Wrongful Death Suits

Surrounded by supporters, Hilda Sarkisyan marched into Cigna Corp.'s Philadelphia headquarters on a chilly fall day, 10 months after the company refused to pay for a liver transplant for her daughter. "You guys killed my daughter," the diminutive San Fernando Valley real estate agent declared at the lobby security desk. "I want an apology." What she got was something quite different. Cigna employees, looking down into the atrium lobby from a balcony above, began heckling her, she said, with one of them giving her "the finger."

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 family of a suspected burglar who died in police custody filed a wrongful death suit against the city and the Police Department on Wednesday. In the suit, brought in Los Angeles County Superior Court, the parents of De'Shoun Torrence allege police officers beat and used Tasers on the 18-year-old while he was handcuffed. The suit contends officers beat him for 30 minutes. Torrence died in the back of a patrol car July 12, according to the suit, which seeks unspecified damages.

The parents of a teenager killed in a Christmas Day tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo sued the city and the zoo Tuesday as the first anniversary of the mauling neared. Marilza and Carlos Sousa filed a wrongful death suit in San Francisco County Superior Court almost a year after their son, Carlos Sousa Jr., 17, was killed when a Siberian tiger escaped its enclosure. Their lawyer, Michael Cardoza, said the family hopes they can reach a settlement with the zoo. "It will never bring total closure to this, but it will begin their healing process because they won't have to relive this again through a lawsuit," Cardoza said Tuesday.

Two months after the district attorney's office ruled a fatal police shooting justified, the family of the man is suing the city for excessive force and wrongful death. Rodney Carl Sandberg, 24, was shot multiple times March 15 by police who were responding to a call regarding a suicide. Sandberg had threatened suicide and poked himself in the chest with a small steak knife, but his stepfather had been able to calm him and persuaded him to put down the knife when the police burst through the door, according to the lawsuit.

The family of a worker trampled to death in a crush of bargain hunters Friday at a Long Island Wal-Mart store filed a wrongful-death lawsuit Wednesday, alleging store ads offering deep discounts "created an atmosphere of competition and anxiety" that led to "crowd craze."

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.

Relatives of a man killed by police filed a $10-million wrongful-death claim and a federal lawsuit this week against the city of Santa Ana and its Police Department. The claim, filed by the wife and three children of Juan Carrasco, says police erred in fatally shooting the unarmed man Aug. 5. The lawsuit alleges police violated Carrasco's civil rights by detaining, searching and shooting him without cause. It says officers kept firing even after he was wounded and "crawling on his hands and knees" on the ground.