Case Study: Personal Injury

This consultant was retained by the plaintiff's attorney on a personal injury case.

A Wayne County Circuit Court Jury awarded $1,830,586 less 30% comparative negligence to a scaffold carpenter who sustained second degree burns while working at a plant owned by XXXX Co. The plaintiff, a contract employee, was directed by a XXX Company foreman to inspect a scaffold erected around a sodium hydroxide tank. After modifying the scaffold, plaintiff's safety harness caught on a ball valve, allowing the release of sodium hydroxide on his leg and buttock. Prior to the incident the defendant placed a threaded plug in the end of the valve. The plug was removed by an unknown person. The defendant contended the contract employee should have been looking where he was going; some of his injuries were preexisting or did not exist, and the injuries were not as serious as alleged.

This Safety Expert constructed a model showing the injury site and the cramped quarters the plaintiff was working in. The case was published in the Michigan Trial Reporter and the Michigan Lawyer's Weekly.

To see the resume of the expert associated with this case study, see the link below.