$700,000 – Plaintiff was catapulted off equipment while unloading a shipment at work

Plaintiff sustained serious head trauma and other injuries as a result of an accident when he was off-loading a new 15,000-pound aerial boom lift from the bed of a highway trailer to the ground. Plaintiff had been a service mechanic for over 30 years and was employed in this position at the time of the accident.

Plaintiff went into the bucket of the lift and began to drive the aerial lift from the highway trailer onto the EZ loader ramp. He was not wearing a safety harness as he was not “operating” the lift, but merely off-loading it. As the weight of the aerial lift transferred from the highway trailer to the dovetail ramp of the EZ loader, the truck’s back springs compressed and the truck moved slightly forward. This movement caused the flip tail of the EZ loader’s ramp to slip and fall off the back of the highway trailer with the aerial lift on it. This sudden drop caused the aerial lift’s arm to flex violently, catapulting Plaintiff out of the operator’s control station in the work platform/bucket. Plaintiff flew approximately 30 feet and struck the trailer bed with his head and crashed to the ground. Plaintiff has suffered severe injuries as a result of this accident.

The EZ loader did not have any warnings on it indicating the weight limit. Therefore, when Plaintiff was using the EZ loader to off-load the boom lifts delivered, he did not know the weight limit of those lifts exceeded the weight limit of the EZ loader. Had he actually known the weight limit of the lifts exceeded the weight capacity of the EZ Loader, he would not have used the EZ loader to off-load the lifts and this accident would not have occurred.

Kelli Burritt was an associate at another law firm when this case was litigated. She performed extensive discovery on the case.

Result: $700,000 settlement