Wrongful death lawsuit illustrates multi-state litigation issues

On behalf of Aiken and Aiken P.C. Personal Injury Attorneys posted in Wrongful Death, on Saturday, August 29, 2015

The present ability of companies to use a variety of transportation methods to move their products to market means that what affects consumers in one state may have its origins in another. This is one of the aspects of a wrongful death action filed in a federal court in Boston by the parents of an eight-year-old Massachusetts boy who died as a result of becoming ill with an E. coli bacterial infection in 2014.According to the complaint, the boy became ill after eating contaminated ground beef purchased by his parents in South Weymouth and died two weeks later. The source of the tainted beef was allegedly a beef ranch and meat processing plant located in Missouri. The parents are suing both the ranch/processing plant and the store where the bought the ground beef. Lawsuits that involve multi-state plaintiffs and defendants will frequently find their way into federal court based on what the law refers to as “diversity jurisdiction”. There are other requirements as well to file suit in federal as opposed to Massachusetts state court, such as a minimum amount in controversy (that is, the amount of damages that the plaintiffs are claiming).This story also shows that civil lawsuits can become time-consuming to pursue. The wrongful death lawsuit was initially filed in either July or December of last year, it still has not reached the point where a trial date has been set. That may take place during a scheduling conference set for September of this year.Physical distance, including out-of-state defendants, is not a barrier to claims for compensation; but it will require a plaintiff’s injury attorney to understand when and how federal court jurisdiction applies in such instances, and for that attorney to be able to help his or her clients to understand how such jurisdiction works.Source: Wicked Local Braintree, “Beef ranch in Braintree family death lawsuit hit by new federal action,” Lane Lambert, August 17, 2015