Verdicts and Settlements

Attorneys serving Beaumont, Orange, Port Arthur, and Surrounding Areas Of Texas

 

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The lawyers at Bush Lewis, P.L.L.C. are committed to achieving the best possible results for our clients, whether we do it by reaching a settlement as a result of our trial preparation or by trying a case to a verdict before a jury. Our founding partners, Don Bush and Ken Lewis, as well as our senior trial lawyer Jack Smith, are all AV-rated, the highest possible rating by Martindale-Hubbell Legal Directory. This rating is determined by their peers–other members of the legal profession. Don Bush, Ken Lewis, Jack Smith, and Chris Smith are all Board Certified as Personal Injury Trial Specialists under the stringent judicial and peer review and testing and experience requirements of the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. These achievements attest to our personal injury attorneys’ legal preeminence and extremely high ethical standards. In addition, our environmental specialist, Dale Hanks has been licensed and handling cancer and other environmental and workplace disease cases for over 20 years.

Over the last quarter century we have achieved critical recoveries for our clients in hundreds of successful personal injury verdicts and settlements. Important results in litigation are not appropriately measured in dollars but our firm has achieved many million dollar plus results–either by trial verdict or settlement. Our firm has demonstrated an unsurpassed commitment to tenaciously fight for our clients in tough cases. Bush Lewis, P.L.L.C. does not hesitate to appeal and retry cases. Some cases have required our firm to handle as many as three separate lawsuits and make arguments to as many as five different courts before procuring a successful result. Many key appellate court decisions that either clarified or created important rights for injury victims were a result of the advocacy of lawyers in our firm. As a result, our track record is one of success both in winning cases and in helping to draw public attention to important issues. Be assured that when we are on your side, our diligence and passion are fully committed to winning your case.

The State Bar of Texas has established guidelines that prohibit a lawyer from communicating past successes or financial results obtained if that communication is likely to create an unjustified expectation about results the lawyer can achieve. We support those guidelines because no two death or personal injury cases are identical and because past success is not a guarantee of future success. While no law firm involved in handling difficult cases gets a successful result every time, over the years the lawyers at Bush Lewis have successfully handled many diverse cases in many different courts. Some of those cases include:

Pharmaceutical Cases

• Beaumont, Texas, mother loses only child from injuries due to infections and injuries from Dalkon shield IUD resulted in confidential settlement.
• Port Arthur, Texas, partial paralysis from swine flu vaccine resulted in
  confidential settlement against federal government (which assumed responsibility for vaccine manufacturer Wyeth).
• 100+ Norplant birth control implant side effect cases settled with Wyeth for confidential amounts.
• 20 Southeast Texas initial opt out Fen-Phen cases (ranging from minor
  heart valve damage to double heart valve replacements) with heart valve damage from Wyeth diet drug products Pondimin and Redux settled just prior to jury selection for confidential amounts.
• 40+ Propulsid antiacid drug side effect cases settled for confidential amounts.
• 50+ East and Southeast Texas second round opt out Fen-Phen cases (ranging from moderate heart valve damage to death) with heart valve injuries from Wyeth diet drug products Pondimin and Redux settled for confidential amounts.
• Orange woman loss of vision in one eye from reaction to Wyeth flu vaccine settled for confidential amount.
• 340+ nationwide Zicam Nasal Cold Spray loss of smell cases settled with manufacturer in Arizona state court case.
• 19 zinc cold nasal spray smell loss cases settled against Zicam competitor drug company in Pennsylvania state court.
• 1 Texas federal court zinc cold nasal spray smell loss case settled against Zicam competitor drug company.

Cancer & Other Environmental Disease Cases

• Port Arthur, Texas, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma cancer from rubber manufacturing workplace chemical exposure resulted in multiple settlements with chemical manufacturers and suppliers.
• Port Neches, Texas, long-term styrene-butadiene rubber industry workers with butadiene exposure at various worksites including Texas-U.S. Chemical Company, Ameripol-Synpol, B.F. Goodrich, Neches Butane, Texaco Chemical, U.S. Rubber and/or Synpol facilities all received confidential settlements from various defendant corporations (which included in some cases B.F. Goodrich Company, Neches Butane, Texas Chemical Company, Texas-U.S. Chemical, or Huntsman Petrochemical Company) in separate cases after development of the following diseases:
  • Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma;
  • Lymphoma;
  • Both non-Hodgkin's lymphoma & chronic lymphocytic leukemia--2 cases;
  • Chronic lymphocytic leukemia--3 cases;
  • Acute myelogenous leukemia (non-death)--2 cases;
  • Myelogenous leukemia;
  • Multiple myeloma (death)--2 cases; and
  • Myelofibrosis & bone marrow failure.
• Port Neches, Texas, long-term styrene-butadiene rubber industry worker with butadiene exposure at B. F. Goodrich Company developed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, resulting in death. Worker's compensation case for death benefits filed against employer's worker's compensation insurer.
• Port Neches, Texas, short-term styrene-butadiene rubber industry worker with butadiene exposure at U.S. Rubber Company developed acute myelogenous leukemia, resulting in death. Lawsuit against B.F. Goodrich Company, Neches Butane, Texaco Chemical Company and others resulted in confidential settlement.
• Orange, Texas, long-term synthetic rubber manufacturing workers with butadiene exposure at Firestone facility individual lawsuits against Texaco Chemical Company, Texaco, Chevron, and other butadiene suppliers resulted in confidential settlement for the following diseases:
  • Chronic myelogenous leukemia;
  • Multiple myeloma--3 cases; and
  • Thrombocytopenia & bone marrow failure .
• Orange, Texas, long-term synthetic rubber manufacturing worker with mixed dust (including metal catalysts) exposure claim against employer for death from lung cancer, resulting in confidential settlement against employer.
• Texas City, Texas, long-term petrochemical worker with benzene exposure at Amocao facility developed chronic myelogenous leukemia, resulting in death. Lawsuit against Amoco and affiliated companies resulted in confidential settlement.
• Port Arthur, Texas, families of laborers exposed to gasoline and other benzene-containing products at Texaco refinery brought lawsuits against Texaco and others resulted in confidential settlement for the following diseases:
  • Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (death)--3 cases; and
  • Multiple myeloma (death).
• Tyler, Texas, long-term worker exposed to benzene-containing solvents at the Kelly-Springfield/Goodyear tire manufacturing facility developed acute myelogenous leukemia, resulting in death. Lawsuit against Goodyear, Shell Oil Company, Union Oil Company of California, and Exxon Mobil resulted in confidential settlement.
• Port Neches, Texas, 16 different graduates of Port Neches-Groves High School (most of whom also lived in the community and engaged in outdoor neighborhood activities there) exposed to butadiene emitted from the nearby synthetic rubber manufacturing complex and cases filed against Texaco Chemical Company, Huntsman Petrochemical Corporation, B.F. Goodrich Company, Ameripol-Synpol, and others, resulting in confidential settlements, for the following specific conditions from the exposure:
  • Lymphoma only--8 cases;
• Lymphoma and polycythemia vera;
• Acute lymphocytic leukemia;
• Chronic lymphocytic leukemia;
• Acute myelogenous leukemia;
• Chronic myelogenous leukemia;
• Chronic lymphocytic leukemia--2 cases; and
• Bone marrow failure resulting in death.

Maritime, Admiralty & Jones Act Cases

• Orange, Texas, tugboat crewman suffered serious head injury in fall while stepping from his vessel to an improperly maintained dock; resulted in a settlement.
  
• South China Sea, serious physical and psychological injuries from capsizing and sinking of vessel when McDermott refused to evacuate or abandon the site before an approaching typhoon struck resulted in settlement with McDermott.
• Mid-Atlantic Ocean, death of chief engineer on ocean going vessel from failure of employer to properly treat infection or evacuate resulted in federal court settlements against employer and telephonic medical advisory company.
• Gulf of Mexico, permanent personal injuries to offshore worker on jack-up rig in 80-foot fall from H2S flare boom resulted in settlement against employer/owner.
• Newport News, Virginia, closed head injury to seaman when crewman on ocean going vessel dropped empty oil drum into engine room resulted in settlement.
• Toledo Bend Reservoir, Texas, hard hat diver drowning death in 12-foot of water just below reservoir dam resulted in settlement.

Major Motor Vehicle Crashes

• Chambers County, Texas, 42-year-old driver killed in motor vehicle pileup
  on IH-10 on Old & Lost River Bridge resulted in largest jury verdict ever in county, resulted in confidential settlement.
• Orange, Texas, young mother parked in her yard waiting to enter street suffered permanent impairment from multiple crushing and fracture injuries when trailer disconnected from a towing vehicle and struck her vehicle because of a defective trailer coupler design resulting in a jury verdict against manufacturer of trailer coupler.
• Jefferson County, Texas, female driver killed in head-on collision between two huge coal hauling vehicles in a lignite mine caused by improper design of mine roads and improper traffic pattern; resulted in a settlement.
• Bridge City, Texas, auto accident: A young mother sustained multiple compound, complex fractures and brain damage and son was injured in head-on auto accident on bridge with intoxicated driver; resulted in a federal court jury verdict and settlements after two post-trial lawsuits.
• Waco, Texas, car accident: A teenage death and adult permanent injuries from head-on interstate collision with intoxicated driver resulted in pretrial settlement.
• Orange County, Texas, death of male motorcycle driver from a trailer jump off resulted in confidential settlement.
• Houston, Texas, car accident in Texas: a young man was decapitated when his car came over the top of an overpass on an interstate highway and struck the rear of an unseen, unlit commercial truck whose driver had passed out from alcohol. Resulted in settlement with driver's employer.
  

Defective Vehicles and Airbag Deployment

• Bryan, Texas, truck driver crushing death in heavy truck rollover from defective collapsing cab resulted in confidential settlement with truck manufacturer.
• Livingston, Texas, church secretary death from burns in gasoline fire from fuel line and plastic tank ruptures in Ford Aerostar one-car accident resulted confidential settlement with Ford Motor Company.
• Galveston, Texas, serious spinal injuries to passenger in a 1997 Toyota Tercel received in a relatively minor auto accident when defective seatbelt allowed "submarining" and put passenger in unsafe position for airbag deployment resulted in a confidential settlement.
• Port Arthur, Texas, car accident - serious spinal injuries to driver of 1991 Nissan Maxima in minor impact rear-end car accident caused serious personal injury from a defective seat back collapse. Resulted in confidential settlement with manufacturer.
• Orange, Texas, father killed in Ford Bronco rollover resulted in confidential settlement with Ford Motor Company.
• Nederland, Texas, pregnant driver suffered multiple head injuries in car accident when defective seatbelt fails and unforgiving interior of Chrysler causes brain injuries resulted in confidential settlement.
  
• Alexandria, Louisiana, truck driver suffocated when defective truck cab crushed into him in rollover accident resulted in federal court settlement by truck manufacturer.
• Houston, Texas, warehouse driver suffered brain and face injuries and loss of use of dominant arm when launched through passenger side second row window of Chevrolet Astro minivan in minor angled impact from defective seatback failure resulted in confidential settlement with General Motors.
• Orange, Texas, death in relatively low impact auto accident from failure to have airbag in Ford Mustang resulted in confidential settlement with Ford.
• Galveston, Texas, death of student pilot in Piper single engine plane crash resulted in settlements against manufacturer and mechanic.
  

18-Wheeler Crashes

• Brownsville, Texas, Orange residents killed in vehicle when a tractor-trailer collided with them while they were parked at a border patrol station. Other tractor-trailer drivers and owners paid our clients a settlement.
• Jefferson County, Texas, man suffered crippling injuries when defectively
  loaded and restrained steel beams fell on him from an 18-wheeler, resulting in a jury verdict.
• Vidor, Texas, mentally handicapped adult pedestrian suffered brain and emotional injuries from blow to head by unrestrained portion of a federal government drilling rig being transported on interstate highway resulted in confidential settlement from federal government.

Medical Malpractice & Nursing Home Abuse & Neglect

• Anahuac, Texas, nursing home resident suffered multiple falls, bedsores, infections, and eventual painful death with inadequate pain medication from neglect; resulted in settlement with nursing home owner and management in bankruptcy court.
• Orange, Texas, nursing home resident killed by an unknown assailant inside the home because of inadequate staffing and improper procedures for restraint of patients suffering from senility; resulted in a settlement for the decedent's heirs.
• Orange, Texas, nursing home resident suffered multiple head injuries and massive brain damage when a fellow resident was let out the front door in a wheelchair;  the alarm system was not working and no doctors were notified about the fall; resulted in a settlement.
  
• Beaumont, Texas, premature infant died from negligent evaluation, monitoring and care and failure to transfer to higher level hospital resulted in confidential settlement with hospital and neonatologist.
• Woodville, Texas, county hospital nurse mistakenly gave lung paralytic drug intended for ventilator patients instead of the needed antacid, causing a cessation of breathing, coma and brain damage before the patient was revived. Lawsuit against the hospital resulted in confidential settlement.
• Beaumont, Texas, lack of timely and adequate response when premature child in neonatal intensive care unit suffered prolonged depressed breathing from infection caused brain injury and cerebral palsy. Lawsuit against neonatologist and hospital resulted in confidential settlements.
• Orange, Texas, hospital emergency room failed to timely respond to young adult's hypertensive symptoms until condition progressed to heart attack and death. Confidential settlement of claim against hospital without lawsuit.
• Beaumont, Texas, elementary school child in neurological unit for bipolar disorder was given twice appropriate dose of lithium carbonate for a week, causing toxicity, hypotension, heart arrhythmia and near death. Lawsuit against hospital and treating psychiatrists resulted in confidential settlements.
• Beaumont, Texas, patient reported to emergency room with back and hip pain mistakenly diagnosed and treated as back strain rather than abdominal aortic aneurysm, resulting in near death and severe complications after delay in emergency surgery. Lawsuit against treating provider and hospital resulted in confidential settlements.
• Beaumont, Texas, patient prematurely removed from ventilator after developing post-cervical surgery complications with lung paralysis drugs continued, resulting in pulmonary arrest and death. Lawsuit against hospital and pulmonologist resulted in confidential settlement.
• Beaumont, Texas, neurosurgeon failed to recognized stroke during spinal surgery and did prolonged damaging follow-up emergency surgery that resulted in permanent neurological injuries. Lawsuit against neurosurgeon and hospital resulted in confidential settlements.
• Beaumont, Texas, emergency room personnel allowed patient to have miscarriage in waiting room without ever triaging or treating patient. Resulted in confidential settlement of claim without a lawsuit.

Defamation

• Beaumont, Texas, employee of vendor falsely accused of stealing from Wal-Mart resulted in a federal court defamation verdict against Wal-Mart and later confidential settlement.
  
• Beaumont, Texas, employee of vendor falsely accused by medical supply company of paying for $20 in personal medical items with doctor's office account resulted in state court jury verdit and later confidential settlement.

Employment Law Cases

FELA (Railroad Worker Cases)

• Livingston, Texas, permanently disabling personal injuries to Southern Pacific railroad employee from freight train derailment caused by failure to warn of weather damage to rails and poor maintenance resulted in post-trial settlement with railroad and others.

Explosions & Other Work & Workplace Disasters

• Jasper, Texas, paraplegic worker injuries in sawmill fall due to unsafe premises resulted in settlement against employer’s parent corporation.
• Port Arthur, Texas, 2 of 17 deaths in St. Patrick’s Day explosion of Texaco refinery resulted in confidential settlements.
  
• Corpus Christi, Texas, contractor employee death in refinery explosion resulted in confidential settlement with refinery owner.
• Beaumont, Texas, paraplegic injuries from collapse of crane boom resulted in confidential settlement against crane manufacturer.
• Orange, Texas, laborer electrocuted and killed when crane tangles in un-insulated power line resulted in confidential settlement.
• Beaumont, Texas, 18-year-old worker’s tongue blown out when high-pressure washer with improper short barrel turns into his throat resulted in confidential settlement with training and supply company.
• Chambers County, Texas, worker killed from liquid propane inhalation at
  gas transmission plant due to cutting of incorrect pipe because of incorrect instructions from plant owner; resulted in a settlement from plant owner.
• Port Arthur, Texas, 1 of 5 deaths in rupture of catalytic converter unit at Texaco refinery resulted in confidential settlements after 6-week jury trial.
• Kountze, Texas, truck driver froze to death when employer failed to wire money for gas, food and lodging resulted in a state court judgment.
  
• Mississippi, construction worker injured at construction site resulted in settlement;
• Beaumont, Texas, workman injured in grain shake resulted in settlement.
  
• Baytown, Texas, worker was burned from release of gasoline fumes into a refinery’s sewer system; died three weeks later, resulting in a settlement for his widow and children.
• Beaumont, Texas, soft drink delivery driver lost eye from defective exploding soft drink bottle resulted in post-federal court verdict settlement against bottle manufacturer and sealing of file.

Railroad Crossings, Other Roadway Defects & Premise Dangers

• Port Arthur, Texas, multi-person injuries and deaths when contractor’s employee turned into contractor’s entrance from highway without turning lane; years earlier, the State had requested that Texaco build a turning lane due to danger from rear-end accidents and unsafe turns. resulted in confidential settlement with contractor and Texaco as well as construction of the needed turning lane.
• Orangefield, Texas, death of 18-wheeler driver in railroad crossing crash with Amtrak train resulted in post-verdict settlement with Southern Pacific and building of overpass over crossing.
• Jasper, Texas, murder of truck driver at poorly maintained, unlit, unsecured and un-patrolled truck stop resulted in settlement with truck stop owner.
• Beaumont, Texas, death of interstate highway construction worker due to grossly defective warning sign and traffic control by employer resulted in settlement with employer.

Child Sex Abuse

• Beaumont, Texas, two elementary school boys sexually abused by relative for several years resulted in a state court jury verdict and eventual confidential settlement after multiple lawsuits and review by three different courts.
• Corpus Christi, Texas, grade school girl molested by relative, resulting in lawsuit and judgment.
• Nederland, Texas, teenage girl molested by Camp Fire Girl counselor at summer camp, resulting in lawsuit and confidential settlement.
• Woodville, Texas, teenage girl repeatedly molested by mother's boy friend, resulting in lawsuit and confidential settlement.
• Port Arthur, Texas, repeated molestation of teenage girl by step-father resulted in lawsuit, trial and judgment.
• Port Arthur, Texas, unwatched preschooler molested by another day care classmate and incident not promptly reported when discovered by worker, resulting in lawsuit and confidential settlement against day care.
• Vidor, Texas, teenage girl repeatedly molested by step-father, resulting in lawsuit, confidential settlement and deportation of foreign born step-father.
• Frisco, Texas, grade school boy molested repeatedly by classmate, resulting in lawsuit and confidential settlement.
• Beaumont, Texas, young man molests two younger relatives, resulting in lawsuit and confidential settlement.

Child Deaths & Serious Injuries

• Beaumont, Texas, amputation of finger of young child from defective and unprotected driveway gate resulted in settlement with homeowner.
• Galveston, Texas, 9-year-old girl suffered 3rd degree burns over 40% of body from apartment fire started from acetone fumes of fingernail polish remover in unsafe retail container resulted in confidential settlements from polish remover, clothing and furniture component manufacturers.
  
• Vidor, Texas, toddler-drowning death in unsecured neighbor’s swimming pool resulted in confidential settlement.
• Houston, Texas, teenager drowning in unwatched hotel swimming pool with improperly designed sides and bottom resulted in settlement against hotel.
• Lumberton, Texas, elementary school boy on bicycle suffered brain injury when struck by commercial truck resulted in confidential settlement from truck driver’s company.
  

Business, Commercial & Estate Cases

• Orange, Texas, trial verdict against a large finance corporation for
  negligent and improper seizure of property and foreclosure of a mortgage which resulted in a huge loss to a small business.

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