Indiana Injury Lawyer Blog

In Ka v. City of Indianapolis, the Indiana Court of Appeals held that the City of Indianapolis was not liable to the owners of a residence who sustained property damage and personal injury after sewage from a City pipe backed up into their home.

In affirming the trial court’s judgment in favor of the City, the court of appeals stated that a municipality is not strictly liable for injuries resulting from defects in the city’s infrastructure, and is only liable when the city has actual or constructive notice of the defect and then fails to exercise ordinary care and diligence to remedy the defect.

In Ka, the homeowners failed to present evidence that the City had either actual or constructive notice of the defect in the sewer connection. In fact, the City presented evidence that neither the homeowners nor the contractor charged with cleaning the sewers even reported a problem with the sewer connection before the accident.

Please click here to read the full opinion.

In T.W. v. Review Board of the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, the Indiana Court of Appeals held that a claimant’s failure to disclose self-employment, absent other findings, was insufficient to support the Review Board’s determination that the claimant was ineligible to receive unemployment benefits.

In T.W., the claimant, a construction staffing manager, was laid off by his employer in January 2010. In applying for unemployment benefits that same month, claimant certified that he had not received any earnings from self-employment. In March 2010, claimant became a member in an out-of-state construction staffing company in which he obtained a twenty-five percent ownership interest. Claimant served as an officer and sales manager of the out-of-state company, while working fifty to sixty hours a week. The claimant, however, did not receive any income from the out-of-state company and continued to actively seek for employment while receiving unemployment benefits.

Please click here to read the full opinion.

Deciding an issue of first impression in Indiana, the Indiana Court of Appeals, in Flores v. Gutierrez, held that a photograph of a damaged vehicle could be used as evidence in determining the extent of bodily injury sustained by a driver in an accident, even without the support of expert testimony. The motor vehicle collision giving rise the personal injury lawsuit occurred in Hammond, Indiana, and the jury trial took place in Lake County, Indiana.

In Flores, a jury found Juan Rocha Gutierrez liable for an automobile collision in which Raymond Flores was injured. The jury, however, did not award Flores any damages. Flores appealed the jury determination and argued that certain evidence was improperly admitted for the consideration of the jury. Specifically, Flores argued that a photograph showing minimal damage to his vehicle after the collision should have been excluded for purposes of determining his sustained injuries. At trial, Gutierrez was able to admit the photograph even without any testimony from an expert witness establishing a causal link between the damage to the vehicle and Flores’ injuries.

Continue reading "Photo of Damaged Vehicle Admissible to Prove Extent of Personal Injury - Motor Vehicle Collision Occurring in Hammond, Indiana " »

A Cincinnati family that was injured at the Sugarland concert at the Indiana State Fair on August 13, 2011 has retained Tony Patterson of the law firm Parr Richey Obremskey Frandsen and Patterson to represent them. Three members of the family were injured by the collapsing concert stage.

Parr Richey dispatched independent engineers from the Chicago offices of CTL Group who have visited the site to begin researching the cause of the collapsing stage in order to get an adequate and complete understanding of this unfortuante incident.

WRTV 6 is reporting on theindychannel.com that a crash on Interstate 65, just south of U.S. 52, has resulted in 1 death.

Shortly before 4:00a.m. on August 11, a tractor-trailer ran into the back of two other tractor-trailers while they were stopped inside a construction zone. One of the trucks was carrying a trailer filled with 50-gallon barrels of petroleum and burst into flames. The driver of one of the trucks, Cesar Rodrigues, of Chicago, died as a result of the explosion. The other drivers were not seriously injured.

Please click here to read the full article at theindychannel.com.