Local News Blog | Harrisburg, PA

Trial Court Enforces Non-owned And Regular Use Exclusion For Liability Issue

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on December 19, 2012 in News

Posted on Dec 19, 2012 A trial court in Allegheny County recently addressed an important insurance coverage issue in a case involving a Central Pennsylvania car accident. In USAA Cas. Ins. Co. v. Farnan, No. GD-10-012458 (Allegheny Co. Nov. 7, 2012) the non-owned and regularly used exclusion is asserted in the liability setting. In this […]

PennDOT Centers Closed Christmas, New Year’s

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on December 19, 2012 in News

Posted on Dec 19, 2012 The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation today announced that all driver license and photo centers, including its full-service center in Harrisburg, will be closed Tuesday, Dec. 25, for Christmas and Tuesday, Jan. 1, for the New Year’s holiday. Customers may still obtain a variety of driver and vehicle products and services […]

Centre County Trial Court Denies Insurance Company Motion To Sever UIM and Third Party Case

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on December 18, 2012 in Car Accidents

A Centre County court recently filed an Opinion and Order in a post-Koken case involving a jointly filed third party and underinsured (UIM) motorist case. In Fennessey v. Sweeney and State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, No. 2012-2865 (Centre Co. Dec. 11, 2012) the Plaintiff filed a third party and UIM claim after sustaining injuries […]

Franklin County Head-On Collision On Buchanan Trail West Sends Passenger To Hospital

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on December 17, 2012 in Car Accidents

Posted on Dec 17, 2012 Several people were injured after a crash, December 16, 2012, Sunday afternoon on Buchanan Trail West. Pennsylvania State Police, Chambersburg, said Victoria Knott, no age or address provided, was driving north on Anderson Road Sunday around 4:10 p.m. when she failed to stop at a stop sign and drove into […]

Follow This Rear-End Prevention Strategy for Safe Driving

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on December 17, 2012 in Car Accidents

Rear-end collisions are common in Pennsylvania and in the United States. According to 2011 Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) statistics, 22.2 percent of reportable accidents in the state were rear-end collisions. Recent statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) show that rear-end collisions account for 28 percent of crashes nationwide. While these statistics […]

Discovery of Facebook And Other Social Media In Civil Cases Still Uncertain

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on December 17, 2012 in News

Posted on Dec 17, 2012 From the December 17, 2012 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: By Ben Present / The Legal Intelligencer A Monroe County judge’s recent decision on a discovery motion into a woman’s social media account appears to have deviated from the growing school of thought among Pennsylvania jurists. This decision – and others involving the social media […]

Tort Reform Opinion Paper Simply Not Credible!

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on December 14, 2012 in General

In its annual “Judicial Hellhole” release, the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) removed Philadelphia from the list in response to recent administrative changes enacted by the courts. The removal raises an essential question: If changes to the courts are good news to a group funded by big tobacco, insurance companies, and pharmaceutical firms — as […]

York County School Bus Accident Sends 20 To Hospital

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on December 14, 2012 in News

Posted on Dec 14, 2012 LOWER WINDSOR TOWNSHIP – About 20 York County students were taken to the hospital as a precaution after the school bus they were riding in was struck from behind by a sports utility vehicle this morning. The accident occurred just after 7 a.m. near the intersection of Mount Pisgah Road […]

Injury In Johnstown Police Car Crash

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on December 14, 2012 in Car Accidents

Posted on Dec 14, 2012 A Johnstown officer was hurt after a head on collision in the city’s West End. Johnstown Police Captain Andy Frear said the chase began in Dale Borough when a green stolen car was spotted. That was around 11:00 Thursday morning. The stolen car was in a high speed police pursuit […]

Tractor Trailer Accidents Involving Driver Death Increase

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on December 13, 2012 in Truck Accidents

Posted on Dec 13, 2012 Fatalities involving heavy trucks rose slightly last year. But deaths of those drivers are up sharply. The number of people killed in crashes involving large trucks nationwide grew by 1.9 percent in 2011, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The impact of a fully loaded, […]

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$10,043,952.13 Personal Injury
Schmidt Kramer, P.C.partner Gerard C. Kramer won a personal injury action for $10,043,952.13 in Northumberland County on behalf of a volunteer firefighter who was the victim of Intentional Tort. The 50-year-old volunteer firefighter was seriously injured when a barn collapsed, causing a spinal injury which left him a paraplegic. The claim was brought against the arsonist who intentionally started the fire. It is believed that the verdict is the highest ever in Northumberland County.
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$4,034,000.00 Personal Injury
Yesterday a Judge in Union County (Lewisburg, PA) awarded a couple from New Berlin, Pennsylvania, over $4,000,000 because the husband was shot while turkey hunting.You might ask yourself, how does a turkey hunting accident end up with that type of verdict? In order to understand the verdict you would have to know our clients. They are good people who had their life wrecked. Plus, you would have to know the defendant, who should not have been hunting with a gun because he was prohibited after a previous criminal conviction.It is a good verdict, because the Judge was able to do two things with his decision. First, he communicated to two very good people that their losses were something that those of us on the outside could appreciate and value. Mike Hobbins (our client) is a 51 year old guy who lost his sight because a convicted felon --who should not have even possessed a gun-- went hunting illegally, and broke with impunity the most fundamental rule in hunting: identify your target before you pull the trigger. The Judge accepted the financial loss Mr. Hobbins' suffered, but listened closely to the evidence of less tangible losses. When Mike broke down on the stand, because his daughter would end up walking him down the aisle at her wedding, as opposed to how it was supposed to go, the Judge was listening. When Mike could not keep it together, because of how emasculating it was for him not to be able to provide financially for his family, the Judge was listening. It was facts like these that the Judge cited to support the $2,000,000 award for non-economic damages. Second, the Judge wanted to send a message. Union County is a hunting county. Many of the residents hunt there, and people from outside the area come to Union County to hunt. It was my impression, from the Judge's statements as he rendered his decision, that he wanted to send a message to the people in Union County to protect them in their sport. The rules in place to restrict people convicted of crimes not to have a gun are not to be broken. Hunting is serious and you have to identify your target before you shoot. When you turn your back on the rules that are set to provide safety in a sport, you risk being an example. Here, the $1,000,000 punitive damage award sends that message loud and clear.When it really comes down to brass tacks, the right action was taken against a Defendant who may never truly appreciate what kind of impact his reckless choices caused.At Schmidt Kramer, we are injury lawyers. That means we work with people who were hurt in car accidents, who were hurt by the neglect of nursing homes, or those that were seriously injured because of the reckless, thoughtless acts of others. If you or a loved one have been injured in Pennsylvania, we may be able to help. While the verdict yesterday is not one that is representative of every case we do, it does show that serious and dedicated representation can bring good results.Joe ChapmanJanuary 18, 2013
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$2,200,000.00 Auto Accidents
On Monday, January 6, 2014, Schmidt Kramer accident lawyer Scott Cooper obtained a verdict on behalf of his client who is the widow of a man who died in a fiery crash on Interstate 78 in Lebanon County. The awarded verdict of $2.2 million was in a nonjury proceeding before a federal judge in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. That verdict includes $100,000 in punitive damages assessed against the owner of the trucking company.Kamilah Claxton won summary judgment in November after the defendants, Sukhwinder Singh and the trucking company for which he worked, failed to file a brief in opposition to Claxton's motion, which was made in September. The verdict in Claxton v. Singh was issued after the court held a non-jury assessment of damages earlier this month."Mr. Sukhchan Singh, the employer, is liable on the basis of respondent superior, but was also grossly negligent in failing to maintain his vehicle in compliance with state and federal law, particularly with regard to having required safety inspections and correcting defects in its braking equipment," said U.S. District Judge William W. Caldwell of the Middle District of Pennsylvania in his opinion accompanying the verdict."He was also grossly negligent in entrusting his vehicle to Sukhwinder Singh, an inexperienced truck driver who had failed the written test and driving test multiple times before finally earning his commercial driving license," Caldwell said.
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$1,200,000.00 Personal Injury
A Dauphin County jury has awarded a $1.2 million verdict to the parents of a 5-year-old who had an anoxic brain injury and stopped breathing after he had a tonsillectomy.2012-06-26 10:00:00 AMDate of Verdict: June 19. 2012Court and Case No.: C.P. Dauphin County No. 2009-CV-14003-MMJudge: Scott EvansType of Action: Medical malpracticeInjuries: Anoxic brain injuryPlaintiffs Counsel: Terry S. Hyman, Schmidt Kramer, HarrisburgPlaintiffs Experts: Dr. Anna H. Messner, liability; Lucille Packer, Pediatric Otolaryngology, Palo Alto, Calif.; Terry P. Leslie, vocations and earning capacity, Lancaster; Dr. Hilary B. Berlin, pediatric psychiatry, Great Neck, N.Y.Defense Counsel: Andrew H. Foulkrod, Darlene K. King, Foulkrod Ellis, Camp Hill, PADefense Experts: James C. Reilly, Pediatric Otolaryngology, Wilmington, DEComment: A Dauphin County jury has awarded a $1.2 million verdict to the parents of a 5-year-old who had an anoxic brain injury and stopped breathing after he had a tonsillectomy.The entire verdict came against Dr. Andrew M. Shapiro, the doctor who plaintiffs Reginald Graham and Tykeisha Metz alleged chose to have the boy monitored at a pediatric ward. The plaintiffs argued Shapiro failed to tell nurses caring for the baby about, and how to care for, the boy's enhanced risk for respiratory failure.The jury came back on June 19 and awarded Reginald Graham and Tykeisha Mets $500,000 in non-economic damages and $686,170 in loss of future earning capacity, according to the plaintiffs counsel.According to the statement, the baby's mother brought him to Shapiro because she was "'afraid that he might stop breathing during his sleep,'" the plaintiffs' pretrial statement said. Shapiro performed a sleep study and observed the baby's Apnea Hypopnea Index to be 43 — four times higher than what's considered severe. A tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy were performed.According to the plaintiffs, the baby's sleep study results put him at an increased risk for post-operative respiratory complications. Despite this, they argued in the statement, Shapiro ordered the pediatric nurses at the Harrisburg Hospital general pediatric ward to observe the boy as they would any other patients — about once every four hours.The pretrial statement said that one in four children who have an AHI in the 40s and oxygen desaturation below 80 have some type of respiratory problem. The younger the child, the greater the risk of a respiratory problem, the statement said.According to the statement, Shapiro took off the child's pulse oximeter, the finger-mounted device used to measure blood oxygen, and ordered a heart and respiratory rate monitor. The child was 11 months old at the time.The plaintiffs pled that the baby was last seen at 4 a.m. There was no record of his oxygen saturation for the next hour and 45 minutes. He stopped breathing a 6:40 a.m., and his brain was without oxygen long enough to cause demonstrable injury on an MRI."Immediately prior to his surgery, [the child] was a normal child, who could say mama, eat finger foods, and was just on the verge of walking," the statement said. "After his code, [he] was like a newborn. He could not lift his head or sit up. He could not talk. He could not move."In his pretrial statement, Shapiro argued that he recognized the child's pre-operative sleep study showed he was driven to breath by decreased blood oxygen saturation, which he said was typical in patients with obstructive sleep apnea.He argued the American Academy of Otolaryngology dictates that admission to the intensive care unit is not the standard of care. In the statement, he said nurses did not observe signs of respiratory distress. No alarms sounded until the child arrested, the statement said.He said the baby likely arrested as a result of hypoglycemia and/or an acute aspiration, which he argued would not have been identified by blood oxygen saturation.— Ben Present, of the Law Weekly
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$1,024,040.80 Auto Accidents
Scott Cooper settled a wrongful death case on behalf of the widow of a police office who was killed in a car accident in the line of duty for $1,024,040.80. The claim against the other driver was amicably resolved before suit was filed for the entire available policy limits for the other driver. The case took place in Adams County, PA.
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