Driver Killed and Passenger Injured in Highway 580 Fatal Car Accident

A fatal car accident on the Interstate Highway 580 near Castro Valley killed a19-year-old driver and seriously injured a passenger last weekend.

The driver was identified as Timothy Daniels of Hayward while the identity of the passenger was still being withheld by authorities.

According to CHP, the single-car crash happened at around 6:00pm when the Mercury Sable they were riding crashed near 164th Avenue.

Daniels was pronounced dead on the scene while his passenger was brought to Eden medical Center by ambulance.

The CHP has not determined the cause of the car accident yet so the level of Daniel’s liability is not yet known.

The passenger, though, should file a personal injury claim against Daniels.
Although liability in criminal cases end after the defendant’s death, that is not the case in civil law.

Even after Daniels’ death, the personal injury case can still go on because it will not really be the passenger against Daniels, but the passenger against Daniels’ insurance company.

It is the car insurance provider who will be paying for the damages caused by Daniels so it will also be them who will defend against your claim.

Once the passenger proved that his injuries were caused by the Daniels’ negligence, then he will be able to collect compensation that is commensurate to what he lost due to his injuries.

However, the total compensation can also be reduced if the passenger has committed some negligence of his own that aggravated the damages caused by the accident.
One of the possible negligent acts that the passenger may have committed is not wearing seatbelt.

If that is the case, a percentage will be subtracted from the total compensation that is awarded.

That percentage subtracted is what you call comparative negligence and is being followed in the state of California.

CA Supreme Court’s Google Discrimination Suit Decision Sets Precedent for Stray Comments as Evidence

The long running age-discrimination lawsuit against Internet giant Google gained grounds Thursday when the California Supreme Court sided with the plaintiff on some basic issues.
The lawsuit was filed by Google’s former director of operations and engineering who was 54 when he was terminated.

According to the lawsuit, Reid alleges that he was wrongfully terminated based on his age last 2002 because he was told that he was not a “good fit” with the company.
However his case was in part based on “stray comments “made by colleagues other than his superiors.

In his lawsuit he alleges that co-employees called him “old fuddy daddy” and “obsolete.”

In a previous ruling, the judge allowed Google to object on the inclusion of these stray comments, but The California Supreme Court reversed that ruling saying that these evidence could be relevant circumstantial evidence.

The case is now set to go on trial.

This could be a landmark decision by the CA Supreme court as it opens the gate for more discrimination lawsuits.

The federal “stray comment clause” has been used by employers to block statements by employees and other people who are not involved directly in the discrimination claim.

That is no longer the case as it looks like the courts has now allowed these stray comments to be admissible.

The court has now adopted jurisprudence that is very much more favorable to employees than the employers.

Executive Terminated after Reporting Sexual Harassment

The Placer County Fair Association is being sued by a former high-ranking officer after he was terminated when he reported the sexual harassment complaint of a female employee against a board member.

Brock Wimberley was the Chief Executive Officer of the association when he was fired two weeks after making a complaint about the hostile work environment that a female employee is subjected to by a male board member who was reportedly sexually harassing her.

In the lawsuit filed recently, Wimberley said that he filed the complaint to the then association president regarding the board member’s misconduct as he showed the employee inappropriate photos that are sexually suggestive and subjected her to hostility while she was working.

Wimberley claims that he then received an angry phone call from the board member days before he was terminated.

The suit did not specify how much Wimberley is claiming for compensatory or punitive damages.