Negligence

A car accident that left a young woman dead at the All Good music festival in July was caused by the “wanton, reckless, grossly negligent" acts of the organizers, Maryland-based Walther Productions, the woman's father alleges in a recently filed wrongful-death lawsuit. The lawsuit, filed in West Virginia's Northern District Court, is one of two against the festival, which celebrated its 15 th year in July and is known for its jam band line-ups. Another woman injured as a result of the accident has also filed a separate lawsuit.

Sharon Love has sued the University of Virginia men's lacrosse coach and other athletic officials for negligence in the 2010 death of her daughter, Yeardley, saying they ignored previous violent, drunken behavior by the player who was ultimately convicted of murdering her. "It was well known to the players and coaches on the UVA men's and women's lacrosse teams that [George] Huguely's alcohol abuse and erratic, aggressive behavior was increasingly getting out of control, especially his obsession with Love and his aggressiveness and threats to Love," according to the civil suit filed this week in Louisa County Circuit Court by Sharon Love of Cockeysville.

A third person involved in a car accident at this year's All Good Music Festival has sued the organizers, Maryland-based Walther Productions. The jam band festival, which takes place in July in West Virginia, was accused of negligence in a pair of lawsuits filed earlier this month by two other victims, a young woman who was injured and the father of a young woman who died as a result of the car accident. In an interview last week, an attorney for the organizers defended the festival's safety record.

A Baltimore jury on Wednesday awarded $1.3 million in damages to a 17-year-old girl, finding that negligence by the Housing Authority of Baltimore City was a substantial factor in lead-paint poisoning she suffered as a young girl. Amafica Woodland lived in a now-demolished house in the Flag House Courts housing project in East Baltimore until she was nearly 3. Her attorney, Scott Nevin, said he expected the award to be reduced to $690,000 because of a state cap on non-economic damages.

A woman treated last year at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center filed a malpractice claim against the hospital yesterday, saying an intern had "negligently" cut an artery in her neck while trying to establish intravenous access. According to the lawsuit, Dezirea M. Claxton of Baltimore visited Bayview's emergency department Nov. 5 and was admitted for further tests and treatment. Several days later, two physicians examined the 49-year-old in her room and said they had to place a catheter in a vein in her neck because they couldn't use those in her arms.

The mother of a Prince George's County man who was killed in a Wayson's Corner car wreck in July filed a $6 million suit yesterday in Anne Arundel Circuit Court alleging that the drivers of both vehicles were negligent.Darryl Coates, 34, of the 6600 block of Ronald Road in Capitol Heights was one of three people killed when a tractor-trailer crashed into the side of the Dodge Shadow in which he was riding. The accident occurred at 10:22 p.m. July 20 on Route 408 near Sands Road.Police said the car had just pulled into the intersection when it collided with a truck hauling compacted trash.

The husband of a Severna Park woman who died of heart failure last year filed a $25 million suit yesterday in Anne Arundel Circuit Court, alleging that his wife's doctor was negligent.Deborah Magnum, 39, died March 23. The suit says she was a long-time patient of Dr. Christopher deBorja, who treated her last year for diabetes, high blood pressure, shortness of breath, obesity and fatigue.An electrocardiogram March 8 showed damage to Mrs. Magnum's heart, the suit filed by Charles Magnum Jr. of the 300 block of Magothy Road says.

After her son died last August in an accidental shooting in a White Marsh-area town home, Carole Price and her family moved to Carroll County, retreating from the daily reminders of tragedy.Yesterday, with television cameras and reporters following her every move, Price brought that summer day back into focus for legislators in Annapolis. With a photograph of 13-year-old John pinned to her lapel, a nervous, soft-spoken Price urged a Senate committee to pass a bill targeting adults whose negligence leads to the death of a child.

A Carroll Circuit Court jury could not decide whether a Westminster doctor was negligent and contributed to the death of a Manchester woman.The jury of seven men and five women deliberated for almost two days before reaching verdicts in the $2.5 million lawsuit filed in 1989 by George Simpers against John S. Harshey of Anchor Street, Randallstown neurologist Solomon D. Robbins and Baltimore neurosurgeon Fred N. Sugar.The jury -- which came back late Monday afternoon -- could not reach a decision on Harshey.

WASHINGTON - The accident that flooded the Quecreek mine in Pennsylvania last summer, riveting the nation to a rescue mission that saved nine miners, could have been avoided if the mining companies had realized they were using out-of-date maps, federal safety investigators said yesterday. Two mining companies and a surveying company were negligent for relying on an inaccurate map of an adjacent, flooded mine that had been abandoned 30 years earlier, according to the report issued by the investigators from the Department of Labor.

After a fatal accident in July at the All Good Festival in West Virginia, Walther Productions, the festival's Maryland-based promoter, has moved the jam band music festival to Ohio, the company has said. The accident, which left a 20-year-old woman dead and two others injured, has resulted in three lawsuits , as first reported by The Baltimore Sun, accusing the company,  as well as several of the festival's vendors, like a security company, of negligence. Earlier this month, Walther Productions moved to dismiss the lawsuits in U.S. District Court in Clarksburg, West Virginia.

A third person involved in a car accident at this year's All Good Music Festival has sued the organizers, Maryland-based Walther Productions. The jam band festival, which takes place in July in West Virginia, was accused of negligence in a pair of lawsuits filed earlier this month by two other victims, a young woman who was injured and the father of a young woman who died as a result of the car accident. In an interview last week, an attorney for the organizers defended the festival's safety record.

A car accident that left a young woman dead at the All Good music festival in July was caused by the “wanton, reckless, grossly negligent" acts of the organizers, Maryland-based Walther Productions, the woman's father alleges in a recently filed wrongful-death lawsuit. The lawsuit, filed in West Virginia's Northern District Court, is one of two against the festival, which celebrated its 15 th year in July and is known for its jam band line-ups. Another woman injured as a result of the accident has also filed a separate lawsuit.

Advocates for Maryland's bicyclists expressed delight Tuesday that the General Assembly passed a bill creating a new misdemeanor offense for drivers who kill people as a result of serious negligence, giving prosecutors an alternative that lies between traffic charges and felony manslaughter. The long-sought legislation passed both houses in the waning hours of the 2011 session Monday night after the House accepted a Senate amendment crafted to lessen the chance that a driver would serve time in jail for a death caused by routine driving errors.

The mother of a victim in the September 2008 Maryland State Police helicopter crash that killed four people near Andrews Air Force base filed suit against the Federal Aviation Administration on Monday, contending that the agency's air traffic controllers gave the pilot inaccurate weather information. The suit filed in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt by Stephanie D. Younger of Waldorf, mother of crash victim Ashley Younger, is expected to be the last of several filed against the FAA, according to the law firm representing the plaintiff.

A Carroll County woman whose car crashed into the back of a stopped motorcycle on U.S. 40 last summer pleaded guilty Friday to negligent manslaughter. The prosecution is seeking a 5-year sentence for Alison Walsh, 23, of Hampstead, after her plea in Howard County Circuit Court. Police said that Walsh had a blood-alcohol level of .17 percent, more than double the legal limit. The July 11 accident killed 68-year-old Cecilia Amato of Pennsylvania, who, with her 74-year-old husband, Antonio, was on the way to Gettysburg, Pa. Antonio Amato told police that he was stopped about 15 feet from the intersection of U.S. 40 and Marriottsville Road at a light red when his motorcycle was struck by Walsh's Honda Civic.

A Baltimore Circuit Court jury awarded $2.1 million yesterday to the widow and 3-year-old son of a marketing executive who died in 1995 after he was misdiagnosed by a Baltimore cardiologist.Vernon Harris, 48, of Baltimore died Jan. 8, 1995, two days after he arrived at the emergency room of Good Samaritan Hospital complaining of chest pains, said Philip Federico, the family's lawyer.After two weeks of testimony, a jury found that Dr. Joyce Zeno was negligent when she diagnosed Harris as suffering from indigestion, discharging him with instructions to take an over-the-counter stomach medication.

A Davidsonville doctor accused of negligence in the death of a 9-year-old girl faces a new trial because the jury could not reach a unanimous decision yesterday.After nearly 14 hours of what was described as intense deliberations over three days, the seven women and fivemen told a Circuit Court judge there was no way they could agree."We can compromise with the exception of one or two of the jurors," announced Lola M. Patillo, the jury forewoman.Judge Warren B. Duckett Jr. then declared a mistrial.

Maryland officials allege in a $4 million federal lawsuit against the U.S. government that performance failures by air-traffic controllers were a "substantial cause" of a 2008 medevac helicopter crash that killed four people near Andrews Air Force Base. In the lawsuit, the state and the helicopter's insurer allege that controllers employed by the Federal Aviation Administration failed to pay proper attention to the aircraft in heavy fog, disregarded requests for assistance from its pilot and provided outdated weather information.

The family of a Baltimore cyclist killed last year in a collision with a tanker truck on Maryland Avenue has settled a $5 million lawsuit against the driver and his employer, the family's attorney said. John R. "Jack" Yates, 67, was riding behind the truck Aug. 4, 2009, when the vehicle made a right turn onto Lafayette Avenue in the Charles North neighborhood and Yates got caught in its rear wheels, according to city police. The Yates family settled last week with the tanker's driver and his employer, Potts & Callahan Inc., days before the lawsuit was set to go to trial on Monday, said the Yates' attorney, Steven D. Silverman.