A Maryland family recently filed a $5 million dollar wrongful death suit against Air Ag Inc. and its owner Robert J. Collins for the death of Edward Louis Brittingham in June 2003. The lawsuit claims that Brittingham died after he was exposed to Warrior, a highly toxic pesticide, when the Delaware-based aerial pesticide application company sprayed it onto a wheat field near a residential area in the city of Berlin.
The suit, filed on June 8 in Worcester County on behalf of Brittingham’s widow and five children, alleges that Air Ag Inc. and Collins were negligent because they “knew or should have known that the pesticide being applied was highly toxic and would cause serious injury including death if improperly or negligently applied.”
Causes for filing wrongful death suits in Maryland include:
-Medical errors
-Criminal attacks leading to injury
-Work-related exposure to dangerous conditions or substances
– Accidents
Judges and juries in Maryland decide damage amounts based on pecuniary injury, which is how much surviving family members have lost in terms of at least one of the following:
-Financial support
-Medical insurance, pension, 401k, etc.
-Medical or funeral costs
-Prospect of inheritence
Who can file a wrongful death suit:
-A wife for the death of her husband
-A husband for the death of his wife
-Parent or parents for the loss of a child
-Child or children for the loss of a parent
$5 Million Dollar Lawsuit Filed In Alleged Berlin Pesticide Case, The Dispatch, June 15, 2006
Related Web Resource:
Maryland Pesticide Network