Category — Pleading

Sept. 29, 2011 - One interesting decision caught our eye this week because it is not every day that a United States chemical manufacturer is sued for personal injuries under the Torture Victim Protection Act (“TVPA”) or the Alien Torture Statute (“ATS”):  Aziz v. Alcolac, Inc., 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 19227 (4th Cir. Sept. 19, 2011).  The TVPA allows civil recovery against “an individual who engages in torture or extrajudicial killing.”  Id. at *7.  [Read more →]

July 15, 2011 -  Earlier this week, Judge Jackson of the Eastern District of Virginia, Newport News Division, denied defendant’s Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss plaintiff’s breach of implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose claim in a case involving an allegedly defective folding shower chair for handicapped persons.  In Baker v. Patterson Medical Supply, Inc., 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 75615 (E.D. Va. July 13, 2011), Baker claims that he sustained serious injuries, including amputation of his left arm, severe emotional distress, and kidney failure, when his left arm became entangled in a folding chair allegedly designed, manufactured, and sold by the defendant. [Read more →]