehow fell into a well located on her farm and drowned. The Sheriff’s investigation concluded she stepped on the lid, which was very old, it crumpled, giving way and she fell in. This issue has also been covered on this blog. Recall the 4-year-old boy who allegedly moved a 14 pound concrete septic tank lid; I disagreed and opined the lid may have simply flipped after he stood on it. Can a 4-year-old boy move a 14 pound concrete septic tank lid?

A Picture in Your Case is Worth a Thousand Words

A gay porn actor, Dustin Michaels, was pronounced dead this morning at a Florida hospital. The 23-year-old was in the middle of filming a new reality show with Zoo Productions last night, when the cops arrived, responding to a disturbance call.

Georgia - Should the Chatham County Commission, Police and Manager resign?

County government officials in Chatham County, Georgia were meeting to discuss next year’s budget and the issue of appropriating money for Tasers came up. The request was being made by Savannah-Chatham Metro police. The County Manager wanted it demonstrated so he got down on his knees and was Tased in the back. Was this cute or stupid?

Is that deer you shot to eat going to kill you?

An eagle that Eva Cameron of Cedar Falls, Iowa discovered on December 26, 2009 died on the 30th despite her efforts to save its life. Cedar Falls is in Black Hawk County, Iowa where the Black Hawk Wildlife Rehabilitation Project is located. They took the eagle but were unable to do much to save its life. After all lead is poisonous to humans and to eagles. This little bit of news got me thinking about my friends Todd and Kris. Todd is an avid hunter and together they put on the annual wild game barbeque at their home. But this story made me wonder if we are all doing something we need to reconsider. Is eating wild game shot with lead buck shot a good idea?

Olympic Luge Track's Defective Design that led to Kumaritashvili's Death

So here is what I say to the relatives of “Nodar Kumaritashvili, the 21-year-old man who died when he lost control of his sled, flew off the course and slammed into a steel pole at nearly 90 mph.” Sue them, sue the International Olympic Committee, the City of Vancouver and every other organization that inspected and approved the luge design. An idiot could have designed a better track and foreseen this accident happening. They designed a 90-mile-per-hour coffin ride. His death was the result of greed that put aside a faulty design to have the fastest times in the world – the track was designed for speed not the safety of the athletes. Greed to say they had the fastest times because they had the fastest track; not the safest but the fastest. Why the curve allowed a luger to slide off into steel beams is beyond comprehension. The Georgian delegate said it best when he said an athlete’s mistakes shouldn’t get them killed.