Wrongful Death

Two Employees Die In North Carolina Workplace Accident

December 29, 2015 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What qualifies a person to receive Workers’ Compensation benefits?”

It is genuinely tragic to think that someone simply trying to earn a living and provide for their family might leave for work in the morning and not make it home in the evening. Fortunately, the frequency with which such tragedies occur has decreased over the past several decades thanks to increasingly tough regulations and enforcement by federal and state workplace safety agencies. Though things have improved, it’s important to remember that hundreds of people die across the country each and every year due to lapses of workplace safety procedures, meaning hundreds of families suffer through the loss of a loved one who was only trying get to work.

Daughter of actor Paul Walker sues Porsche over father’s death

October 8, 2015 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What exactly is a wrongful death claim?”

It has been nearly two years since the untimely death of actor Paul Walker. Best known for his role as Brian O’Conner in the “Fast and the Furious” franchise, Walker was killed in a car crash in Santa Clarita, California in November 2013.

Lawsuit accuses two Chapel Hill bars of negligence in I-85 crash involving underage UNC student

September 4, 2015 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Lawyer Matt Arnold answers the question “What if the accident was my fault?”

Lawyers representing the victims of a fatal crash on I-85 near Chapel Hill have added two businesses as named defendants to their lawsuit. The crash occurred when a 20-year-old UNC student, Chandler Kania, collided head on with a vehicle on I-85 while traveling in the wrong direction on the interstate. The crash occurred at 3:00 a.m., killing three and leaving a nine-year-old girl as the only survivor in the victims’ car.

Pair of 2008 “scared-to-death” cases draw to a close, seven years on

May 28, 2015 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question ” Is a tractor-trailer accident the same as an automobile accident?”

The estate of a Michigan man who suffered a fatal heart attack after being frightened to death when he ran into the back of a truck in Dearborn, Michigan in 2008 has settled a lawsuit brought against the trucking company that owned the truck for $300,000.

Officials looking for person who decapitated couple’s service dog

May 5, 2015 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What exactly is a wrongful death claim?”

Police are looking for someone who decapitated a thirteen-year-old deaf-and-blind service dog.

Grocery chain responsible for boy’s food-allergy death, lawsuit claims

March 26, 2015 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What if a loved one dies from the injuries sustained in a serious accident while the case is pending?”

A family whose eleven-year-old son passed away last year after eating a chocolate-chip cookie from a Publix Super Market in Clarksville, Tennessee is suing the grocery chain seeking unspecified damages, according to the Daily Mail.

Woman representing late husband’s estate sues herself over accident that killed him

March 3, 2015 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What exactly is a wrongful death claim?”

Woman causes husband’s death, sues herself for negligence, wins, then pays herself the money. If one believes the headline, it is true. A closer look reveals the headline is only partially true.

On December 27, 2011, Barbara Bagley lost control of the vehicle she was driving in a Nevada desert and struck a sagebrush, causing her car to flip over. Her husband, who was a passenger in the vehicle, passed away nearly two weeks later as a result of injuries sustained in the crash.

Bagley became the personal representative of her late husband’s estate, meaning she is the person empowered by law to collect her late husband’s assets, pay claims of his creditors, and distribute proceeds of the estate to heirs.

Part of the assets of an estate—depending on the state in which one resides—are proceeds from claims that were filed or may have been filed before or after a person’s death.

Gym-mat death spawns two million-dollar lawsuits, so far

February 26, 2015 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What exactly is a wrongful death claim?”

The death of a Georgia teen found in a rolled-up high school gym mat two years ago has spawned both a $100-million wrongful-death lawsuit and a $1 million defamation countersuit by three defendants in the wrongful-death action.

Kenneth and Jacquelyn Johnson filed the wrongful death suit against thirty-eight defendants after their 17-year-old son, Kendrick Johnson, was found dead in a rolled-up gym mat at his Valdosta, Georgia high school in January 2013. Johnson was found upside-down in the matt, which was rolled up and stacked vertically, in what officials have insisted was a freak accident, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.

In the lawsuit, the Johnsons suggest that Federal Bureau of Investigations agent Rick Bell and his two sons—Brian and Branden—were responsible for Kendrick Johnson’s death.

The Johnsons filed suit in Superior Court in DeKalb County, Georgia near the second anniversary of their son’s death. In their lawsuit, they alleged that the Bell brothers sought revenge against Kendrick after one of the boys fought with him. The Johnsons alleged that the boys’ father, Rick, commanded them to assault Kendrick Johnson.

N.C. among minority of states continuing to install deadly guardrails on state highways

February 17, 2015 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What if a loved one dies from the injuries sustained in a serious accident while the case is pending?”

State officials have rebuffed calls to stop installing guardrails that activists say have caused dozens of deaths and injuries in accidents across the United States. California became the 41^st state to ban the guardrails this week after a Texas jury levied a mammoth fraud verdict against the company that makes the guardrails.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation is aware of safety concerns raised about the ET-Plus end terminals, but the agency said it is leaving the decision of whether to pull the terminals from state highways to federal officials.

NCDOT spokesman Steve Abbott said his department has not seen any evidence of the end terminals’ danger, despite its awareness of “a couple of incidents.”

On Wednesday, federal regulators approved new safety testing of the end terminals. The NCDOT said it will await the results of new safety testing before making a decision on removing the terminals.

Even if the agency does decide to remove ET-Plus end terminals that have already been installed, it has not kept a database of the locations of the terminals. The state has installed different types of guardrails in different locations throughout the state, and the NCDOT has not kept track of which guardrails are where.

Pop Warner youth-football-concussion law suit first of many, lawyer says

February 10, 2015 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What exactly is a wrongful death claim?”

Joseph Chernach started playing in a Pop Warner football league in 1997, when he was eleven-years-old. By the time he stopped playing three years later, his brain had been so badly damaged by repetitive trauma that as a young man, he developed a form of dementia only normally seen in much older adults.

Chernach’s troubles began during his sophomore year at Central Michigan University. His mother, Debra Pyka, told the Daily Mail that Chernach’s behavior began to grow “increasingly bizarre.” Eventually, he stopped attending university classes and began living with his brother and some friends.

“He just could not stay in one place at once,” Pyka said. Chernach became moody, paranoid and distrustful even of close friends and family. On June 6, 2012, he committed suicide in his mother’s shed. An autopsy revealed that Chernach had suffered from a degenerative brain disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy and post-concussion syndrome.

Following Chernach’s death, Pyka brought a wrongful death lawsuit against the organizer of the youth football leagues where she claims her son sustained his brain injuries.