Dallas Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

Workplace Safety Accident Results in 4.9M Verdict

 

A welder who was burned by hot metal and was returned to work by a company-approved doctor recovered $4.9 million. Ignacio Llamas was welding when hot metal dropped into his boot. He went to the emergency room and was prescribed antibiotics, but Llamas claimed the project safety manager told him not to fill it. The manager then took him to another doctor, appointed by a defendant, who returned him to work without restrictions or prescriptions. Llamas developed a severe infection. He blamed contractors Certified Safety Specialists, AltairStrickland, and several others for covering up the severity of his injuries so they could avoid reporting it to OSHA. The jury found the two contractors liable, as well as his employer who wasn't at trial. He was awarded $8.4 million, but it was reduced due to liability apportionment, a high-low agreement and a court reduction.

Oil Field Ordered to Pay 2.66 Million to Injured Worker

 

 

A worker who sustained career-ending injuries in an oil field accident recovered $2.66 million from the owner of the well. In 2007, Leland Taylor, then 47, a flow back hand, was under contract to provide services for Nadel & Gussman LLC, an oil and gas drilling company. On Aug. 29, Taylor was monitoring the flow back assembly on a Nadel & Gussman-owned well in Rusk County when an increase in flow pressure caused part of the assembly to detach and strike him. He sustained right leg and arm fractures, which required multiple surgeries and rendered him unable to return to his job. Taylor blamed Nadel & Gussman, alleging it failed to properly anchor the assembly. The company argued Taylor failed to monitor the flow and also blamed Forrest Tate, Taylor's supervisor. The jury found Nadel & Gussman 70 percent, Tate 25 percent and Taylor 5 percent liable for the incident.

Family Receives 266K for Family Member Death at Work

The family of a man who died in a workplace accident received a $266,418 settlement from his employer. On Jan. 20, 2007, Jose Luis Flores Guadarrama was working at the Southern Hardwood Co. mill in Zavalla. He was operating a board edger when the machine "shot back" and a board struck him in the chest, causing fatal injuries. Following his death, investigators with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration visited the site and found that it was in violation of numerous federal regulations. Guadarrama's wife blamed Southern Hardwood for her husband's death, citing the OSHA investigators' report which mentioned, among other things, the company's failure to maintain its equipment, inadequate safety warnings and lack of safety guards. Southern Hardwood denied the allegations, but ultimately agreed to the settlement in mediation.

Accident Involving Forklift

  

A jury awarded $269,785 to a laborer whose foot was run over by a forklift. In 2007, Eric Cranfill, then 19, was working for Bison Building Materials at its Conroe facility when a co-worker ran over his right foot with the 10,000-pound machine. In addition to a crush injury to his foot, Cranfill sustained a torn right medial meniscus that required surgery and several months of physical therapy. The injuries kept him out of work for six months, resulting in $9,000 in lost wages as well as $25,000 in medical expenses. He blamed Bison for the incident, alleging that his co-worker wasn't properly trained to use a forklift and that it had ignored a prior complaint that the co-worker was an unsafe operator. Bison argued that Cranfill to blame for the accident.