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On May 13, 2008, a Cook County jury awarded Carla Carroll $1,327,333 in a medical negligence case. The verdict was against Ebby P. Jido, M.D., and Midwest Anesthesiologists, Ltd.

Plaintiff claimed that she suffered chronic diarrhea and incontinence from a neurolytic celiac plexus block, a nerve block designed to destroy certain nerves in her abdomen in order to relieve her pain. Plaintiff claimed that a test block should have been performed first so the physician could assess any possible reaction, such as diarrhea and incontinence, to the block. Plaintiff was being treated by the defendant for pain associated with her pancreatic cancer. Plaintiff is now considered a survivor of pancreatic cancer which was diagnosed in June of 2000.

After a week and half trial, the jury awarded $1,327,333 in damages. The insurance carrier for the defendant, Illinois State Mutual Inter-Insurance Exchange (ISMIE) made no settlement offer to Ms. Carroll either prior to or during the trial.

John M. Saletta represented Carla Carroll. Judge William Haddad presided over the trial in case number 04 L 7377.

A Livingston County jury has awarded a $14.6 million judgment to a woman who lost part of her leg while working as a flagger on a highway construction site.

In September 2002, a concrete cutter that had a 9-foot wheel climbed out of its trench and went out of control, and the operator couldn’t shut down the machine by pressing the emergency-stop button.

The woman, then 31, had her back to the machine and was holding a sign to control traffic moving past the construction site on Interstate 55 near Pontiac , Illinois . The machine ran over her and cut off her right leg below the knee.

The machine was owned by G.M. Sipes Construction, which purchased it and received maintenance work from the defendant Vermeer Sales and Service of Central Illinois.

Robert J. Napleton said he learned in discovery that Vermeer knew that a G.M. Sipes employee had rigged a component in the engine in such a way that the emergency-stop button was rendered useless.

The lawsuit alleged that Vermeer was negligent for not removing the rigging device and not recommending that G.M. Sipes take the machine out of service until the engine was fixed. G.M. Sipes was named as a third-party defendant in the lawsuit.

The jury verdict is the highest ever recorded in Livingston County , shattering a previous high of nearly $1.2 million for a crushed hand, according to John L. Kirkton, editor of the Jury Verdict Reporter.

It’s a significant victory for road construction workers across the state because the job site conditions were extremely dangerous for the construction workers as well as motorists proceeding down [Interstate] 55, Napleton said. Maybe this verdict will send a message to make safety the highest order of the day.

In its hour-long deliberation, the jury found that G.M. Sipes was 75 percent liable and Vermeer was 25 percent liable.

Because Vermeer was found to be at least 25 percent liable, state law requires that the company pay the entire award. The judgment will be reduced by $1.2 million due to a prior settlement between the plaintiff and the machine’s manufacturer.

Circuit Court Judge Harold J. Frobish of the 11th Judicial Circuit presided over the trial, which began on March 31, 2008 and ended on April 8, 2008 .

Bobbi Jo Craver v. Vermeer Sales and Services, et al., No. 04 L 11.

The Illinois Supreme Court appointed Bob Napleton as the Chairman of the Illinois Supreme Court Committee on Jury Instructions in Civil Cases. The Illinois Supreme Court appointed Mr. Napleton to a 3 year term expiring on December 31, 2010 . This important committee studies and recommends new jury instructions for civil cases or modification to existing instructions. These instructions are read and given to every jury in the entire state of Illinois deciding a civil lawsuit.

The family of a sportscaster who died of a heart problem after his doctor allegedly failed to perform tests has settled his lawsuit against the doctor and the hospital where the doctor’s office was located for more than $1.5 million dollars.

Darrian Chapman, 37, died in 2002, a few days before a follow-up appointment with his doctor, who had failed to conduct a Holter monitor test, an echocardiogram and a Thallium stress test, the lawsuit said. The doctor also didn’t install an implantable defibrillator to regulate heart rhythm for Chapman, who suffered from cardiac sarcoidosis.

He is survived by his wife and two children, now 16 and 14, from a previous marriage.

Dr. Stuart Greenfield and his employer, Northwestern Cardiology and Internal Medicine, S.C., paid $990,000 of his $1 million dollar policy limits.

The family sued Northwestern Memorial Hospital , on whose campus Greenfield had an office, as the principal and Greenfield as its apparent agent. The hospital paid $550,000.

Robert J. Napleton and John M. Saletta of Motherway & Napleton, LLP represented the family.

Cook County Circuit Judge Thomas L. Hogan approved the settlement on October 1, 2007 .

The case number is 03 L 3491.