Personal Injury Attorneys / Automobile Accident Lawyer El Paso, Lubbock, San Angelo, Odessa, New Mexico NM TX New Mexico Texas

OUR RESULTS

Industrial Work Injury
Finger Amputation
1.4 Million Net to Client

Our client was an employee at a meat packing plant in Friona, Texas. He worked in the trolley room where they washed the trolleys that carried the carcasses through the plant. The plant had a blow dryer a piece of pipe attached to the blower to direct the air to dry the equipment after it was washed. Oil used to lubricate the blower would continuously accumulate in the pipe and would then contaminate the equipment that had been washed. Our client was told by his supervisor to wipe out the pipe with a cloth. However, his supervisor failed to tell our client that there was a rotating fan in the pipe. When our client put his hand in the pipe to wipe it out, he had several fingers amputated.

The defendant meat packing plant did not carry worker’s compensation insurance and was “self-insured” which allowed us to make a claim against it for negligence. When an employer does not carry worker’s compensation, they are not allowed to use contributory negligence as a defense and so they were not able to blame our client for his part in causing his injuries.
Additionally, the plant production manager testified at trial in Lubbock that he had not trained our client on the dangers of the machinery because “we ain’t got time for all that training. We got to get the product out the door.” The jury awarded actual damages to compensate our client for his inuries as well as one million dollars in punitive damages to punish the company for its gross negligence in causing our client’s injuries. The meat packing plant appealed the case but the jury’s verdict was upheld by the Texas Supreme Court.