Atlanta Injury Lawyer Blog

I am a Fulton County personal injury lawyer, and I represent people who have been injured in car wrecks or by using a defective product, etc. I have been blogging about a legal concept called "jurisdiction". When a court has "jurisdiction" over a person, the court has legal authority over the person. In order to make that exercise of legal control fair, the person must have some "minimum contacts" with Georgia. In Georgia, a statute sets out six situations which will be considered "minimum contacts". The first three sections are the most important ones for most tort cases involving personal injury. In today's blog entry, I will be discussing the first two of these situations, and I will talk about the other four in my next blog entry.

(1) A Georgia court has jurisdiction over a nonresident who "[t]ransacts any business within this state." O.C.G.A. § 9-10-91(1). As a Cobb County premises liability lawyer, I might use this provision to explain to a court why it has jurisdiction over a slip-and-fall at Walmart, or an assault that occurs at a McDonald's here in Georgia. When I handle a Legionnaire's Disease case, I might cite to this statutory provision when I tell the Georgia court that it has jurisdiction over a hotel that failed to properly maintain its pool or whirlpool/spa. This provision used to be rather cut-and-dried, but it has become more and more interesting with the advent of the Internet. Companies in any state, or for that matter, in any part of the world, advertise via the Internet. A Georgia citizen may read the advertisement, and order a product or service. The company then sends the product into Georgia.

(2) A Georgia court also may exercise jurisdiction over a non-resident who "[c]ommits a tortious act or omission within this state, except as to a cause of action for defamation of character arising from the act." O.C.G.A. § 9-10-91(2). When I act as a Cherokee County nursing home malpractice lawyer, I might cite to this provision to explain why the Cherokee County court has authority over a national nursing home chain that failed to care for my client's much-loved parent. When I handle an Augusta car wreck case, I might use this section of the statute to explain why it is fair for the Richmond County court to exercise jurisdiction over a man from Maine who was driving on I-20 near Augusta when he crossed the road and hit my client. (Georgia also has a special provision to address non-resident motorists.)

The lawsuit (cause of action) has to "aris[e] from any of the acts, omissions, ownership, use, or possession enumerated in this Code section." In other words, the fact that the person had a Fayette County car accident does not give the Fayette County court jurisdiction over the person when it comes to a completely separate car wreck that the person had in Tennessee. The fact that an Alabama company ships a defective product into Spalding County, Georgia, does not give the Spalding County Court jurisdiction over a contract that the company made in Alabama with another Alabama company.

Today I received a very nice "you blew it!" from Steve Austin of Glasgow, United Kingdom!

Steve wrote me today about my Friday blog entry about Legionella bacteria and Legionnaire's Disease. In the entry, I pointed out that -- as a Legionnaire's Disease lawyer -- I know that "Legionella can breed when air conditioners, pools, or whirlpools are not properly cleaned. It also can be distributed through poorly designed buildings or cooling systems that direct contaminated water droplets directly into the air that people breathe."

Steve Austin said I was right. He told me he completely agrees that: "Legionella becomes dangerous when it is allowed to breed in the warm, stagnant water of cooling towers and whirlpools."

But Steve also pointed out - very nicely, I might add - "You missed another major valid cause domestic systems, e.g., systems that feed hot and cold water within buildings for taps/showers. I have identified deadlegs and plants with no non return valves which hold stagnate water and contaminate buildings."

Great point, Steve!

Absolutely, legionella bacteria may breed due to valves and water system designs that allow stagnate water to collect and contaminate the whole building.

In fact, I have had several people contact me who contracted Legionnaire's Disease from showers and taps that feed hot and cold water, just as Steve suggested. One woman had ended up desperately ill after she had been exposed to legionella in a hot tub situated in the hotel room she had rented in the Tennessee mountains. The system had a crazy design that created the problem in the first place.

Steve notes that he has carried out in excess of 1500 building risk assessments. I thought it was very important the he told me that when legionella contamination occurs, he agrees that "90% are as you said down to bad system design and improper maintenance."

By the way, Steve Austin is the real deal. (And no, he's not the wrestler!) Steve is the Operation Manager Environmental at SPIE Matthew Hall FM in the UK. He has been investigating Legionnaire's Disease cases for 20 years. His entire job is "developing and growing the control of legionella within the Spie Matthew Hall group." He is particularly interested in "the new designs of water systems and the common problems they produce in the modern building and produce solutions to eradicate these without the need of masking the faults with chlorine dioxide."

SPIE Matthew Hall operates out of numerous locations in the UK to provide design, installation, maintenance and facilities management related to health, safety and the environment.

Thanks, Steve, for your very pertinent comment! I really appreciate your taking the time to comment about what I had written.

Since I began looking at Legionnaire's Disease cases, the death rate has dropped dramatically. My opinion is that the difference is due to infectious disease doctors who are now on the lookout for the disease. Even so, 12% of the people who contract Legionnaire's Disease will die. An even larger percentage of elderly people will die because they were exposed to legionella. With those sorts of statistics, as a society we cannot afford to ignore the dangers of legionella breeding in water systems, hot tubs, pools, air conditioning systems, buildings, or anywhere else.

I love it when you comment! Please contact me any time if you think I blew it, if you have suggestions for the blog, or if you just want me to cover something new.

Yesterday I wrote about a recent outbreak of Legionnaire's Disease in guests staying at the Plim Plaza Hotel in Ocean City, Maryland.

As a Legionnaire's Disease attorney, I want to use today's blog to talk more about what Legionnaire's Disease is, and how people get it.

The Origins of Legionnaire's Disease as a Named Illness

Legionella existed long before it had a name. But with the advent of air conditioning and hot tubs, people created environments that enabled the bacteria to breed and become airborne.

Legionella pneumophila, the type of bacteria that cause Legionnaire's disease, is found naturally in water such as lakes and rivers. In nature, however, legionella is rarely dangerous, because it is so diluted.

The illness caused by legionella is called Legionellosis, and it comes in two forms: Legionnaire's disease is the more serious form and involves pneumonia; the milder version is called Pontiac Fever.

Scientists actually discovered the milder form - Pontiac Fever - first. Pontiac Fever was first recognized after a major outbreak in Pontiac, Michigan, in 1968. 95 of 100 employees of the Oakland County Health Department, and 49 of 170 visitors to the Department, became sick. CDC sent three investigators into the building, and they, too, became sick. CDC dispatched three more investigators, and these three also became sick. Investigators finally discovered that the outbreak was stemming from an evaporative condenser in the basement. This condenser was vented to the roof, and the vent emerged just two meters from an air intake unit - meaning the legionella was being pulled back into the building. See Legionnaire's Disease Pathogenicity and Design Considerations, Penn State's Department of Architectural Engineering, at http://www.engr.psu.edu/ae/iec/abe/topics/legionnaires.asp.

Then, in 1976, a group of people attending the American Legion Convention in Philadelphia came down with a mysterious illness. When several people died, investigators were brought in. Medical experts traced the outbreak to bacteria found in the air conditioning unit at the hotel where the conventioneers had stayed. The disease was called Legionnaire's Victims because it had affected Legionnaires attending the convention. See http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/
legionellosis_g.htm.

Who Are the Victims of Legionnaire's Disease?

Because Legionnaire's disease strikes the lungs, it disproportionately affects smokers and people with chronic lung disease. It also is more common and more dangerous for people with weakened immune systems (premature infants, transplant recipients, AIDS sufferers, hospital inpatients, etc.). Outbreaks of Legionnaire's disease in hospitals are extremely dangerous because hospitals are filled with the people most vulnerable to the disease.

How Many People Get Legionnaire's Disease?

CDC estimates that "8,000 to 18,000 people get Legionnaire's disease in the United States each year." A sobering 30% of those people die, according to CDC statistics. Id. Generally Legionnaire's disease has an incubation period of two to fourteen days; Pontiac Fever cases may have a shorter incubation period. Id.

While large outbreaks do receive media attention, experts believe that: "this disease usually occurs as a single, isolated case not associated with any recognized outbreak." See, e.g., Medicinenet.com, http://www.medicinenet.com/legionnaire_
disease_and_pontiac_fever/article.htm. In fact, many experts believe that the incidence of Legionnaire's disease is much higher than reported, because many cases either are not identified as the Legionnaire's disease form of pneumonia, or are never associated with a particular outbreak.

How Does Legionella Breed?

Legionella becomes dangerous when it is allowed to breed in the warm, stagnant water of cooling towers and whirlpools. People become infected when they breathe in the mist that contains the legionella bacteria. Outbreaks have happened in office buildings, hotels and hospitals, and around pools and whirlpools in hotels and cruise ships. A recent outbreak was believed to be the result of water droplets spraying from an air conditioner unit on the top of a building. The spray reached the sidewalk area below, infecting passersby.

Legionella can breed when air conditioners, pools, or whirlpools are not properly cleaned. It also can be distributed through poorly designed buildings or cooling systems that direct contaminated water droplets directly into the air that people breathe. On the other hand, Legionnaire's disease is almost always preventable with good maintenance and building design.

The author of this blog, Legionnaire's Disease attorney Lee Wallace represented six people who contracted Legionnaire's Disease and Pontiac Fever in a 2001 outbreak at a Georgia hotel. In that case, a hotel had failed to clean its hot tub spa, and had not bothered to use enough chemicals to keep the bacteria at bay.

As a Legionnaire's Disease lawyer, I watch the news for signs of Legionnaire's Disease outbreaks. Recently I have been reading about a large number of Legionnaire's Disease cases in people who had stayed at the Plim Plaza Hotel in Ocean City, Maryland.

Three people were hospitalized with Legionnaire's Disease about a week after they had stayed at the Plim Plaza Hotel in Ocean City, Maryland.

The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) investigated, along with the Worcester County Health Department. They found legionella bacteria in "several locations" in the hotel. The Health Department did not specify which locations, but Legionnaire's Disease is spread through the air - not through person-to-person contact - which means it often is spread in water droplets in the air around uncleaned and untreated pools and spas, or through uncleaned air conditioning units.

During its investigation, DHMH found another three cases of Legionnaire's Disease. They discovered that one elderly visitor from another state had died of Legionnaire's Disease. (Legionnaire's Disease is much more likely to strike and to be serious for elderly people and people with compromised immune systems).

The hotel shut down for the season a week early, and people staying at the hotel were transferred to new hotels.

If you stayed at the Plim Plaza Hotel in September 2011, and you are experiencing pneumonia-like symptoms, the Health Department is urging you to seek medical help.

Legionnaire's Disease is often called a "traveler's illness" because it can affect travelers. People are exposed to the legionella bacteria in a group setting - such as a hotel's or cruise ship's hot tub or spa, or air conditioning system - and then they disperse to their various states. Since they have dispersed, doctors often do not detect an outbreak of Legionnaire's Disease. People may go undiagnosed - with disastrous consequences.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has set up a mandatory reporting system for cases of Legionnaire's Disease, but it is far from perfectly followed. Here, although the Maryland Health Department has confirmed six cases of Legionnaire's Disease, it is very likely that several other people contracted the illness at the Plim Plaza Hotel. Their doctors may not have detected the disease yet, or they may not have reported it to the CDC. It is also very, very likely that a number of people contracted Pontiac Fever, which is a lesser form of Legionnaire's Disease. My Pontiac Fever clients tell me it feels like "the worst flu you ever had," and generally it is compounded by breathing difficulties. My clients who have contracted full-fledged Legionnaire's Disease have full pneumonia-type symptoms.

The Plim Plaza Hotel has 181 rooms. It is owned by the Harison Group, which also owns 9 other hotels.

Legionnaire's Disease was first identified in 1976, when a group of people attending the American Legion Convention in Philadelphia were all stricken by a mysterious illness. The illness was traced to bacteria in the hotel's air conditioning system.

With proper hygiene and chemicals in pools and spas, and with proper cleaning of air conditioning systems, Legionnaire's Disease is entirely preventable.

As a Legionnaire's Disease attorney, Lee Wallace represented six people who contracted Legionnaire's Disease or Pontiac Fever at a Georgia hotel in 2001. The hotel had not maintained its spa whirlpool with proper chemicals, which had allowed legionella bacteria to breed in the hot tub.

As a bacterial contamination lawyer, I have seen far, far too many situations where people became desperately ill from bacteria that were allowed to breed in unclean and unsanitary conditions. Bacterial contamination cases take as many forms as there are bacteria, but they share a common theme - very simple steps, such as cleaning properly or cooking thoroughly, could have prevented the contamination. As a lawyer I have represented clients who contracted bacterial illnesses from Legionnaire's Disease to listeriosis.

Take the case of some clients of mine, an extended family who had gathered at a hotel in Georgia. One of the family members was getting married that evening. To while away the time until the wedding got underway, some of the family members took their kids down to the hotel's pool and spa area. The kids, ages 2 and 5, went swimming. The adults watched the kids and took turns holding the 5-week old newborn; they never even got in the water.

Unbeknownst to the family, my clients, legionella bacteria were breeding in the whirlpool, and becoming airborne through the bubbling water.

After the wedding, the group dispersed to two different states. Within days, the entire group was sick. The grandmother went into a coma, and was diagnosed with Legionnaire's Disease. For a month she battled for her life. After she was released from the hospital, she spent another two months recovering from the illness.
The rest of the group fell ill, too, even the little five-week-old who had been in his mother's arms while she sat in the pool area. They had a less serious form of Legionnaire's disease, known as Pontiac Fever.

Most bacterial contaminations go undiscovered. The people exposed to the bacteria scatter, and by the time they realize they are ill, no one is able to trace the illnesses back to the exposure that caused them. This situation was different for three reasons: (1) the family was bright and tenacious, and they put all the facts together; (2) they all knew each other; and (3) the different families had been together for only a short time, so they were able to pinpoint where they had contracted the illness.

The family notified CDC. As the family struggled with the physical effects of the legionella, CDC was hot on the trail of its source. The family had not traveled together, and "their only common exposures were attendance at the wedding and staying in Hotel A on April 23-25." Benin, An Outbreak of Travel-Associated Legionnaires' Disease and Pontiac Fever: The Case for Travel-Associated Legionellosis Surveillance in the United States, at 5. The CDC went to the hotel's pool and whirlpool on May 11 and took samples. Using molecular testing, the CDC isolated a rare strain of legionella ("legionella pneumophila serogroup 6") from the whirlpool and the blood of the family members.

The CDC alerted the Cobb County Department of Health, which came to inspect the hotel's pool and whirlpool. Cobb County found a lengthy list of health and safety violations. The whirlpool pump was "not working," and both main drain gates were broken. The level of bromine was below optimal levels. Cobb County ordered the hotel to keep the spa closed, and added that the hotel "need[ed] to maintain better daily records."

CDC began contacting guests of the hotel by telephone. Of the 414 guests who had stayed at the hotel between April 1 and May 11, 1999, the CDC confirmed that 24 had contracted Legionnaires' Disease or Pontiac Fever. Of the 150 guests who had stayed at the hotel on the same weekend the family did, 12 had contracted Legionnaires' Disease or Pontiac Fever.

After its investigation, the CDC investigators concluded that: "the source of transmission was a poorly maintained whirlpool spa." Id. at 11. Noting that "the maintenance records at the hotel indicated that the whirlpool spa conditions were frequently below optimal throughout the time period examined," CDC explained that "[w]hirlpool spa related disease is highly preventable. . . . Hotels and cruise ships must take responsibility for properly monitoring their facilities and for maintaining appropriate water conditions." Id. at 12-13.

The hotel had been completely cavalier about its responsibility to keep the pool clean and sanitary. I helped the family sue the hotel, and we were able to reach a very satisfactory settlement for them.