After extensive litigation and just prior to trial, Eisenberg Winkler Jeck Schwartz Schoenhaus & Sherry, P.C. attorneys Dan Jeck and Josh Schwartz secured a confidential settlement of $1,950,000 for a client who suffered catastrophic, life-altering injuries in a preventable workplace accident.
Our client was a happy, hardworking, and highly experienced scrap metal hauler from Staten Island, N.Y., whose promising life was forever altered on September 8, 2021. While he was attempting to unload scrap metal from a tractor-trailer at a yard located in Jersey City, N.J., the trailer’s nearly two-ton tailgate suddenly broke free from its corroded hinges and crushed him. The 3,800-pound gate fell without warning, pinning our client in a pile of sharp metal.
As a result of being crushed, our client suffered devastating and permanently disabling injuries. His injuries included multiple severe pelvic fractures that required surgical fixation, a shattered clavicle, numerous rib fractures, a liver laceration, and kidney damage. He can no longer work as a truck driver and must now use a cane to walk. He faces a future of chronic pain, depression, and the need for lifelong medical care and personal assistance.
Dan and Josh argued that this horrific event was the direct result of a chain of inexcusable negligence. The trailer had been seriously damaged four months prior when it struck an overpass, ripping the tailgate off its hinges. The trailer’s owner then had it repaired by another company.
With the assistance of expert engineers and mechanics, however, Dan and Josh proved that those repairs were negligently performed with, among other things, improper welds. Critically, the owner failed to inspect these faulty repairs before putting the dangerously defective trailer back into service. The trailer was then loaned to our client’s employer, who likewise failed to perform a reasonable inspection in violation of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Regulation 49 CFR § 396.3 before placing it back into service, and failed to conduct preventative maintenance before assigning it to our client.
“This was a completely preventable tragedy,” said Dan. “Our client’s life has been permanently shattered because multiple companies cut corners on basic safety. A simple inspection of a shoddy repair job would have prevented this catastrophic event. At every level, the defendants here failed to prioritize safety.”
“While no amount of money can restore the life our client had, this settlement provides him with resources to pay for the lifelong medical care he will need,” said Josh. “It ensures that the companies responsible for causing his injuries are held accountable for prioritizing profit over people.”
