William D. Kickham
William D. Kickham
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By now, most people have heard about the tragic suffocation deaths in a hope chest of two young siblings in Franklin, MA. It really is heartbreaking: A brother and sister, Lexi Munroe, 8, and Sean Munroe, 7, died after climbing into a hope chest Sunday night and without knowing it, locked it shut with no way out. It seems they were playing what almost all children that age do: Hide and seek. Autopsy results have yet to be officially released, but all signs point to accidental asphyxiation as the cause of death. The Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office is reportedly confident that no criminal issues are presented here.

The hope chest involved was manufactured by Lane Furniture, a popular Virginia furniture maker, in 1939. On a legal or evidentiary level, this is important because both Lane and the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission have confirmed that Lane recalled hope chests manufactured from 1912 through 1986 specifically due to the threat that small children could become trapped inside the chest and suffocate. Millions of these hope chests manufactured in these years were recalled. The lids of these chests were locked from the outside, upon closing. There were no locks or latches on the inside of the chest, to allow it to be opened from the inside, once closed. An exterior button or latch needed to be pressed or manipulated to open the lid. Federal product safety officials had, for years following the 1996 recall of the chest, warned that several of these dangerous products might still be somewhere in circulation. However, in 2001 Lane was issued a $900,000 fine by the government for failing to report the entrapment risk in a timely manner.

Lane Furniture had recalled 12 million “Lane” and “Virginia Maid” cedar chests, advising the chests needed to have the locks on them replaced due to reports of children becoming trapped inside. Heritage Home Group acquired Lane’s assets in November 2013. Heritage issued a statement that it “extends its deepest condolences to the family that has suffered this unthinkable tragedy. We wish them comfort at this most difficult time.” The company also stepped up its efforts to notify the public of this risk, and is offering free lock replacement kits for the affected chests.

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My previous post on Christmas Day was about a horrific story of an auto accident, heartbreaking in its details. Tuesday morning, Christmas Eve, a serious car accident occurred at the intersection of Route 13 and Route 130 in Brookline, New Hampshire. Car accidents happen all the time, right? So what’s the big deal about this?

Because the woman who was killed, Katie Hamilton, was a young mother with a husband and three young kids, aged 2 to 9. Because she had just dropped her kids off at her mother’s house , before she headed to her job as a plumber working for her father, Steve Whitcomb, who owns Whitcomb Plumbing & Heating in the Brookline NH area. Because those three kids will forever more be without their mother. Because her husband Liam Hamilton will never see his wife alive again.

Oh, there’s one other “because” here: Because her father Steve Whitcomb, aside from being a plumber, is a firefighter in Brookline NH, and he answered the 911 call for the accident. And because the victim he helped extricate from the wreck with the Jaws of Life, was not the male victim that initial police reports indicated. Because the body he pulled out of the wreck was his own daughter. On Christmas Eve.

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What to say today?

That I hope all who read this blog, whether occasionally or regularly, will be spared the suffering of an accident or injury this day and this season. But that won’t happen. In fact, a story of a motor vehicle accident beyond comprehension in its tragedy occurred this very day, Christmas Day, in nearby New Hampshire. I’ll write it about it tomorrow – it’s late and I’m tired. But I am all too conscious that this story could be about me or someone I love.

Never take your eyes off the road. Not for a second. The tragedy that can happen in an instant is beyond words. As a Boston motor vehicle accident lawyer, I know this all too well.

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Readers of this blog know that I’ve written previously about the dangers associated with defective hip implants. Most of these dangers arise from very small metal fragments in these hip implants, some microscopic, which are absorbed into a patients’ bloodstreams. These metal fragments can migrate into surrounding tissues and eventually into the bloodstream, due to the fact that several of these hip implants involved metal-on-metal joint components. The physical illnesses and injuries that can result from this exposure, can be extremely severe.

Most of the defective hip implants producing these problems were made by either Stryker Orthopedics, or DePuy Orthopedics, which is a division of Johnson & Johnson. Stryker’s “Rejuvenate Modular Hip System” and the “Stryker ABG II Modular Neck” were both voluntarily recalled by in July 2012 due to the health risks to implant patients. Many lawsuits followed – so many that these suits, along with suits against medical manufacturer Johnson & Johnson, were consolidated into federal court, to more efficiently handle the volume of these particular cases. Just a few days ago, Johnson & Johnson announced that the company had reached a settlement deal with plaintiffs’ lawyers who were representing a wide class on injured patients. J&J will pay for a $2.5 billion settlement fund, which will be used to pay damages to injured patients in an estimated 8,000 lawsuits in the consolidated litigation. Those cases involved injuries that range from modest, to much more serious. The settlement agreement will also include an additional $475 million to pay for the most severely injured plaintiffs.

As a Boston hip implant attorney, I know that it’s this kind of financial punishment that makes our civil justice system work. Without the ability to bring these kinds of lawsuits – without the ability of the average American to hold corporate giants accountable for their errors –no one who buys any kind of product in this country would be safe. The reason is obvious” With little fear of being punished financially or legally, corporations would automatically place profits before people, money before safety – and our country would be a lot worse for it.

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A local news item shows how tragedy is not an abstract concept – something that happens to “other people,” but not to “us.”

Right next door to our law offices here in Westwood, Massachusetts is the town of Norwood: A nice, fairly peaceful community, not known for tragic events. Until last night. Two people from nearby Wrentham were killed last night in an automobile rollover accident in Norwood, on Interstate 95, which borders and at some points runs through the town. At about 10:30 PM, state troopers in the nearby Foxborough Barracks received calls about the accident, and responded immediately along with members of the Norwood Police and Fire Departments. Officers found a single-vehicle rollover crash, and discovered that the two occupants of the vehicle, Jerome Blomquist, age 59, and Joan Pupi, 60, non-responsive. Both victims were pronounced dead at the scene, according to a press release from the Massachusetts State Police. The fatal accident occurred on the southbound side of Interstate 95 in Norwood, according to police reports. Mr. Blomquist and Ms. Pupi were traveling in a 1998 Ford Explorer that for reasons not yet know, crashed and rolled over several times just north of Exit 11B, leading to the famous “Automile” in Norwood, according to the police statement issued.

What caused this motor vehicle accident? While in theory, anything could have caused it, the practical reality is that the likely reasons aren’t that many. As a Boston, Massachusetts automobile rollover accident lawyer, I’ve seen, unfortunately, too many of these motor vehicle rollover accidents. The usual suspects in these accidents? 1) Sudden loss of control of the vehicle. This could be caused by distracted driving and smart phone use while driving; 2) A sudden medical event impacting the driver, such as a heart attack or stroke; 3) It may be that another vehicle cut the victim off suddenly, usually by changing lanes in an irresponsible and dangerous manner. Skid marks and/or witnesses would provide more information about this possibility; 4) Or, it could be something as commonplace as a sudden sneeze, which took the driver’s attention off the road for a split second. Obviously, police will not know exactly what happened here until a full accident reconstruction report is complete, which will include autopsy reports on the victims.

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If I asked you what “punitive damages” are, would you be able to tell me? As a Boston injury lawyer, I have found that a great many people don’t. That’s unfortunate, because they are a VERY important part of our civil justice (tort) system.

Okay: Let’s define this as briefly as possible without getting into a law school lecture: There are different types of damages that may be awarded in any lawsuit. But in general, they can be broken down into two very broad categories: Compensatory and Non-compensatory. Compensatory damages do just what the term implies: They compensate the victim for the victim’s losses – whether those losses are economic/financial (such as lost income or medical expenses) or non-economic (such as pain and suffering and loss of consortium, meaning the loss of someone’s active presence and enjoyment in their life). Non-compensatory damages include punitive damages: These damages are awarded to a plaintiff not to compensate them for something they have lost or suffered – economic or non-economic – but instead to punish the defendant wrongdoer in the case, when that conduct has been egregious (i.e., especially offensive or unconscionable).

The ability of a court to award punitive damages is extremely important, for the obvious reason that it punishes (hence “punitive”) the wrongdoing defendant for his/her/its conduct – thus providing a disincentive for similar defendants (such a big corporations,) from engaging in similarly wrongful conduct. It’s easy to see how punitive damages serve an extremely important legal and social goal, whether in a Massachusetts personal injury case, or a different type of case.

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Here’s a local development that happens a lot more around the Boston area than many people realize: Last night (Friday, Sep. 13th), a porch connected to an apartment building collapsed, with several people being injured. The accident happened at 1358 Tremont Street in the Mission Hill section of Boston. The porch was connected to a “3-decker” building, and as is common with these types of events, there was no prior warning – it just gave way. No time to get off before it came tumbling down. – in this case, falling on and crushing the porch immediately below it.

That’s not uncommon in deck collapse accidents: As a Boston porch/deck collapse lawyer, and as a lifelong resident of the Boston area, I can attest to the fact that building conditions in this area are primed for this kind of accident: The area is swimming in old, 3-decker houses and apartment buildings – most have been around since the 1950’s or so. These types of 3-deckers are almost always made of wood, not brick or concrete, and they are exposed to all kinds of weather that leaves them unstable. The result? Most of them are rotting, weak, and unsafe. Put more than a few people at once on them, and you’re risking a lot.

This is a major safety risk in the Boston area. Why? One word: Students. While a great many college students live in university dorms (which are almost 100% brick and mortar buildings that are usually quite safe,) a great many students in the Boston area also live off-campus. And what does that usually mean? Cheap housing – which is very older, often out of code, and – to be quite frank – dumps. The Allston-Brighton, Kenmore Square, Fenway, Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, Roxbury and Mission Hill areas are notorious for having these kinds of 50+ and 60+ year-old wooden structures, which are very dangerous. Many of them are owned by slumlords, and are fire traps as well as places where Boston stairwell accidents and Boston deck collapse accidents occur more than just occasionally.

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My wife Debbi gets the shudders every time we drive to Cape Cod and cross the Sagamore Bridge. Why? Because, as is true with many roads in Massachusetts, there is no divider in the center of the four-lane span. Cars and other vehicles are passing each other in the opposite direction at 40 MPH or more – just inches apart from each other. She’s always terrified of a head-on-collision, believing that the lack of a center divider on roads like this makes things very dangerous. She’s right: If just one car next to the center lane suddenly veers to the left or the right, it is going to cause a head-on crash. (This is true of any two-way road with no center divider; but bridges make a head-on collision even more dangerous.)

I point this out because just yesterday, this very type of accident occurred in nearby Jamaica Plain, on the Arborway. The Arborway is a four-lane road leading from the Dedham/West Roxbury area, to the city of Boston. It has no center divider, so cars closest to the center are coming at each other in the opposite direction, within inches of each other. By specific accident type, it was a Massachusetts SUV rollover accident. I don’t like to use this blog to rehash yesterday’s news, but this Boston car accident further points out how danger can lurk around every corner when you drive, and when you least expect it. As a Boston, Massachusetts car accident lawyer, I can’t emphasize enough that one must ALWAYS be extremely attentive when driving.

An SUV on the Arborway suddenly crossed over the center line, flipped over, and then struck a pickup truck carrying two men. The four teenagers in the SUV were all injured, as were the two men in the pickup truck. All six people were taken to local hospitals. People on the scene described the accident, and its aftermath, as “horrific.” At this point, the authorities do not know if distracted driving (texting or phoning), drugs, or alcohol contributed to this Boston, Massachusetts car crash. It occurred at 2:00 PM.

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There are a lot of ways to define tragedy. One of them is when a person takes his dog out for a familiar walk in their neighborhood, and is accidentally run down dead by a driver.

That’s what happened yesterday (Labor Day, Sep. 2,) to a man by the name of George E. Power – and to his dog. They were both killed when a 17 year-old driver struck them as they walked along Summer Street in Easton. When Easton Police and Fire Department personnel responded, they found Mr. Power lying unconscious and unresponsive in the front yard near 24 Summer Street in the town. The car appeared to have hit both Mr. Power and his dog on or near the sidewalk, before it hit a tree and came to rest. Rescue personnel did everything possible to resuscitate Mr. Power while en route to Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, but he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.

The young driver’s name has not been released yet, and no charges have yet been filed as an investigation needs to be conducted by both the Easton Police Department, the State Police Accident Reconstruction Unit, and the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office. The youth’s speed was not reported as of the time this post was written, but something is indicative of the car’s approximate speed: Mr. Power’s shoes were found about 50 feet away from his body. Summer Street in Easton is not a high-speed road. This makes clear something that I’ve stressed many times on this blog, and on my Massachusetts Injury Law website: A car or other vehicle traveling just 20 MPH can kill someone. This is true whether the accident is a Massachusetts car-pedestrian accident, as was the case here, or a vehicle-to-vehicle crash.

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It’s almost the end of summer, and I wanted to write a blog post about what happens all too often to summer travelers who head to warm-weather beach destinations, whether it’s to Cape Cod, or elsewhere.

Let me set the scene: It’s a beautiful summer day, and you spend it at the beach, swimming, sunning, and body-surfing in the waves. At the end of the day, you visit a little clam shack, prepared to have a delicious seafood dinner. Forget the fried shrimp — you order the raw oysters on the half-shell. Everything’s going great – until about two hours later when you come down with a severe case of food poisoning.

As a Boston, Massachusetts food poisoning lawyer, I’ve seen too many cases similar to this. What are your legal rights if you come down with food poisoning from a restaurant meal? If you can prove that your food poisoning injury was the result of the food you ate at the restaurant, you can file a lawsuit against the restaurant and also its supplier. I realize that many people simply come down with food poisoning, get through the ordeal, and do nothing about it. But I assure you, you do have rights, and you are entitled to be compensated for your distress and injury.

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