You don’t have to be a severely allergic child whose parents – and school nurses – have been shamefully price-gouged by EpiPen-maker Mylan, to feel unjustly treated these days.
For example, if your parents put you in Kiddie Kollege daycare in Franklin Township, NJ before it was shut down in 2006, you probably have mercury poisoning. That’s because, unknown to your parents, Kiddie Kollege was located in a former thermometer factory. According to a class action lawsuit filed against the township and state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), permits were issued for Kiddie Kollege “even though officials were aware of the previous issues with contamination at the thermometer plant.”
But don’t expect those officials to take much responsibility. This week, the state Supreme Court “found the township and DEP were protected from liability in the case because they are government agencies.” That means “Franklin Township and the state Department of Environmental Protection do not have to contribute to a medical monitoring fund for kids” even though over “100 children were exposed to mercury contamination at Kiddie Kollege” and "[m]any had high levels of mercury in their system when tested.” So sad.
But sad doesn’t even begin to describe the plight of “youth with developmental or intellectual disabilities and serious behavior challenges” condemned to live in facilities run by AdvoServ, “owned by a private equity firm,” which has a “long record of problematic treatment.” In other words, horrible abuse.
Most recently, reported Pro Publica, a teenage girl died at an AdvoServ group home in Delaware. “Attorney Chris Gowen, who has a lawsuit against AdvoServ concerning a different teen, said he has learned workers were manually restraining the girl when she became unresponsive. …” AdvoServ cares “for roughly 700 children and adults in that state, Florida, and New Jersey, and was expanding into Virginia.” Gowen has also sued “on behalf of a young resident who says he was left unsupervised and raped repeatedly by other clients at AdvoServ homes during more than four years there. His neck was also injured during a restraint performed by workers.”
Over in Arizona, if as a child you were exposed to lethal asbestos when your dad came home from work with it all over his clothes, the state Court of Appeals just ruled that Arizona asbestos companies have no duty to help you.
In the first ruling of its kind in Arizona, the judges rejected the contention of survivors of Ernest Quiroz that his father’s employer, Reynolds Metal Co., should be held legally responsible for the son’s mesothelioma, a form of cancer frequently associated with asbestos exposure, and eventual death.
Appellate Judge Jon Thompson, writing for the unanimous court, acknowledged that some states have allowed lawsuits based on “take-home exposure.” But Thompson said that’s not the way Arizona laws are written.…
Boy, if that’s not an invitation to rewrite Arizona’s laws, I don’t know what is.
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