OLYMPIA, Wash. (Legal Newsline) - The Washington Supreme Court has given a boost to price-gouging claims against Amazon, opening the retail giant to new claims over increased costs during the COVID pandemic.
OLYMPIA, Wash. (Legal Newsline) - Hospitals may be liable for the actions of contractor physicians working in their emergency rooms, the Washington Supreme Court ruled, reversing the dismissal of a case involving a woman who died after an ER doc allegedly failed to diagnose flesh-eating bacteria in her shoulder.
OLYMPIA, Wash. (Legal Newsline) - Washington State University had no legal duty to protect a freshman from being raped by a fellow student at an off-campus party, the Washington Supreme Court ruled, rejecting the plaintiff’s argument the school’s “special relationship” with students should extend past the campus borders.
OLYMPIA, Wash. (Legal Newsline) - Answering a question posed by a federal court, the Washington Supreme Court said an eight-year time limit for filing medical malpractice suits passed by state legislators in 2006 is unconstitutional because it takes away the right to sue from some plaintiffs while leaving it in place for others.
OLYMPIA, Wash. (Legal Newsline) - The estate of a man who blamed the State of Washington for sexual abuse while in the foster care system filed its lawsuit in time, the state Supreme Court has ruled.
OLYMPIA, Wash. (Legal Newsline) - Allegations of animal cruelty can't create a claim for public nuisance, the Washington Supreme Court has ruled in a lawsuit brought by the Animal Legal Defense Fund.
OLYMPIA, Wash. (Legal Newsline) - Jurors didn’t need to be instructed on the defense of “known and obvious” risks in the case of a worker who developed a deadly cancer decades after a three-month assignment removing asbestos from a Mobil refinery in 1979, the Washington Supreme Court ruled.
OLYMPIA, Wash. (Legal Newsline) - Instacart and the Washington Food Industry Association can proceed with a lawsuit challenging a Seattle ordinance that ordered “hazard pay” for food delivery workers during the Covid-19 epidemic but exempted Uber and Lyft drivers, grocery store employees and other front-line workers with similar risks of contracting the disease.
OLYMPIA, Wash. (Legal Newsline) - The City of Seattle can be held liable after first responders three blocks from a 911 caller's apartment zoomed past to the wrong address, causing a delay in treating a man suffering cardiac arrest.
OLYMPIA (Legal Newsline) - Litigants who claim a jury verdict was tainted by racial bias are entitled to a hearing where the judge must assume they are correct, the Washington Supreme Court ruled, placing the burden on the other side to prove that bias didn’t affect the decision.The high court’s ruling came in a routine car accident case where the victim, a Black woman, claimed she suffered whiplash and exacerbated symptoms of Tourette’s Syndrome requiring $3.5 million in damages.
OLYMPIA, Wash. (Legal Newsline) - Washington raspberry farmers will get a second chance to sue Syngenta over an herbicide they said ruined their plants after a Washington appeals court said a U.S. Supreme Court decision forced the reversal of a lower court’s dismissal of their claims.
OLYMPIA, Wash. (Legal Newsline) – Dentists in Washington State have failed to convince courts to read their insurance policies in a way that would cover financial losses from the COVID-19 pandemic.
OLYMPIA, Wash. (Legal Newsline) - A woman who mistakenly received a flu shot instead of the contraceptives she was expecting may be entitled to $10 million in damages after she gave birth to a child with a rare congenital disease, the Washington Supreme Court ruled, rejecting the U.S. government’s argument the plaintiff had to prove she sought birth control to avoid such an outcome.
OLYMPIA, Wash. (Legal Newsline) - Washington state law is clear that drug companies need only provide clear warnings to doctors for prescription medicines, the state’s highest court ruled, rejecting a plaintiff’s argument the rise in direct-to-consumer advertising required a change in the rules.
OLYMPIA, Wash. (Legal Newsline) - A climate protester who blocked train tracks to prevent oil and coal from being transported through Spokane, Washington will be able to argue he had no other choice because other efforts to change energy policy failed, the Washington Supreme Court ruled in a decision that could protect other protesters from criminal prosecution under the so-called “necessity defense.”
OLYMPIA, Wash. (Legal Newsline) – The Washington Supreme Court has rejected claims that an $81 million asbestos verdict was too high, ruling for the plaintiffs in a closely watched case.
OLYMPIA, Wash. (Legal Newsline) – The brother of a man whose dead body was filled with tubes for a fire department’s training exercise can sue for the emotional harm it caused.
OLYMPIA, Wash. (Legal Newsline) – A Washington State school district is not off the hook for the death of a student who was hit by a car while on an off-campus walk with his physical education class.
OLYMPIA, Wash. (Legal Newsline) – Protection from lawsuits for religious institutions in an anti-discrimination law is OK, the Washington Supreme Court recently ruled, but a Seattle group is not free from litigation yet for refusing to hire a gay man for its open lawyer position.
OLYMPIA, Wash. (Legal Newsline) – The Washington Supreme Court has reinstated a verdict in favor of a nurse who was awakened by cops and forced to wait outside in her nightgown while they searched her apartment instead of the one they were supposed to.