NFL Concussion Lawsuit Tracker: 30 & 31
On Friday, two more concussion-related lawsuits were filed against the NFL. The first lawsuit was filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania by the Locks Law Firm. The lawsuit is a mass tort comprised of 49 former players and their wives. The case is captioned John Brodie et al v. NFL. The other lawsuit is a class action, filed in the Eastern District of Louisiana, and captioned Tyrone Hughes et al v. NFL. The putative class seeks to represent, “All persons, and spouses of persons, who sustained one or more concussions, or suffered concussion like symptoms, while playing in an NFL football game and who has developed or will develop mental or physical problems as a result of the concussions or concussion like symptoms.”
In addition to the NFL, the Hughes’ lawsuit names Riddell Helmets as a defendant. The class asserts seven counts: negligence, fraud, fraudulent concealment, negligent misrepresentation, conspiracy, loss of consortium and medical monitoring. Similarly, the Brodie lawsuit asserts the same causes of action. This now brings the total lawsuits to 31. The lawyers representing the Hughes’ class expect the lawsuit to be transferred to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, joining the other 30 lawsuits.
Lawsuit total:
Easterling v. NFL (Aug. 17) E.D. Penn
Pear v. NFL (Oct. 11) CA
Barnes v. NFL (Oct. 11) CA
Maxwell v. NFL (Oct. 11) CA
Hardman v. NFL (Oct. 13; voluntarily dismissed)
Finn v. NFL (Dec. 5) NJ
Jacobs v. NFL (Dec. 20) NY-Manhattan
Levens v. NFL (Dec. 21) ATL
Lewis v. NFL (Dec. 21) ATL
Stewart v. NFL (Dec. 21) ATL
Kuykendall v. NFL (Dec. 21) ATL
Jones v. NFL (Dec. 22) MIA
Rucker v. NFL (Dec. 27) NY
Boyd v. NFL (Jan. 9) E.D. Penn
Dronett v. NFL (Jan. 9) ATL
Austin v. NFL (Jan. 9) ATL
Ron Solt v. NFL (Jan.18) E.D. Penn
Joel Steed v. NFL (Jan. 19) CA
Andrew Glover v. NFL (Jan. 19) E.D. Penn
Rob Johnson v. NFL (Jan. 20) E.D. Penn
Steve Wallace v. NFL (Jan. 23) E.D. Penn
Shawn Wooden & Ryan Fowler v. NFL (Jan. 24) Miami
Fred Barnett et al v. NFL (Feb. 2) E.D. Penn
Ashley Lelie et al v. NFL (Feb. 3) E.D. Penn
Britt Hager et al v. NFL (Feb. 3) E.D. Penn
Estate of Wally Hilgenberg v. NFL (Feb. 3) E.D. Penn
Estate of Pete Duranko v. NFL.(Feb. 9) E.D. Penn
Adams v. NFL (Feb. 9) E.D. Penn
Steve Everitt et al v. NFL (Feb. 10) E.D. Penn
Henesey v. NFL (Feb. 10) E.D. Penn
Tyrone Hughes et al v. NFL (Feb. 17) E.D. Louisiana
John Brodie et al v. NFL (Feb. 17) E.D. Penn
It would be useful to understand the differences in the various claims made in the complaints and understand how they are to be consolidated.
Finn v NFL – brings up Toradol; it has only been used since 199?. Powell says 31 teams used it by 2000;
Hausfeld – seems like the basis of many cases that goes back to the 1920s; and
Helgenberg – is a wrongful death claim (it may also bring ALS afflicted football players).
How will these be brought together?
Hey Fred:
I will work on a post to answer the first part of your question more directly. The goal when the cases are consolidated is to make the pre-trial proceedings more efficient. The lawyers are supposed to work together to plug through the early stages of the litigation. First off, the various, and perhaps differing, allegations pleaded in the complaint will not be a big issue since these will be addressed later down the road during discovery. As a tool to make the lawsuits more homogeneous, in multidistrict litigation (MDL) the court may request that the plaintiffs file a single master complaint. This is used as an administrative tool to show that the lawsuits share common questions of fact and law. Since the MDL proceedings have just begun, it is too early to predict if this tool will be used. Secondly, and a more lurking question, is what the plaintiffs will do about Riddell Helmets as a defendant. A third of the lawsuits name Riddell as a defendant, while the remaining ones do not. It will be interesting to see what the plaintiffs decide to do. Hope this answers your questions. I’ll have more about these issues in future posts. Thanks for reading!
http://lawblog.legalmatch.com/2012/02/22/personal-injury-lawsuits-eventually-football/