Already on the hook for the lion’s share of a $17.7 million judgment and waiting for a decision from a jury that was out considering punitive damages, Ford Motor Co. decided to settle with a couple who sued following a Christmas 2005 wreck that left the woman paralyzed.

The agreement came after a Clayton County, Ga., jury ordered Ford on Dec. 18 to pay more than $16 million of the judgment to compensate for what the plaintiffs argued were design defects in the 2002 Explorer sport utility vehicle in which the woman was a passenger.

Lynn Wheeler, then 58, was seated in the back seat between her two grandchildren, who were in booster seats, as her son drove to church that morning along Noah’s Ark Road in Clayton County . . . Wheeler, who was restrained only by a lap belt, slammed forward and down as the rear seat latch failed, and it collapsed on her.

“As a result,” says the pre-trial order, “Lynn Wheeler’s head and neck were driven down and forward into the front seat and/or center console, catastrophically injuring her spinal cord.”

* * *

The complaint asserted that the automaker’s design for both the rear seat latch and decision to install a lap belt rather than a three-point shoulder belt constituted negligence, and it also said Ford should have warned the Wheelers and the general public “of the dangers in a reasonably foreseeable collision presented by the design of the Ford Explorer rear seat, occupant restraint system and surrounding structures.”

If you or a loved one have been injured due to a product defect such as a poorly designed restraint system, please call the Keating, O’Gara Law Firm at 888/234-0621 for a free consultation.

From the Lincoln Journal Star:

Sides settle in abortion lawsuit
BY CLARENCE MABIN / Lincoln Journal Star
Tuesday, May 27, 2008 – 06:39:34 pm CDT

Planned Parenthood of Nebraska & Council Bluffs and a Nebraska woman have reached a confidential settlement in a medical malpractice lawsuit against the organization.

Attorneys for Planned Parenthood and the woman, identified in the lawsuit as Jane Roe, filed papers in Lancaster County District Court last week seeking dismissal of the claim with prejudice. Dismissing a case with prejudice means the plaintiff cannot raise the claim again.

James Snowden, attorney for Planned Parenthood, said the settlement was a compromise and involved no admission of liability or fault.

The woman’s attorney, Jefferson Downing of Lincoln, declined to elaborate.

“All I can say is, the case has been resolved,” he said. “I really can’t make any comment beyond that.”

In the lawsuit, the woman said she had an emergency hysterectomy because of an abortion at the Lincoln Planned Parenthood clinic on Aug. 16. According to the suit, she lost four liters of blood and experienced intense pain.

She sued Planned Parenthood and Dr. Meryl Severson in Lancaster County District Court last year. Earlier this year, attorneys in the case agreed to dismiss Severson as a defendant.

The woman was seeking $38,850 for past medical expenses and unspecified damages for physical pain and mental suffering, permanent injury and lost income.

Lincoln Right to Life spokeswoman Sandra Danek said the settlement will spare Planned Parenthood and Severson from public scrutiny of what she contends are unsafe medical practices at the clinic.

“I will say, Lincoln Right to Life would be concerned that Planned Parenthood of Lincoln and Mr. Severson are not being held to public scrutiny in this case,” Danek said Tuesday. “There are women going in there believing it’s safe.

“My question is, is it safe?”

Chris Funk, Planned Parenthood president and chief executive officer, said it is.

“For over 60 years, Planned Parenthood has provided high- quality contraceptive and reproductive health care to tens of thousands of men, women and teens in Nebraska and Council Bluffs,” Funk said.

“Contrary to what Lincoln Right to Life would like people to believe, the health and safety of our patients is always a top priority.”

Planned Parenthood suspended abortions several weeks ago, but is expected to resume offering the procedure in the coming weeks, Funk said.

Danek questioned the timing of the suspension, but Funk said it was unrelated to the malpractice claim.

“It had nothing to do with the lawsuit,” she said.

State rejects blame for stoplight problem
BY MARTHA STODDARD
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU

LINCOLN — The State Roads Department has changed nothing in its procedures for dealing with traffic signal problems since a malfunctioning signal cost a Schuyler youth his ability to walk, use both arms, see clearly and live independently.

The accident also is costing the state $9.9 million, a record amount for an injury lawsuit in Nebraska. The settlement was announced last week.

Mary Jo Hall, spokeswoman for the Nebraska Department of Roads, said roads officials continue to believe they did everything they could to prevent the Valentine’s Day 1999 accident.

“We stand by our safety methods, our procedures, and always ask that people drive carefully,” Hall said.

While the Roads Department says it did nothing wrong, two state lawmakers question the department’s response. The attorney for the victim is contending that the state is not following nationally accepted protocols.

In July, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that the Roads Department was at fault for not fixing the traffic light at the intersection of U.S. Highway 30 and Nebraska Highway 15 in Schuyler, despite repeated complaints that it flashed green in conflicting directions at the same time.

Jacob Wagner, then 16, was driving his car south when a westbound semitrailer truck owned by Metz Baking Co. hit him. Witnesses said the light was displaying green to both southbound and westbound traffic when the crash occurred.

After losing before the Supreme Court, the state settled with Wagner and his mother, Gail Fickle, on compensation for Wagner’s injuries.

The $9.9 million settlement will come out of the Roads Department’s state funds, which come from fuel taxes, sales taxes on motor vehicles and motor vehicle registration fees.

Wagner suffered severe brain damage. After years of therapy, he remains unable to walk. He has no use of one arm and limited use of the other. He has double vision and difficulty speaking.

State Sen. Arnie Stuthman of Platte Center, vice chairman of the Legislature’s Transportation and Telecommunications Committee, said the Roads Department’s failure to change procedures concerns him.

After getting multiple reports of problems, the department should have done more to find out why there was a malfunction in the traffic light, he said.

“In my opinion, the state should make sure that they (the lights) work and really monitor them,” Stuthman said.

Another committee member, Sen. Dwite Pedersen of Omaha, said the Roads Department should be looking into what went wrong and who dropped the ball. Ultimately, he said, the responsibility lies with the Governor’s Office, which oversees the department.

Hall said that because the department believes there was no wrongdoing on its part, no disciplinary action was taken against any employee.

Jen Rae Hein, a spokeswoman for Gov. Dave Heineman, offered no additional comments to those from the roads officials.

She referred questions to state Risk Manager Laura Peterson, who said: “I think we would categorize this as an extraordinarily unfortunate accident, but not a failure of the system.”

Sen. Deb Fischer of Valentine, chairwoman of the Transportation Committee, said she doesn’t know the specifics of the Wagner case but her experience has been that the Roads Department is responsive to citizens’ concerns.

Wagner’s family also settled with the City of Schuyler and with the trucking company, bringing the total settlement to more than $10 million. Lincoln attorney Doug Peterson said confidentiality agreements bar him from revealing the exact figure.

The $9.9 million portion appears to be a record for an injury lawsuit against the state, said both Doug Peterson and Laura Peterson, who are not related.

State officials agreed to the settlement after the Nebraska Supreme Court refused the state’s motion for a rehearing in the case.

In the trial, four members of the public said they noticed the malfunctioning light in 1998 and 1999 and reported it to the state. A Roads Department employee confirmed receiving two of those complaints.

Department employees said they found nothing wrong when they observed the signal. The department also presented evidence that workers had corrected other problems with the signal during the six months before the accident.

Wagner’s attorney said the Roads Department replaced the signal cabinet the year following the accident, but there had been at least one complaint about conflicting green lights since then.

Kevin Domogalla, operations and maintenance manager for the Roads Department district that includes Schuyler, said he couldn’t recall any reports of problems with the light during the year and a half he has held the job.

Wagner’s attorney said his clients had hoped the case would prompt state officials to change how they respond to reports of highway problems.

Doug Peterson said national standards on dealing with traffic light issues call for states to have a central number for people to report problems and for collecting detailed information from those people.

The standards also call for a signal technician to respond and open up the traffic-signal cabinet for all calls of conflicting green lights.

“They are not following industry standards,” Doug Peterson said. “It would seem that, after an accident this serious, to choose to operate in the same way is shocking.”

Hall said safety is a top priority for the department and reports of problems are always checked out but, in this case, those checks never revealed a malfunction.

“We at the Department of Roads sympathize with the Fickle family,” she said. “We hope the settlement proceeds will enable Jacob to receive the medical care that he needs.”

On Friday, December 7, 2007, Colfax County District Court Judge, Mary Gilbride, entered an Order approving a $9,900,000 settlement between the State of Nebraska and Gail Fickle, on behalf of her son, Jacob Wagner.

The settlement follows the July 20, 2007 opinion issued by the Nebraska Supreme Court which upheld the finding of liability against the State of Nebraska as a result of a defective traffic signal on Highway 30 and 15 in Schuyler, Nebraska, and the resulting accident on February 14, 1999. This amount, in addition to payments by other parties, brings the total settlement of this case to over $10,000,000.

According to Gail Fickle: “This has been a very long process when you consider that the accident occurred back in February of 1999, but we are very pleased to finally get the matter resolved so that we can now put the case behind us and continue to focus on providing for Jake’s future.”

The Fickles’ attorney, Doug Peterson, from the firm of Keating, O’Gara, Nedved and Peter stated: “We were very pleased that we were able to sit down with the State and get this matter resolved. Settling the case in this way was in everyone’s best interest. Our hope is that procedures have been improved to make sure that a tragedy like this does not happen again.”

Gail Fickle is currently trying to find facilities in Nebraska that will meet Jake’s medical and therapy needs. Jake is excited at the prospect of being closer to home so that he can see more of his family and friends. Gail wants especially to thank those people who were courageous enough to come forward with information about the malfunctioning lights and their willingness to testify at trial.

From the Lincoln Journal Star:

Accident victim still waiting for state to pay claim
BY JoANNE YOUNG / Lincoln Journal Star
Tuesday, Feb 26, 2008 – 09:29:44 am CST

SCHUYLER – Jake Wagner was 16 when he drove through the main intersection in Schuyler nine years ago on a Sunday evening – Valentine’s Day.

He has no memory of it, though, because as he and three friends headed south on that warm, clear night, to Glorimar’s cafe, a semitrailer truck slammed into the Buick Sentry he was driving, pushing it more than half a block west, leaving him with a critical head injury.

Witnesses said the traffic signal had malfunctioned, giving green lights to both Wagner and the driver of the semi, owned by Metz Baking Co. They said many people had called in complaints about the light malfunctioning for months before the crash.

The state has denied claims filed by Wagner’s Lincoln attorney, Doug Peterson, for years, but last year the state Supreme Court ordered the state to pay Wagner $9.9 million, nearly triple what had originally been ordered by a Colfax County District Court.

The award was among the largest publicly announced awards in the state. Some settled amounts are not disclosed because of confidentially agreements, but it was the largest ever against the state Department of Roads.

Wagner, now 25, still hasn’t seen the money. The Legislature must first approve the claim, which was heard Monday by the Business and Labor Committee. It has not yet acted to send the claim to the full Legislature.

Wagner’s mother, Gail Fickle, said people in Schuyler continue to tell her the light is still malfunctioning.

Mary Jo Hall, spokeswoman for the Department of Roads, said the Schuyler signal lights have become somewhat of a community legend, that the department’s research shows the lights work-they always have.

Fickle begs to differ.

The telephone rang shortly after 10 p.m. that night at the Fickle home. Gail and her husband had just returned from a Valentine dinner in Columbus and he reached for the phone.

“I said, ‘That’s Jake. Tell him no. He has to get home,’” she said.

But the caller wasn’t Jake. It was the call no parent ever wants to get – someone telling a mother to come immediately to the hospital.

They arrived minutes before he did, then heard the whoosh of the emergency room doors as the gurney pushed through and Fickle saw her son, lying so still, his arm flopping over the side.

“He looked like he was gone,” she said. “I said ‘Oh, dear God,’ and slid down the wall.”

A helicopter picked him up a few minutes later to take him to an Omaha hospital. His mother was unsure if he would make it there alive. He did, and he lived to the next morning, and another day and another.

He was semiconscious several months, then spent many more months in a rehabilitation hospital. Eventually, he was moved to another rehabilitation facility in Sheldon, Iowa, where he stayed for six years, his care paid for by Medicaid.

But last August, he was sent home, and his mother was told she needed to find a place in Nebraska to care for Jake. The family tried several nursing homes, but they weren’t the right fit for a 25-year-old who could get around in a wheelchair and needed the company of others his age as much as he needed daily care.

He’s been at home for more than a month. His mom takes care of him, but must work, too, and arrange for people to come and check on him hourly. He’s 6 feet tall and weighs over 185 pounds, and it’s difficult to help move him around. She’s fallen with him at least once.

Wagner still has trouble with speech, balance, feeding himself. He has only some use of his left arm and no use of the right.

He loves the outdoors, used to go fishing, hunting, trapping, skiing. Now he goes out in his wheelchair when the weather is nice. And he rides along when his stepdad goes hunting and trapping. Otherwise, his entertainment is the television.

“It’s not the best setup in the world, but we make do with what we can,” his mother said. “He needs to be somewhere that has activities for a young person. … Hopefully, this money should be a tremendous help to make his quality of life better.”

Fickle said she’s still concerned about the lights where Nebraska 15 intersects with 16th Street, which is also U.S. 30, in the middle of town.

Even though the state maintained conflicting green lights could not occur, attorney Peterson found witnesses who said they had seen it. And one man who had been sitting in the convenience store on the northeast corner of the intersection testified he saw the green lights at the time of the crash.

Dan Waddle, state traffic engineer, said every time the state has responded to a complaint, no problem was observed. The signals also test correctly.

The signals at the Schuyler intersection were changed a few years ago as part of a scheduled replacement and upgrade, Waddle said.

If the signal’s conflict monitor picks up a potential problem, he said, the lights go immediately into flashing red mode, or flashing red in one direction and flashing yellow in the other.

Conflict monitors are tested annually, he said.

Some people have questioned whether the state has a good process for handling traffic light complaints, since many complaints were said to have been reported before the accident.

Waddle said the state has a system for documenting complaints that come in to district sites and maintenance yards. And roads employees keep track of work done on traffic signal boxes by marking the inside of cabinet doors.

The state has plans to create an 800 number for traffic signal complaints. He wasn’t specific about when the number would be operational.

“It should be soon,” he said.

From the Omaha World Herald:

State agrees to pay $9.9 million to victim of Schuyler car crash
BY MARTHA STODDARD
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU

LINCOLN – Jacob Wagner of Schuyler, Neb., will receive $9.9 million from the State of Nebraska for injuries suffered in a crash blamed on a malfunctioning traffic signal.

The amount is part of a settlement reached between the state and Wagner’s mother, Gail Fickle. It was announced Thursday by Fickle’s attorney, Doug Peterson of Lincoln.

The settlement appears to be a record for an injury lawsuit against the state, said attorney Peterson and the state’s risk manager, Laura Peterson.

The state paid $3.4 million in connection with a 2001 Seward school bus crash on West Dodge Road that killed four people and injured 27. With payouts from all parties, including insurance companies, the total in that case was more than $12 million.

The state agreed to the Wagner settlement after losing twice before the Nebraska Supreme Court.

The high court ruled July 20 that the Department of Roads was at fault for not fixing the traffic light despite repeated complaints that it displayed green in several directions at the same time.

In that ruling, the court said Wagner may need more than $9 million to compensate him and his mother for medical bills, future lost earnings and pain and suffering. In September, the court refused the state’s motion for a rehearing in the matter.

Officials at the Roads Department did not return calls seeking comment on whether they have changed policies and procedures in response to the accident.

Wagner suffered severe brain damage in the Feb. 14, 1999, crash. Even after years of therapy, he is unable to walk. He has no use of one arm and limited use of the other. He has double vision and difficulty speaking.

Witnesses said the traffic light at U.S. Highway 30 and Nebraska Highway 15 in Schuyler was displaying green to southbound and westbound traffic at the time of the crash.

Wagner, then 16, was driving his car south when he was hit by a westbound semitrailer truck owned by Metz Baking Co. Three passengers in Wagner’s vehicle were not seriously injured.

The family already has settled with the City of Schuyler and with the trucking company, bringing the total settlement to more than $10 million. Peterson said confidentiality agreements bar him from revealing the exact figure.

Fickle said Thursday that she is trying to find a place in Nebraska where Wagner can live and that meets his medical and rehabilitation needs. She said her son is excited at the prospect of being closer to family and friends.

Wagner had been living at Village Northwest Unlimited in Sheldon, Iowa. He is staying temporarily at a nursing home in Sargent, Neb.

Earlier, she said that the money from the state would give her son more options in life, including getting medical care that Medicaid might not pay for and a new wheelchair van for the family.

It also might buy a specially modified four-wheeler that would allow Wagner to get back outdoors. Before the accident, Wagner had loved hunting, fishing and being outdoors.

Fickle said she appreciated the people who were willing to come forward and testify about the malfunctioning lights.

According to evidence at the trial, three Roads Department employees said they had been told of the problem although they found nothing wrong when they checked the signal.

Four members of the public said they noticed the problem in September and October 1998 and reported it to the state. A Roads Department employee confirmed receiving two of those complaints.

Con M. Keating and Gary J. Nedved Named Super Lawyers**

Con M. Keating and Gary J. Nedved have been listed in the Great Plains Super Lawyers 2007®. Super Lawyers recognizes outstanding lawyers from more than 60 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. Only the top 5% of attorneys in each state are identified, as chosen by their peers and through the independent research of Law & Politics.

Con Keating was selected in the “Alternative Dispute Resolution” category for his outstanding work in the areas of mediation and arbitration. After trying cases on behalf of plaintiffs and the defense for 30 years, Con is now one of the most seasoned and respected mediators in Nebraska.

Gary Nedved was selected as a Super Lawyer in the “Plaintiff Personal Injury” category. Mr. Nedved has tried more than 100 jury trials and helped hundreds of injured people find justice. As a result of his vast trial experience, Gary has been inducted into a number of prestigous organizations including the American College of Trial Attorneys and the American Board of Trial Advocates.

The objective of Super Lawyers 2007®is to create a credible, comprehensive and diverse listing of outstanding attorneys that can be used as a resource to assist attorneys and sophisticated consumers in the search for legal counsel.

Super Lawyers are evaluated on 12 indicators of peer recognition and professional achievement. Lawyers are not allowed to pay a fee to be listed.

**Disclaimer: the designation of “Super Lawyer” is not meant to be a representation of ability nor a guarantor of results. This website is an advertisement of Keating, O’Gara, Nedved & Peter, P.C., L.L.O.

The suit was filed against Planned Parenthood of Nebraska and Council Bluffs and Dr. Meryl Severson and alleges that on August 17th, a 40 year old woman went to the Planned Parenthood South Street Center in Lincoln, Nebraska for an abortion.

The Lincoln Journal Star story from Saturday, September 1^st:

Woman alleges medical malpractice after abortion
By CLARENCE MABIN / Lincoln Journal Star
Saturday, Sep 01, 2007 – 12:11:39 am CDT

A 40-year-old Nebraska woman said in a lawsuit filed Friday that she had an emergency hysterectomy because of a botched abortion at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Lincoln last month.

The woman, who is not named in the lawsuit, said she lost four liters of blood — the equivalent of 80 percent of the average woman’s blood volume, according to the lawsuit — and that the procedure caused her excruciating pain.

Lincoln attorney Jefferson Downing, who filed the lawsuit in Lancaster County District Court, as well as a complaint with the Nebraska Health and Human Services Department on behalf of the woman, said his client felt violated by the treatment she received at the clinic.

“Our client has filed these complaints to bring to light the negligent actions of Planned Parenthood and Dr. (Meryl) Severson,” Downing said in a prepared statement.

He said the woman is identified as Jane Roe in the lawsuit to protect her privacy. He declined to provide any information about her outside of statements in the complaint.

Downing has taken an active role in pro-life causes. In 2001, he was among a group of attorneys representing members of a pro-life group that staged pickets outside Westminster Presbyterian Church in Lincoln because Dr. Winston Crabb, a church elder, performed abortions in Lincoln and Omaha.

The picketers, members of Omaha-based Rescue the Heartland, raised a First Amendment challenge in U.S. District Court to a city ordinance on picketing.

On Friday, Downing downplayed the relevance of his personal views on abortion in regard to the Planned Parenthood lawsuit. He said the woman contacted his law firm through the Lincoln Yellow Pages.

The lawsuit names as defendants Planned Parenthood of Nebraska and Council Bluffs and Dr. Meryl Severson of Omaha.

Chris Funk, president and chief operating officer for Planned Parenthood, said Friday she was unaware of the lawsuit and declined comment.

Severson could not be reached.

He resigned from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in March 2001 after performing an elective abortion in 2000 in violation of university policy. He joined Planned Parenthood in May 2001.

The plaintiff is claiming negligence and battery in the lawsuit, and is seeking $36,850 for past medical expenses and unspecified damages for physical pain and mental suffering, permanent injury and lost income.

Neither defendant is covered by protections under the Nebraska Hospital-Medical Liability Act, which sets limits on damage amounts, the lawsuit said.

According to the lawsuit, the woman was about eight weeks pregnant when she contacted Planned Parenthood in July and scheduled an abortion at the South Street Center.

The woman and a friend arrived at the clinic at 9 a.m. Aug. 17, and, according to the suit, the woman had an ultrasound, which indicated a tilted uterus.

After a wait of several hours, the woman was taken to an examination room and given an injection in her cervix, the lawsuit said. She then heard a suction sound, felt pressure in the uterus and “immediately complained of excruciating pain.”

When she told Severson and the attendants to stop, the suit said, the doctor replied, “We can’t stop.” Three employees then held the woman down while Severson completed the suction, according to the lawsuit.

Afterward, the woman felt sharp pain, nausea and was bleeding, the lawsuit said. While in the recovery area, her friend tried to help her to a bathroom, but she passed out, fell to the floor and suffered the first of three seizures, the lawsuit said.

Lincoln Fire and Rescue was dispatched to the clinic, and took her to BryanLGH Medical Center East.

A signed operative report from a physician at the hospital said the woman had experienced a “catastrophic perforation” of the uterus during the abortion. Downing provided a copy of the report in which the doctor’s name was blacked out.

Because of the “extensive nature of the trauma,” the report said, the physician summoned a second doctor and they performed an emergency hysterectomy on the woman. The doctors took photographs of the uterus to show the damage, according to the lawsuit.

“Had she not received emergency care when she did, it is my professional opinion that the patient could have hemorrhaged to death,” the doctor said in a signed summary provided by Downing.

The district court complaint is viewable here: complaint.pdf

If you have been injured due to medical malpractice, call Keating, O’Gara, Nedved, & Peter at 888/234-0621 or fill out the “Contact Us” form in the upper left-hand portion of this page. Your first consultation is free.

Click here for update:
Keating, O’Gara Announces $10,000,000 Settlement in Fickle v. State of Nebraska

Doug Peterson of Keating, O’Gara, Nedved, & Peter recently received some great news for his clients Jake Wagner (pictured at left) and Gail Fickle, Jake’s mom.

On July 20th, the Nebraska Supreme Court handed down a historic decision in Fickle v. State of Nebraska which involved a 1999 accident wherein Jake was catastrophically injured due to the negligence of the State in failing to remove or repair a traffic signal in Schuyler, Nebraska which was known to produce conflicting green lights.

In the original trial, the judge found that Jake, who has been left permanently disabled and confined to a wheelchair due to his injuries, and his mother, Gail Fickle, who brought the case on his behalf, had suffered damages in excess of four million dollars. The State had appealed arguing that it was not liable for the accident.

The Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed the finding of the trial court that the State was, in fact, liable because it had notice of the dangerous double-green malfunction. The Court also found that the damages were insufficient and must be increased in a retrial of the damages issues.

In a rare move, the Court ordered in its opinion that the future medical damages and lost income damages should be in excess of $8,500,000. In addition, the Court stated that the past and future pain and suffering damages which the trial court fixed at $500,000 were clearly inadequate and “did not bear a reasonable relationship to the injuries Wagner sustained.” The Court ordered that the case be remanded to the trial judge for a further hearing on damages.

The case represents the largest award for personal injuries ever rendered against the State of Nebraska Department of Roads and one of the biggest Nebraska verdicts for personal injuries.

If you have been injured due to the negligence of another, call the experienced personal injury attorneys of Keating, O’Gara, Nedved, & Peter at 888/234-0621 or fill out the “Contact Us” form in the upper left-hand portion of this page.

Court: Judgment was insufficient
By Leslie Reed, Omaha World Herald, July 20, 2007

LINCOLN — A Schuyler man said Friday’s Nebraska Supreme Court ruling represents justice for the “hell” he said his life has been since Valentine’s Day 1999.

That’s when a crash caused by a malfunctioning stoplight turned Jacob Wagner, then 16, from someone who loved hunting and fishing and being outdoors into a person who will require 24-hour care for the rest of his life.

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court said Wagner may need more than $9 million to compensate him and his mother, Gail Fickle of Schuyler, for medical bills, future lost earnings and pain and suffering.

That amount is more than twice what a lower court had ordered the Nebraska Department of Roads to pay for not fixing the light.

“It’s Nebraska’s fault I’m in this wheelchair,” Wagner said at a press conference in his attorney’s office after the ruling. “I was happy because that told me that me and (attorney) Doug (Peterson) had beat the big boys.”

Wagner suffered severe brain damage in the crash, which has left him — even after years of therapy — with difficulty speaking, limited use of one arm and no use of the other, double vision and unable to walk.

Fickle said the additional damages would give her son options he might not have had otherwise. He can get medical care that Medicaid might not have paid for. The family can get a new wheelchair van.

He might even get a specially modified four-wheeler that would enable him to get back outdoors.

The award also will ensure that he continues to get care for life, Fickle said. Doctors have said he may live into his 60s.

“It’s been a long, hard haul,” she said. The accident “just shattered our lives.”

Witnesses said the traffic light at U.S. Highway 30 and Nebraska Highway 15 in Schuyler was simultaneously displaying green to southbound and westbound traffic at the time of the crash.

Wagner was driving his car south when a westbound semitrailer truck owned by Metz Baking Co. hit him. Three passengers in Wagner’s vehicle were not seriously injured.

Peterson, Wagner’s attorney, said his clients hope the case will prompt state officials to change how they respond to reports of highway problems.

“What makes this so tragic is the state had notice of the problem. Jake’s injuries are a byproduct of their neglect,” Peterson said.

In a statement, Roads Department officials said they were analyzing the decision and reviewing their options. They declined to comment further.

The Attorney General’s Office also declined to comment on the decision.

The Supreme Court agreed that the Roads Department was at fault for not fixing the traffic light despite repeated complaints that it showed green in conflicting directions at the same time.

The ruling sent the case back to Colfax County District Court to recalculate damages.

“We conclude that the evidence supports a finding that Wagner will suffer a much greater amount of future economic damages than was awarded by the district court,” said the opinion written by Judge John Wright.

The court also concluded that Wagner’s pain and suffering award — set by District Judge Mary Gilbride at $500,000 — was insufficient.

“Wagner’s injuries were catastrophic and permanent and the award of $500,000 for noneconomic damages does not fairly and reasonably compensate him for his pain and suffering,” Wright wrote.

According to evidence at the trial, three Roads Department employees said they had been told of the problem — although they found nothing wrong when they checked the signal.

Four members of the public said they noticed the problem in September and October 1998 and reported it to the state. A Roads Department employee confirmed receiving two of those complaints.

In defending the department, the Attorney General’s Office said that some maintenance had been performed on the light in August 1998 and that the department had not been notified that the light was malfunctioning on the day of the crash.

Reprinted with permission from the Omaha World Herald.
(This article may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or distributed for any other purpose without further permission from the Omaha World Herald. Copyright ©2007 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved.)

Links: read the full decision here.

. . . or sharpened pencils is a bad idea. So far as I know, this personal injury did not result in a lawsuit–just this fascinating x-ray:

A woman in Germany who has spent 55 years with part of a pencil inside her head has finally had it removed.

Margret Wegner fell over carrying the pencil when she was four. It punctured her cheek and part of it went into her brain, above the right eye.

The 59-year-old has suffered headaches and nosebleeds for most of her life.

Surgeons in Berlin were able to remove most of the pencil in a two-hour operation, but a 2cm section was so embedded it was impossible to remove.

Professor Hans Behrbohm, a specialist in endoscopic sinus surgery at the Berlin-Weissensee clinic, carried out the operation and said Mrs Wegner was now mobile and not experiencing any pain.

“The central part of the foreign body was encapsulated in soft tissue and was not causing the patient any harm, so it was safe to leave it,” he told the BBC News website.

“This was a difficult area to operate on but modern medical techniques meant it was a calculated danger.

“She no longer has a headache and will be able to smell again. Her olfactory senses had been blocked by polyps.”

The pencil measured 8cm (3.1 inches) long, and had narrowly missed damaging an optical nerve. At the time of the accident doctors said it would be too dangerous to operate because it was so close to the brain.

Dr Behrbohm said he was able to carry out the procedure using a 3D reconstruction of Mrs Wegner’s interior skull, and an endoscopic surgical system which allowed him to open the frontal sinus, which had suffered serious inflammation.

Mrs Wegner’s husband, Ulli Wegner, a boxing coach, praised his wife’s bravery and said she is making a good recovery.

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) stresses the importance of protective gear while engaging in a particularly new phenomenon…heeling. Heeleys – also known as roller shoes or street gliders – are shoes that have a wheel on the heel. These types of shoes fall into the category of inline skates which qualifies them as a sport, and carries warnings for their use including wearing protective gear such as wrist guards and helmets to avoid injuries.

According to James H. Beaty, MD, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon and president of AAOS, “Orthopaedic surgeons are in fact seeing children come into their practices with injuries due to heeleys, mostly of a fracture-type within the hand, wrist or elbow.”

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission now reports over 1,600 emergency room visits in 2006 due to wheel and roller shoes.

If you or a loved one have been injured due to a dangerous product, please call Keating, O’Gara, Nedved & Peter at 888/234-0621 or fill out the contact form on this site. Your first consultation is free and we handle cases on a contingency fee basis.

In his days as a legal scholar, Robert H. Bork, the onetime Supreme Court nominee, engaged, as many scholars do, in high-minded debates about the august issues of the law. He wrote widely — sometimes controversially — about antitrust issues, the right to privacy and the limitations of the First Amendment.

Yesterday, however, Mr. Bork, who is 80, waded into a somewhat less majestic area of law. After a tumble at the Yale Club in Manhattan last year while ascending to the dais to deliver a speech, he filed a common everyday trip-and-fall lawsuit against the club.

If you or a loved one have been injured due to the negligence of another, please call Keating, O’Gara, Nedved & Peter at 888/234-0621 or fill out the contact form on this site. Your first consultation is free and we handle cases on a contingency fee basis.