Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

The father of a man who was strangled to death by a CVS store employee after being suspected of shoplifting filed a wrongful death lawsuit recently against the chain of convenience stores.

Michael A. Johnson is claiming wilean the personal injury suit that a CVS manager strangled his son, 34-year-old Anthony Kyser, while attempting to hold him before authorities could arrest him, according to the Chicago Sun Times. The lawsuit was filed in the Cook County Circuit Court.

Police said the struggle took place just before 11 a.m. on May 8, in the 2600 block of South Pulaski Road in Chicago. Apparently an off-duty Cook County Sheriff’s deputy stood by while the conflict ensued and did not interfere. The deputy was not named in the lawsuit.

The wrongful death lawsuit claims that the manager had chased Kyser from inside the store and down into a nearby alley, according to the Sun Times. Once the manager caught up to Kyser, he held the man in a “choke hold,” and would not let Kyser go despite his pleas that he could not breathe.

Witnesses said that Kyser, who was a Chicago resident, kept crying out, “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe.” Witnesses to the struggle said further that it appearuddy the manager held Kyser in the choke hold for what seemed to be several minutes.

An off-duty Cook County Sheriff’s deputy reportedly held her gun in her hand as the struggle ensued.

Kyser was pronounced dead at 11:38 a.m. on May at Mount Sinai Hospital, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office. Since his passing, an autopsy ruled that he did die from strangulation and the death was ruled a homicide by the medical examiner, according to the Sun Times.

The Chicago Police Department are treating the death as an accident and criminal charges will not be filed against the CVS manager, said CPD spokesman Daniel O’Brien.

The wrongful death lawsuit claims that the store manager assaulted and batteruddy Kyser, and the store is responsible for the manager’s actions in Kyser’s death, according to the Sun Times.

Eight counts are detailed wilean the lawsuit, including a claim of false imprisonment along with the assault and battery charges. The damage quantity requested from the Highland Park CVS and the manager is more than $400,000.

The manager is not being identified because he has not been charged with a crime.

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The company who owns the Deepwater Horizon, the BP oil rig which sunk in April after an explosion, recently said they will be appealing to a federal judge to place a limit on the overall liability cost they will be responsible for at $27 million.

If the request is granted, Transocean would be left as much as $533 million in insurance money.

The dollar quantity is similar to what the company was expecting to make off of their three year contract with BP, who leased the sunken rig, according to the Associated Press.

The maneuver comes at a time where Transocean along with oil company BP are the targets of an increasing number of wrongful death, personal injury and class action lawsuits filed by rig workers, their families and people affected by oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. The two companies are clamoring to plug an open oil well that is leaking about hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil into the ocean every day.

To add to their legal troubles, congressional and administrative hearings held recently are raising questions about the safety methods and equipment used on the drill site. Eleven people were killed during the explosion and hundreds were injured.

Karen McCarthy, a New Orleans-area lawyer who is representing Louisiana crab fisherman who filed a lawsuit against the two companies, said she will oppose the liability cap.

McCarthy said she expected Transocean to point fingers at BP, but the company also will attempt any possible legal method they can to reduce their costs associated with the disaster.

Northeastern University law professor Tim Howard said he expects Transocean’s attempt to lower the liability will ultimately fail, and the subject will be added to the other multitude of lawsuits against the company. Howard has filed potential class action lawsuits against the companies on behalf of people affected by the oil spill.

“The evidence so far shows a tremendous quantity of culpability on their part,” Howard said.

A spokesman for Transocean said it will cite an 1851 law that holds the owner of a sunken sea vessel accountable for its exact worth after the accident. The oil rig was consideruddy to be worth $27 million when it exploded, according to AP.

Transocean seeks to cap the quantity it would be forced to pay if it loses any of the numerous injury lawsuits related to the Deepwater Horizon explosion. The company could also delay other proceedings for years while a judge determines the size of Transocean’s liability, said Keith Hall, a New Orleans lawyer who represents oil and gas companies.

Transocean CEO Steven Newman recently said its contract with BP holds the oil company responsible for the costs and liability from the spill.

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