West Virginia Injury Lawyer Blog

In any personal injury suit involving a claim of negligence, the injured party must be able to prove that the allegedly negligent party owed them a duty of care, which is why injury victims should always hire a West Virginia personal injury lawyer to help them prove their case. In many cases, that duty of care is easily identifiable - such as a shop owner who has a duty to ensure that the walkways in his store are clear of debris and wet spots so that his patrons do not slip or trip. However, a recent case from the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia addressed this issue, and it gives us some guidance about the obligations of store owners to maintain the safety of people around their property.

Means v. Kanawha Pizza, LLC pits an employee against his former employer. Plaintiff worked in Defendant's Domino's Pizza in Charleston, West Virginia, and one evening after work, he was assaulted and beaten by two criminals as he walked to his car which was parked behind the restaurant. Plaintiff was also shot in the leg during the assault, but the two men who attacked him escaped and were never found by the authorities. After the incident, Plaintiff filed suit against his employer, alleging that Defendant had a duty of care to take precautions to prevent violent conduct around its premises, and that it had carelessly and recklessly breached its duty by failing to take adequate measures to make the area safe. Plaintiff also claimed that Defendant was aware of and had observed criminal activities, fights, and robberies occur in the immediate area of the Domino's Pizza, and that as a result of Defendant's failure to enact proper security measures he became the victim of a criminal act and was injured.

In response to Plaintiff's claims, Defendant filed a summary judgment motion to dismiss the lawsuit under West Virginia Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), arguing that Plaintiff had failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. Defendant argued that there is no law in West Virginia that creates a duty for land owners to protect people from attacks on property adjacent to the property they own. The trial court agreed with Defendant and dismissed the claims. Plaintiff then appealed the lower court's decision.

On appeal, the Court stated that prior case law held that there were exceptions to the general rule that a landowner generally does not have a duty to protect against the deliberate criminal conduct of third parties. However, if a party's omissions have exposed another to a foreseeable high risk of harm from a third party's intentional misconduct, a duty of care may be established. In reversing the trial court's dismissal, the Appellate Court found that the Plaintiff had plead sufficient facts to avail himself of the exception and overcome the motion to dismiss. However, the Court pointed out that it agreed with the lower court in as much as there is generally no duty upon a person to protect another from the unforeseen criminal activity of a third party, and that landowners do not have a general duty of care for users of an adjacent property.

When it comes to personal injury law, most people think of car accidents, medical malpractice, or a slip-and-fall accident. Negligence, however, can take many forms, and people can even be injured by the very water that they drink, which is why you should contact a West Virginia personal injury lawyer if you think you have been the victim of any type of negligence. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit recently decided one such case that involved the contamination of a public water supply in Parkersburg, West Virginia, and we wanted to share its outcome with our readers.

In William R. Rhodes v. E.I. DuPont De Nemours and Company, the Plaintiffs are residents of Parkersburg in Wood County, West Virginia. They are customers of the Parkersburg City Water Department, which supplies them with the water in their homes. For a number of years, DuPont operated a manufacturing plant in Wood County that discharged perfluourooctanoic acid (PFOA) into the surrounding area, and as a result, PFOA made its way into the water pumped by the Water Department into the plaintiffs' residential homes. Because of this contamination, many residents of Parkersburg accumulated PFOA in their blood and decided to file a lawsuit.

Plaintiffs filed a class-action suit for negligence, battery, trespass and private nuisance against DuPont, and sought monetary damages and an injunction to require long-term diagnostic testing and medical monitoring of residents affected by the contaminated water -- in order to determine if there are any latent diseases caused by the presence of PFOA in the water. In response, Defendant filed a motion for summary judgment to dismiss all of the claims, which was granted by the district court in part and denied in part. The district court dismissed all of the common law tort claims because the Plaintiffs did not currently suffer from any illness caused by their exposure to PFOA, but the court did not dismiss the individual claims for medical monitoring. Plaintiffs appealed the dismissals.

On appeal, Plaintiffs argued that, while they did not suffer from any current illnesses due to PFOA, they were at a higher risk for developing "liver disease, cholesterol abnormalities, and certain cancers" as a result of their exposure to the chemical. The Court of Appeals did not find Plaintiffs' arguments compelling, however. The Court held that the increased risk of disease does not, in fact, meet the injury requirement needed to sustain a claim for negligence under West Virginia Law. Furthermore, the presence of PFOA in the public water supply or in a person's blood does not, by itself establish the requisite harm. Instead, plaintiffs must be able to provide the court with evidence that the presence of such a chemical has had a detrimental effect on plaintiffs' health, or that such harm is reasonably certain to occur. The Court dismissed the battery claims under similar reasoning, stating that the West Virginia Supreme Court has held that plaintiffs must be able to demonstrate "actual physical impairment" to maintain a claim for battery. In so ruling, the Appellate Court upheld the district court's dismissal of plaintiffs' tort claims.

According to a report by WSAZ, a thirty-seven year old man was killed in an accident that occurred at the Guyan Surface Mine -- that is operated by Apogee Coal, a Patriot Coal subsidiary -- in Logan County, West Virginia this past week. While the man was working on heavy equipment around the mine, he was struck by a piece of machinery at some point. The exact nature of his injuries was not disclosed, but the accident was severe enough to cause wounds that led to his death. Emergency crews from the Buffalo Creek Fire Department and Logan County EMS were called and responded to the accident, but they were unable to save the miner's life. Federal mining inspectors are conducting an investigation into the cause of the accident, and their review of the circumstances that caused the man's death is ongoing. This was the second coal-mining related fatality in the state of West Virginia in 2011.

Coal mining has always been a boon to West Virginia's economy, but WSAZ's story is an all-too-familiar one for many West Virginia families. Mining has become a much safer endeavor than it once was, because safety regulations, equipment, and safety training methods have improved, but such precautions cannot account for every hazard on the job site. Unfortunately, human error will always persist and machine malfunctions or defective equipment failures can neither be predicted nor prevented. That is why, if you or a loved one has been injured or killed in a workplace accident, it is imperative that you speak with a West Virginia wrongful death attorney as soon as possible to determine if a valid legal claim exists. The longer you wait to speak with an attorney, the more difficult it will be for your attorney to gather the evidence needed to accurately evaluate your case and construct the strongest legal arguments possible.

In this case, a coworker may have caused the fatal accident due to his or her negligence, or a piece of machinery may have had a manufacturing defect that caused the man's death. In any event, the decedent's family may be able to bring a lawsuit against any other workers who had a hand in causing the accident, the company who owns and operates the mining operation, and possibly even the manufacturer of the equipment that ended the man's life. Apportioning fault in wrongful death lawsuits is a complicated and difficult task. However, an experienced attorney can help sift through the evidence and determine how best to proceed so that you can be compensated for the loss of your loved one.

When the unthinkable happens and a loved one passes away, the emotional and financial toll on those who survive the decedent are huge. By retaining the services of a trained legal representative, you give yourself a way to help alleviate those financial stresses that the loss of that person's income creates. Every situation is different, but an attorney can evaluate the circumstances that contributed to that person's death and determine if you have a valid legal claim. Should such a claim exist, your attorney can help you recover damages and reduce your financial hardship.

All terrain vehicles, also known as ATVs, provide people hours of outdoor entertainment, and are an excellent way to get around in the back country. Unfortunately, these vehicles can also be quite dangerous, and a recent story in the State Journal shows just how hazardous four-wheelers can be. This past week, there were two separate accidents involving people riding quads in Raleigh County, West Virginia that resulted in injuries for two riders. One accident occurred in Arnett and the other occurred in Fairdale -- both involved male riders who were taken to the hospital for medical treatment, though the extent of their injuries was not reported.

Such accidents can be caused by riders operating four-wheelers in an unsafe manner, but mechanical malfunctions can also occur and cause crashes. We do not know exactly what brought about the accidents reported in the article above. However, if they were caused by a defect in the quads' manufacture or design, the two men who were hurt may have valid product liability claims. Such claims can be brought against the ATV manufacturer or the dealer where they bought their vehicles, but proving liability in such cases is not easy. In order to succeed, injured parties must show that the allegedly defective ATVs in question were not reasonably safe for their intended use.

A skilled West Virginia products liability lawyer has the legal knowledge and advocacy skills to help those who have been injured by defective products. If you have been injured by a malfunctioning product of any kind, it is best to contact an attorney as soon as possible. Your lawyer can perform the necessary investigation into your accident to gather the evidence needed to make sound and compelling legal arguments that will get you the compensation you deserve.

This past week, a two car accident occurred in Parkersburg, West Virginia that resulted in two people being sent to a nearby hospital for treatment of their injuries. The Parkersburg News and Sentinel reports that the crash occurred on Murdoch Avenue in the middle of the afternoon. A driver sideswiped a vehicle going in the opposite direction and subsequently struck a telephone pole. Fortunately, the driver in the sideswiped car was unharmed, but both the driver of the car who caused the accident and her passenger were taken to the emergency room for treatment. The driver was also cited for reckless driving, failure to maintain control of her vehicle, and an improper lane change.

In the accident described above, the driver who sideswiped the other car received multiple traffic citations. This is not an uncommon occurrence, but it is important to note that receiving a traffic ticket does not mean that the recipient is automatically liable in a civil suit should any of the victims pursue a legal claim to recover their damages. Under the rules of evidence, such citations may be used to help prove that person was at fault, but the ticket by itself does not prove that a person is liable in a civil action.

That is why the services of a West Virginia traffic accident attorney are so valuable to anyone who has been the victim of an automobile wreck. An experienced car accident attorney who is familiar with the West Virginia rules of evidence can help you assemble and use the facts involved in any case effectively. These rules can be quite complex in the way that they are applied by the courts, and without the skills and legal knowledge of a lawyer, the evidence a victim needs to recover her damages could be excluded by the judge.