Over the years many of our clients have been blamed for accidents that weren’t actually their fault. This is a common tactic used by maritime companies to shift the blame and liability away from themselves and onto our clients. By doing so, they hope to reduce how much they’ll have to pay should a settlement happen. This same thing happened recently to one of our clients.
In November of 2015, our client was working aboard a drilling rig when he was struck in the face by heavy equipment resulting in serious painful injuries to his face, neck, and head. He was evacuated from the rig and taken to the hospital where he had to have multiple surgeries to fix the fractures on his face. He was in the hospital for several days before he was released.
As a result of his injuries, he experienced
- Extreme headaches,
- Nausea,
- Vomiting,
- Blurred vision,
- Memory problems,
- Trouble sleep,
- Personality changes, and
- Several other neurological symptoms.
Our client was unable to return to work and was eventually laid off by his company. With no other options, our client decided to hire a maritime attorney. We immediately filed a Jones Act claim on the following grounds:
- Breach of a legally imposed duty of reasonable care owed by the Defendant to the plaintiff;
- Failure to provide a reasonably safe place to work;
- Failure to properly train and supervise plaintiff;
- Failure to take any means or precautions for the safety of defendant’s employees, including plaintiff;
- Creation and maintenance of an unseaworthy vessel;
- Failure to provide minimum safety requirements;
- Failure to provide adequate equipment for the job in question;
- Failure to provide adequate personnel for the job in question;
- Other acts of negligence and unseaworthiness
The company tried to argue that our client was responsible for his own injury, even going so far as to cite the BSEE accident report. However, we were able to prove through the discovery process that the company had never trained our client on the proper procedures for the task he was performing. According to our experts, the company failed to address these procedures during the Toolbox Talk and SJA and, as a result, our client did not fully understand the hazards associated with his particular task.
In the end, we were able to prove that the company had been significantly at fault for his accident and we secured an excellent settlement for our client.
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