Recent Blog Posts in December 2010

The Associated Press reports that U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. has settled a wrongful death lawsuit by agreeing to pay $5 million to the family of a 42-year-old man who died from tongue cancer after chewing spit tobacco since he was 13.

According to the article, this settlement is a first of its kind among suits against smokeless tobacco companies. Mark Gottlieb, Director of Tobacco Products Liability Project at Northeastern School of Law, was quoted as calling this settlement "a wakeup call to the plaintiff's bar that there are a lot of victims of smokeless tobacco use out there and it's possible these cases can be successful."

Attorney Antonio Ponvert III noted that "the settlement came as the tobacco industry tries to weaken proposed tougher warning labels on tobacco products and is marketing spit tobacco as a less harmless alternative to cigarettes."

While the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration works to increase awareness of the dangers of distracted driving, drivers will soon be updating Twitter and Facebook on the road.

As the Chicago Tribune reports, drivers of 2011 GM models may be tweeting and updating Facebook statuses through Onstar's voice-activated control of texts, e-mail and Web searches.

Apparently, Ford's SYNC infotainment system will not be implementing a Facebook function, although users will be able to connect to Twitter.

These are voice activated features, but does that make them safe? Or will accessibility to social media in the car increase distracted driving in 2011?

Last week, the Nevada Supreme Court addressed the appropriate analysis to determine what law governs in actions involving the diagnosis of slow-developing diseases. In Wyeth v. Rowatt, 126 Nev. Adv. Op. No. 44 (November 24, 2010), the Court adopted the "last event necessary" analysis.

In Nevada, choice of law determinations in personal injury cases are made by applying the "place-of-injury rule", unless a party presents evidence that another state has a more significant relationship with the alleged tortious conduct and the parties. In Wyeth, the Court took the opportunity to clarify the location of the place of injury in cases involving slow-developing diseases.

In Wyeth, three women used hormone therapy drugs manufactured by Wyeth and were eventually diagnosed with cancer. All three women were diagnosed with cancer in Nevada, but two of them had taken the drugs for years while residing in other states. Wyeth argued that the place of injury is the state where the disease process begins, as some courts have held.

However, the Court rejected Wyeth's argument. Instead, the Court adopted the "last event necessary" analysis, which recognizes the place of injury as the state where the slow-developing disease is first ascertainable. In this case, because the Plaintiffs were all diagnosed in Nevada, Nevada law governed.