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Case Summaries

Injury & Tort Law

[12/01] Bates v. Missouri & N. Arkansas R.R. Co., Inc.
In an action raising personal injury claims against defendant-railroad, an order remanding the case to state court is affirmed as modified where: 1) an argument that personal injury claims were completely preempted by the Federal Railroad Safety Act was foreclosed by recent amendments to the Act and a recent circuit court decision; 2) absent diversity, a state court is the proper forum for litigating defendant's preemption defense; and 3) the district court did not err in finding that plaintiff's claims were not completely preempted under the Locomotive Inspection Act (LIA).

[12/01] McLean v. Gordon
In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action against defendants, social service workers and state department of social services, arising from the death of a foster child in an accidental shooting, denial of defendants' motion for summary judgment is reversed and remanded where: 1) the actions of defendants in repeatedly failing to check a foster home for unsecured firearms was not conscious-shocking, despite the fact that there was documentation that firearms were in the home; 2) official immunity protected defendants from liability under a state-law wrongful death statute; and 3) the state agency was not a person subject to suit for purposes of section 1983 litigation.

[11/28] Estate of Storm v. Northwest Iowa Hosp. Corp.
In a negligence case brought by the estate of a stillborn baby, the estate's interlocutory appeal is dismissed for lack of jurisdiction as plaintiff failed to timely file the requisite application for permission to appeal in the circuit court, or the equivalent.

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