Posted on 08/18/2007 10:37:04 AM PDT by Kaslin
BARTOW, Fla. — A jury awarded $25.8 million Friday to the family of a cancer patient who was given a wrong prescription, had a stroke and died several years later, lawyers said.
Beth Hippely was prescribed Warfarin, a blood thinner, in 2002 to treat breast cancer. The prescription filled at a Walgreen pharmacy was 10 times what her doctor prescribed, court documents said.
The Polk County Circuit Court jury found the prescription error caused a cerebral hemorrhage resulting in permanent bodily injury, disability and physical pain. The mother of three died in January at the age of 46.
A 19-year-old pharmacy technician, with little training, misfiled the prescription, according to court documents.
The lawsuit was filed in 2003 by Hippely, her husband Deane Hippely and their children against the Deerfield, Ill.-based Walgreen Co. for negligent breach of duty and wrongful death.
"Beth Hippely died unnecessarily because this tenfold overdose with Warfarin by the pharmacy she trusted caused her cancer to come back with a vengeance and it interrupted all of her cancer treatments," her lawyer Chris Searcy said. "They have been seeking justice for almost five years and this was a case that screamed out for justice."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Whatever you do, don’t take into account IJ’s post re class action suits. I’d hate for you to have to actually think rather than just rant.
Trying to reason with lawyers is pointless, as they have no soul or ethics. Read the responses on this thread and you can spot the lawyers easily.
Any humanity they might have had was removed during their indoctrination to lawyerhood.
Actually both trials were a joke. The criminal one was the one I was refering to (and you knew that). Just because a jury said so, does not make it right.
Oh goody, another lawyer crawls out from the woodwork.
As I read it, the lady died.
I’m all for reimbursment of loss and if negligence caused it, reasonable punitive damages. I stated that at the very beginning.
Excessive and outrageous awards benefit only the ambulance chaser who reaps the bulk of the award.
Why do you think many are wanting tort reform?
As I read you and IJ, it seems that awarding anything is okay, just make the company pay. Isn’t that a lot like tax the crap out of the wealthy and take more of what they have?
Here are teh specific rules regarding attorney compensation. Keep in mind, zero dollars equals no pay and not all law suits yeild these results here. Many times a case is taken for investigation and yields nothing or complications the client did not disclose. (for every 10 cases only one yields a net gain.)
This is the Florida Bar Regulation on Attorney fees AFTER a lawsuit has actually been filed:
b. After the filing of an answer or the demand for appointment of arbitrators or, if no answer is filed or no demand for appointment of arbitrators is made, the expiration of the time period provided for such action, through the entry of judgment:
1. 40% of any recovery up to $1 million; plus
2. 30% of any portion of the recovery between $1 million and $2 million; plus
3. 20% of any portion of the recovery exceeding $2 million.
c. If all defendants admit liability at the time of filing their answers and request a trial only on damages:
1. 33 1/3% of any recovery up to $1 million; plus
2. 20% of any portion of the recovery between $1 million and $2 million; plus
3. 15% of any portion of the recovery exceeding $2 million.
d. An additional 5% of any recovery after institution of any appellate proceeding is filed or post-judgment relief or action is required for recovery on the judgment.
Keep in mind if this is in part a punative judgment, most of that goes to the state as a punative judgement “tax”.
It should also be noted most of these judgments are reduced on appeal.
The most famous example is the 2 million hot coffee case. That case was on the fast track for reduction on appeal. It was settled for $200,000 in lieu of appeal.
No, she did not. instead she gets to live the rest of her life without any feet.
I’m all for reimbursment of loss and if negligence caused it, reasonable punitive damages. I stated that at the very beginning. Excessive and outrageous awards benefit only the ambulance chaser who reaps the bulk of the award.
I don't believe that you previously mentioned punitive damages. Punitive damages punish intentional wrongdoing. Compensatory damages compensate for the negligent infliction of harm. Large awards benefit everyone in that they force potential wrongdoers to take seriously the cost of their wrongdoing. I have tried to put it into simple terms (Pinto example) to explain it, but if you don't want to see what is right in front of your face I can't make you.
Why do you think many are wanting tort reform?
Because other people who have absolutely no knowledge of the true state of the legal system have told them that it is desperately needed. People are lemmings, willing to follow anything that their FEELINGS tell them is right.
As I read you and IJ, it seems that awarding anything is okay, just make the company pay.
No, what has been said is that looking at the dollar amount doesn't tell you anything about what damages the jury found to be owed. But again you ignore that part because it doesn't fit your preconceived conclusion.
Isn’t that a lot like tax the crap out of the wealthy and take more of what they have?
No, its more like hold the person or company who caused the injury responsible rather than allow them to shift the burden of support of those suffering at their hands onto society as a whole.
Walgreens deserves to pay but the award is way too high.
You make an awful lot of assumptions yourself.
Can you show that the $25 millions was indeed compensatory and not punitive? How many of the litigations are actually punitive? Most I read about are. Recall the McDonalds coffee lawsuit?
A jury acquited O.J. Simpson, too. “So says the jury!”
When was the last time you were involved in a spectacular lawsuit? Last time I heard, most will take them on a contingency basis, provided they feel they a good chance of winning either an award or a settlement. Of the attorney’s I’ve dealt with (through my ex-wife’s lawfirms she worked for) take anywhere from 40% to 60% or better.
By the offense you have taken at the term “ambulance chaser,” I guess John Edwards amassed his personal fortune by working hard and getting his hands dirty, and not by using junk science to manipulate juries into awarding massive awards or negotiating settlements and him accepting a mere pittance of that.
On what basis do you support the unknown attorney and evidence he presented to convince a jury that $25 million was reasonable? Did you know tha lady or the 19 year old who wrongfully filled the prescriotion? Do you have copies of their expenses? Do you have information on the worth of her abilities prior to succumbing to cancer that she had before the prescription was wrongfully filled? Do you have any idea where that then 19 year old is now or what happened to them over this?
As to John Edwards, I am not the least bit envious, maybe you are. I have a satisfying life and few worries any longer.
As for more basis, I was involved in a personal lawsuit years ago in which I was injured. Since I was in the Army at the time, my expenses were slight. To justify a larger award, I was sent to a Chiropractor associated with the attorney for “treatment” and to create expenses.
The Chiropractor was arrested for fraud while I was under his “care” and the attorney hurried a settlement that basically paid for what I lost after he took half for himself.
Many years later, in an unrelated incident, my ex-wife had a prescripton wrongfully filled at a chain pharmacy that hospitalized her. She recovered and the pharmacy without hesitation reimbursed us for the hospital expense and her possible lost wages without an attorney and dragging it for several years.
Currently, I work for an auto dealership where the manufacturer is being sued still over an accident of a drunk driver hitting their vehicle head on, 13 years ago. The lady driving it was killed. If you saw the vehicle you would wonder how any one else in it survived. The vehicle is periodically taken from storage and brought to our shop where it is inspected by attorneys, investigators and others by both parties as the claim is now made that it was the air bag deployment that killed the driver, not the drunk who hit them at a high rate of speed. He an his insurance company were sued first and the award wasn’t large enough, apparently, so go after the manufacturer who installed government mandated and regulated air bags for negligence in making them deploy at the rate they did then, which was also government mandated.
They were offered a settlement of well over a million, but are seeking even more.
Other than that, I have known several people over my life who took every advantage they could dream up to sue a company, even if employed by it, seeking a big award to live off of.
You may classify my opinion as based on ignorance, but I see it as based on experience.
Which was still $200,000 to much. She should have gotten nothing.
If I walk up to you and pour boiling water on you that results in you receiving 3rd degree burns, are you saying I shouldnt be held responsible?
If you think I should, why?
Walgreens fault? I thought it was a 19 girl who misfilled something. How is Walgreens responsible for that? The correct thing to do was to fire the girl and never let her work again.....but the family decided to go after the money instead...walgreens.
For a settlement. They get 40% PLUS expenses if it goes to trial.
And if she had died, I am sure they would have gladly reimbursed your funeral expenses and probably thrown in the burial plot without even being asked. Just sign here.
Acting in the capacity of her employer, Walgreens failed to:
1.) Properly train employees to dispense medication, or
2.) Failed to exercise adequate controls to prevent untrained/inexperienced employees from dispensing medication
The Polk County Circuit Court jury found the prescription error caused a cerebral hemorrhage resulting in permanent bodily injury, disability and physical pain. The mother of three died in January at the age of 46.
So, you are for sticking it to the fatcat corporations?
Why stop at litigation? Let's tax the daylights out of them. Let's take whatever they got, since you don't have it. Is that it?
Some of us have a little more knowledge through life experiences than you may realize.
Let me guess, you are either an attorney looking to make big bucks, or a law student, right?
If so, please tell me how I can get a big fat jury award for an attorney that didn't represent me as effectively as I feel they should have. Shouldn't attorneys be held accountable for their mistakes or negligence too? Please show where larger law firms have been held accountable by juries and where they have awarded larger awards over negligent representation of a client, please.
Glad to see I’m not the only one thinking that.
In addition, although this isn’t meant to sound like ‘blame the victim’, everyone should be responsible for their own Rxs. Verify with the prescribing doc what the med is, the dosage, times taken etc, and then make sure it matches up with what you’re given. If I was ever told ‘.1 mgs daily’ and ended up with ‘1. mgs’, I wouldn’t take one pill until we got it straightened out. You only have to worry about your own meds, pharmacies dispense millions of pills in a week and there is no way that errors won’t occur.
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