Ebere Ozonwu-Shokunbi was trying to board the Red Line train with her daughter at the Morse Avenue Station on Nov. 2, 2009, when the train doors closed on the stroller and the train began moving forward with Ozonwu-Shokunbi's daughter "pinned perilously in the doorway," according to the lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court.

The lawsuit says that the driver failed to stop the train and that the CTA failed to have a system in place that would prohibit the train from moving if a passenger was stuck in the doorway.

Ozonwu-Shokunbi alleges in the complaint that her daughter was injured when she fell out of the stroller and alongside the train tracks.

A spokeswoman for the CTA declined comment Thursday evening. "We haven't received a copy of it yet so we can't comment," said Catherine Hosinski.

At the time of the incident, CTA President Richard Rodriguez called Ozonwu-Shokunbi's description of the event a "plausible story."

But union officials questioned her account, pointing out that door sensors should have prevented the train from moving if the doors weren't fully closed.

Rodriguez said in November 2009 that the doors of the car appeared to be operating properly and that the investigation had turned to the train operator.

Officials said at the time that the 22-month-old girl was not seriously hurt.

On Thursday, Hosinski declined to comment on the outcome of the 2009 investigation.

"Since a lawsuit has been filed, I will need to check with the attorneys involved before I can comment," she said.

Ozonwu-Shokunbi has sued for an unspecified amount of damages.

An 11-year-old girl stricken with crippling nausea during a Fourth of July camping trip in California.

A 30-year-old woman hospitalized after eating pastry at a graduation party.

A child hospitalized for a week after eating banana pudding on a trip through North Carolina.

Three federal lawsuits filed on behalf of children and adults on the East and West coasts are seeking damages from Wright County Egg, the Iowa company linked to a salmonella outbreak that has sickened an estimated 1,600 people and prompted the recall of more than half a billion eggs.

Wright County Egg has not yet filed a response to the lawsuits, and the company's attorney could not be reached for comment Monday.

The claims are among the first of what could become a wave of lawsuits against Iowa egg producer Jack DeCoster, whose family owns and operates Wright County Egg. A class-action lawsuit has been initiated in Illinois, and two unrelated, individual lawsuits have been filed in the Texas and Minnesota state courts.

The three federal lawsuits are being handled by Seattle attorney William Marler, who specializes in food-poisoning cases, along with Des Moines attorney Steve Wandro.

Each of the three plaintiffs accuses Wright County Egg of negligence, and each seeks unspecified damages in excess of $75,000.

One of the plaintiffs is Jennifer Holt, a 37-year-old woman from California who is suing on behalf of her 11-year-old daughter, Jacqueline Shea Holt, a softball player in the family's hometown of Newbury Park.

The lawsuit says that on July 1 and 2, Jennifer made breakfast for her daughter using eggs she had purchased at a Ralph's supermarket. Ralph's had purchased its eggs from Wright County Egg.

While traveling with her father to a campsite on July 4, Jacqueline began suffering from headaches, cramps and nausea. At 1 a.m. the next day, she began vomiting and experiencing diarrhea.

The family cut short its holiday camping trip, but during the seven-hour ride home, Jacqueline's symptoms worsened. The next day, she was unable to consume food or liquid and was taken to the emergency room at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

Jacqueline was admitted to the hospital, suffering from what the lawsuit describes as intense pain that caused her to cry inconsolably. Her doctors were unable to provide pain medication for fear that it would cause her symptoms to worsen.

After three days and a seven-pound weight loss, Jacqueline was diagnosed with salmonella poisoning and was discharged from the hospital. She was kept on a restricted diet for one week and was unable to compete her team's final softball tournament because of her weakened state.

The Ventura County Health Department identified the strain of salmonella Jacqueline contracted as the strain implicated in the recent egg recall.

According to the lawsuit, Jacqueline's family incurred $20,000 worth of medical expenses related to her illness.

The Holts' experience is similar to that of a Massachusetts family who dined in April at Bullock's Barbecue, a North Carolina restaurant that health officials have tied to a salmonella outbreak that sickened dozens of people.

The restaurant was allegedly using Wright County Egg products in its banana pudding in April, when Daniel and Libby Sands of Newton, Mass., stopped to eat there with their young daughter.

The daughter, who isn't identified in the lawsuit, allegedly ate the banana pudding, became ill two days later and was eventually hospitalized for seven days. She was diagnosed with salmonella poisoning.

Four weeks later and 2,700 miles to the west, Sarah Lewis attended a graduation banquet where she ate a custard-filled pastry for dessert. It was later confirmed by the California Department of Health that the pastry's filling was made with eggs sold by Wright County Egg.

Two days after the banquet, Lewis began experiencing cramps and diarrhea. Within 24 hours, she was admitted to a local hospital where she remained for four days, her lawsuit states. Two weeks later, she was treated at a local gastroenterology clinic for ongoing cramps and diarrhea. On June 23, 24 days after the banquet, Lewis was still suffering from cramps and gastrointestinal distress. She was readmitted to the hospital for five days of treatment and monitoring.

According to the lawsuit she later filed against Wright County Egg, officials with the Santa Clara County Health Department later confirmed the strain of salmonella Lewis contracted was the same as the one identified in the Wright County Egg recall.

Lewis declined to comment on her lawsuit until Wednesday's congressional hearing, at which she is expected to appear.

Marler, the attorney for Lewis, recently secured a court order allowing him and three hired experts to inspect and photograph the Wright County Egg plant in Galt.

The court order stipulates that the information gleaned from the visit can be shared with other litigants, but must otherwise be kept confidential.

Marler said Monday he is looking forward to the Iowa visit, which is currently planned for Oct. 5.

"I grew up on a small farm, and we had chickens, so I know where eggs generally come from," he recently blogged.

"I must admit, however, seeing how eggs are manufactured on a massive scale is something I have never seen. It looks to be an interesting and eye-opening experience."

In a recent blog post headlined "Wright County Egg owner, DeCoster, seems to be one bad egg," Marler detailed DeCoster's history of regulatory violations, then added, "I hope these guys have good lawyers and lots of insurance."

Marler began specializing in food-poisoning cases in 1993 after representing Brianne Kiner, a 10-year-old girl who was stricken with the E. coli bacteria after eating an undercooked hamburger from a Jack in the Box restaurant. Marler won a $15.6 million settlement for his client, who was in a coma for 40 days and sustained serious, lifelong injuries.

Public health officials have said the Jack in the Box outbreak killed four people and sickened hundreds

A Kalama home developer won a $5.8 million settlement against the man who shot him four times in 2008, according to court documents.

Clark County Superior Court Judge Barbara D. Johnson ruled last week that the shooter, Roy S. Jorgenson of Woodland must pay the damages to Chad Wilson, who underwent 14 surgeries following the attack and racked up more than a half-million dollars in medical bills.

Wilson's lawyer doesn't expect his client to ever see anywhere near that amount, however.

A jury convicted Jorgenson of second-degree assault in March. He is serving a nine-month sentence in the Cowlitz County Jail.

Wilson, the developer of the high-end Dave's View housing tract in Kalama, said this week that it's been a difficult stretch, with one legal battle after another.

In 2007, the city of Kalama accused Wilson of stealing two million gallons of water from a city reservoir for two ponds at the development's entrance and his personal home. The prosecutor dropped charges against Wilson of defrauding a public utility in November 2007 and Kalama officials withdrew a civil claim against him in 2008, Wilson said in court documents.

Wilson filed a civil claim for unspecified damages against the city of Kalama in June, saying the imbroglio cost him past and future earnings. Kalama City Attorney Paul Brachvogel declined to comment on the claim, except to say, "We'll defend any claim like that that's brought against the city - vigorously."

In addition, Wilson faces a lawsuit from his development's residents, saying he improperly assessed and collected fees against members of the developments' homeowners' association. He said he suspects the allegations of water theft lead residents to believe he mishandled the homeowners' association's funds.

"He's had an awful lot on his plate between the shooting and this," said Longview attorney Duane Crandall, who is representing Wilson in his claim against the city of Kalama. "He's kind of swimming for the surface at this point."

At the time of Jorgenson's sentencing, Wilson said he was infuriated by a jury's decision to convict Jorgenson of a lesser charge, which carried what he considered a light sentence. He said this week that the award in the civil case restored "some needed confidence in our overall justice system."

Crandall said the suit over the shooting was filed in Clark County because Jorgenson owns property there. It's unclear how much Wilson will be able to collect from Jorgenson, Crandall said. Wilson said this week that the value of Jorgenson's assets is "not even in the ballpark" of $5.8 million.

Prosecutors said Wilson and his wife discovered Jorgenson looking at some landscaping in their development on May 18, 2008. Jorgenson refused to leave and punched Wilson in the face, prosecutors said. When Wilson fought back, Jorgenson pulled a gun and began firing as Wilson tried to run away. Wilson was shot four times at a range of at least 30 feet, prosecutor's said.

Jorgenson said he acted in self-defense because Wilson was severely beating him.

Wilson said he underwent 14 surgeries over three months. Some of his fingers were permanently paralyzed, he said. A portion of his intestines were removed and, he said, he had to use a colostomy bag for about a year.

He said he is a country and classic rock musician who has toured with bands and lived in Nashville, but playing guitar is too difficult now.

"Oh my God, we're still struggling," Wilson said. "We're still trying to get back on track."

Wilson said his claim against the city of Kalama - the first step in filing a lawsuit - is aimed mainly at clearing his name.

"I just really feel strong in my heart that my family deserves an answer; my friends deserve an answer; my business associates deserve an answer," Wilson said. "If I could clear my name, I'd feel a lot better about doing business here."

He said the city gave him permission to hook up to the reservoir and that much of the water disappeared as a result of a leak. He provided to the newspaper an affidavit from Paul King, a Kalama landscape contractor, which says the city gave him unmetered access to the reservoir in August 2005 to construct the development's "entry monument."

"These construction practices are fairly routine and have been applied in the field regularly by the city of Kalama and other municipalities in the past," King said.

Wilson also provided three affidavits from Confer Road area residents saying the city of Kalama was in the neighborhood repairing a water main leak in August 2006. The city has provided no documentation of the repairs, Wilson said.

Wilson said he paid the city $1,000 to settle the question of the stolen water, largely because it would have been more expensive to pay an attorney than to drag the matter through the court system.

Sometimes, he said, "life comes at you.

The maker of an instrument used in circumcisions claimed that injury was impossible with its use, but after an infant lost a portion of his penis during an operation with the Mogen clamp, a judge awarded $10.8 million in damages against the company.

The judgment handed down Friday in New York involves an Atlanta lawyer who has been crusading against circumcision as a dangerous and unnecessary practice.

Attorney David Llewellyn won a similar case in Atlanta last year and the injury behind that prior lawsuit in Fulton County Superior Court put the New York clamp manufacturer on notice about the danger of the device, his current lawsuit said.

The baby in the current case, identified in court documents only as L.G., lost the entire glans, or head, of his penis after it was pulled into the jaws of the clamp, according to a federal magistrate's order. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Jack B. Weinstein ordered Mogen Circumcision Instruments of New York to pay $10.8 million in compensatory and punitive damages to the Florida boy, now 3, and his parents.

The parents "are extraordinarily distraught and angered that this company tells people it can't happen," Llewellyn said.

It's unclear whether they will ever collect the money. Mogen is already in default on a $7.5 million judgment in 2007 from a Massachusetts lawsuit, Llewellyn said.

The company is going out of business, according to a woman who answered the phone at its Brooklyn headquarters Monday. The woman, who said she was a secretary and would identify herself only as D. Rotter, the person whom Llewellyn said was served papers in the lawsuit. She said increased competition  has undermined their business.

"It's just kind of dwindling down to nothing," she said, adding that the phones at the Mogen office were scheduled to be disconnected Tuesday. Mogen didn't defend itself in court, and Rotter said it was because the company couldn't afford it.

She said the Mogen clamp is "painless and safe" when used properly. The case involving the Florida boy was "unfortunate," she said, adding that "any medical mishap is unfortunate."

In this case, a New York mohel, or Jewish ritual circumcisor, performed the operation in the baby's home, Llewellyn said. The mohel negotiated a separate settlement, the terms of which Llewellyn would not disclose.

Llewellyn won another circumcision case in 2009 over an operation at South Fulton Medical Center. In that case, which involved a baby identified only as D.P. Jr., the mother contended that the doctor who circumcised him removed too much tissue and that his pediatrician failed to respond when a nurse complained of excessive bleeding.

The tip of the penis was placed in a biohazard bag and might have been reattached if he'd gotten attention in time, Llewellyn said in 2009. His lawsuit in New York says D.P. Jr. lost a third of his glans.

The jury found that both the pediatrician and the physician who performed the circumcision were negligent, and awarded $2.3 million to the plaintiffs. South Fulton Medical Center was absolved of liability.

In Friday's decision, the court determined that Mogen had to pay for medical expenses and for the years of psychotherapy that will be needed. The boy suffers pain when he urinates, the court order says. He will eventually be able to have sex, but he is likely to be embarrassed and will likely have trouble forming "meaningful" relationships with girls, it adds. "At 3 years old, L.G. is aware that he looks different from other boys based on both his own observations and comments from other children which make him feel inferior ."

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution