On February 11, 2010, 23-year-old Scott Wilson drowned in his car when it flipped and landed upside down in a Wellington canal after an early morning auto accident. The other driver, polo mogul John Goodman, is accused of driving while drunk and impaired, speeding, running a stop sign, colliding with Wilson’s vehicle, leaving the scene of the accident, and waiting about an hour before calling 911. Goodman also allegedly called his girlfriend prior to alerting authorities to the accident.
A criminal trial against Goodman is scheduled to begin in South Florida on March 6th. He is charged with D.U.I. manslaughter and motor vehicular homicide. According to Goodman, now 48, his cell phone was not working at the time of the accident and he left the scene to get help. After the accident, Goodman’s blood alcohol content was purportedly more than twice Florida’s legal limit of .08 percent.
Wilson’s parents have also filed a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit against Goodman. The lawsuit, also scheduled to begin in March, made international headlines after Goodman adopted his 42-year-old girlfriend, Heather Hutchins. Although attorneys for Goodman’s minor biological children have asked a Miami-Dade judge to toss out the adoption, it makes Hutchins the current beneficiary of a $300 million trust established for his children.
Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley is presiding over the Wilsons’ civil case. He has expressed disbelief over the adoption and called it a “legal twilight zone.” In September, Judge Kelley refused to allow the Wilsons to introduce evidence in the civil case regarding the contents of the trust because Goodman’s children, not Goodman, were the beneficiaries. On January 26th, Judge Kelley reversed his decision and stated information about the trust may now be presented to jurors.
Goodman is an heir to a $1.4 billion fortune. According to Goodman’s civil attorney, the adoption was merely an estate planning tool designed to protect the contents of the trust. Litigation concerning the adoption is currently taking place in Florida, Texas, and Delaware.
Losing someone you love is always devastating, but it can be especially difficult when your loved one died as a result of a preventable accident. Unfortunately, tragic deaths such as this are increasingly common. A wrongful death claim can provide compensation to close relatives of someone killed due to another person’s carelessness, negligence or wrongful act. Your ability to file a wrongful death case will depend on your relationship to the deceased person. In Florida, a family member has up to two years to file a claim for wrongful death. Because of the limited time period in which to file your case, it is important to speak with a qualified wrongful death lawyer as soon as possible after a fatal accident.
Read more “Civil and Criminal Trials Against Polo Magnate Who Adopted 42-year-old Girlfriend Begin Soon”
Early Sunday morning, 11 people were killed and 21 injured in a massive vehicle pileup on Interstate 75 south of Gainesville. The accident, which involved seven 18-wheelers and 12 passenger vehicles, left behind fiery wreckage which spanned more than one mile of roadway. Poor visibility from a mixture of heavy smoke and fog is being blamed for the crash. Rescuers on the scene stated it was nearly impossible to find victims in the dark cloud.
Homestead, Florida residents Luis Hernandez and his wife Karen Camacho were aboard the Costa Concordia for their “second honeymoon” when the cruise ship struck a rock formation and began taking on water off of the coast of Italy earlier this month. The ship was carrying approximately 4,000 people from across the globe when it tipped onto its side near Giglio Island. Costa Crociere, a unit of the Carnival Corporation, operated the Costa Concordia. The company has placed blame for the disaster squarely on the ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino. The ship was reportedly sailing off course and too close to the rocky Italian shoreline when it was damaged.
According to research recently released by the University of South Florida, cities that utilize red light cameras have a 25 percent higher rate of traffic fatalities related to red light running than cities that do not use the technology. The research, published in the Florida Health Review, completely refutes a February 2011 study disseminated by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety which stated red light cameras would have prevented approximately 800 additional traffic deaths in 48 cities during a five year period. 
The family of a Sarasota offshore speedboat racer killed during the Super Boat International World Championships in Key West last November is poised to file a wrongful death lawsuit against Super Boat International Productions, Inc. 59-year-old Joey Gratton purportedly drowned after his boat flipped over twice during a Key West race. His family claims Gratton survived the crash, but drowned due to a poor emergency response on the part of race organizers. Gratton’s death followed closely behind that of two Missouri men killed two days earlier when their boat crashed on the first day of racing.
This month, a Florida jury awarded $200 million to the family of a nursing home resident who died in 2004 at the Pinellas Park Care and Rehabilitation Center. 92-year-old Elvira Nunziata was strapped in a wheelchair when she disappeared from a group of residents and made her way to an emergency exit stairwell. It allegedly took nursing home staff more than one hour to notice she was missing. Nunziata was found at the bottom of the stairwell sill in her wheelchair. Paramedics were called, but she died not long after they arrived at the facility.
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