Wrongful Death Suits

Los Angeles County supervisors have agreed to pay $3 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the children of Edith Rodriguez, the woman who died after writhing in pain for 45 minutes on the waiting-room floor of Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital. Rodriguez's death nearly two years ago attracted national attention, becoming a symbol of an indifferent emergency system.

Graphic video of Oscar J. Grant III's death at an Oakland train station has roiled emotions in the Bay Area, leading to a demonstration at Bay Area Rapid Transit district headquarters and calls for more oversight of the agency's police force. The family of the 22-year-old father, who was shot to death by a BART police officer early on New Year's Day, filed a $25-million wrongful death claim against the agency Tuesday. John L.

The wife of a man who died last year after being shocked with a stun gun during a confrontation with Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies is suing the county and the weapon's manufacturer. In the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court, Carolina Silva accuses the county and Taser International Inc. of the wrongful death of her husband, Cesar.

The Walt Disney Co. has settled a wrongful-death lawsuit with the family of a Spanish woman that contended she suffered a fatal brain hemorrhage as a result of riding the Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland. Cristina Moreno, 23, of Barcelona rode the thrill ride while on her honeymoon in June 2000. She reportedly passed out after returning to her Hollywood hotel, never regained consciousness and died two months later. Her heirs were seeking more than $1 million in damages.

The family of a soldier whose disappearance set off a widespread search before his body was found inside a room-sized hotel air conditioner has sued the hotel for $10 million. Army Spc. Robert Hornbeck, 23, bled to death April 16 at the Hilton Savannah DeSoto after being struck by fan blades in the air conditioner blower room. His body was found nearly two weeks after he disappeared.

A federal judge Wednesday refused to hear a lawsuit filed by the father of murder victim Ronald Goldman seeking money paid to O.J. Simpson for his book "If I Did It." Simpson was acquitted in October 1995 of murdering Nicole Brown Simpson, his former wife, and her friend Goldman. But a civil jury later returned a $33.5-million judgment against Simpson, ruling that he was liable to the victims' families for their wrongful deaths. They have not received substantial money.

Despite numerous setbacks, the family of slain rapper Biggie Smalls continues to pursue a wrongful-death lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles based on a theory that a rogue LAPD detective helped orchestrate the murder. Now, with a trial set for this summer in federal court, newly disclosed police documents shed light on how that theory took shape and how police themselves discounted key parts of it almost immediately.

A prominent Los Angeles-based civil rights attorney filed two wrongful-death lawsuits against the city of Riverside on Monday in the shooting deaths of two unarmed men. Brian Dunn, an attorney with the law firm founded by the late Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., filed the lawsuit in District Court, alleging that the civil rights of Lee Deante Brown and Douglas Steven Cloud were violated when they were shot last year by Riverside police officers.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court jury has awarded $10.3 million to the family of a first-grader who was struck by a van and killed in the parking lot at Lanai Road Elementary School in Encino in 2005. The jury found the Los Angeles Unified School District at fault because the parking lot, where 6-year-old Jordan Sandels was killed, was not designed according to state-approved blueprints.

Honeywell International Inc. was ordered by a Texas jury to pay $24 million to the family of an 18-year-old woman who was killed in a sport utility vehicle rollover accident. The family of Lauren Frazier claimed she was killed when a seat belt manufactured by Honeywell failed. Frazier was ejected from a Chevrolet Tahoe she was riding in when it rolled over. She died at the scene, said her family's attorney, Todd Tracy, who argued the seat belt's buckle unlatched on its own.