Widow Sues Philly Port Authority Over Husband’s Death

The complaint includes claims for negligence and wrongful death, as well as state Survival Act claims.

The wife of a warehouse worker is suing the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority and others, alleging their negligence led to her husband being crushed to death by a bale of wood pulp while working at a PRPA-owned warehouse.

In a complaint filed Wednesday, Angelique Abney said her husband, Scott Abney, had been working at the Tioga Marine Terminal as a stevedore on September 25, 2023, transferring bales of wood pulp within the warehouse using a clamp truck, when the truck grazed a tower of bales, causing them to fall.

Scott Abney was hit by one such bale as he tried to escape the clamp truck, was crushed and died of his injuries, according to the complaint, which alleges that the wood pulp bales were not braced, placed on racks, or otherwise stacked to avoid falling.

The bales were also stacked close enough that the individual bales were leaning on each other, and the forklift and clamp truck operators did not have enough room to perform their duties safely, according to the complaint, which says the defendants had notice that workers had trouble stacking the bales properly in the warehouse.

In addition to PRPA, the complaint also names as defendants two SSA Marine Inc. entities and Ports America Inc., which jointly owned Scott Abney’s employer, Delaware River Stevedores, and conducted operations in the warehouse. DRS is not named as a defendant in the suit.

Defendants Signal Management Services LLC, Comprehensive Safety Consultants LLC and Longshore Safety Consulting LLC all played a part in the planning, stacking and inspection of the warehouse, while defendant Suzano Pulp and Paper America Inc. also supplied the wood pulp stacked in the warehouse in addition to providing wood pulp stacking protocols.

The complaint includes claims for negligence and wrongful death, as well as state Survival Act claims.

Robert W. Zimmerman of Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky, representing the Abney estate, said Thursday that the family has been pursuing litigation over Scott Abney’s death for the last year, but filed this new action to add one additional defendant, SSA Delaware River Inc., before the statute of limitations runs out.

“Workplace safety should be the highest priority for businesses who are involved in heavy materials storage and movement, and that was not the case for this warehouse,” Zimmerman said. “The owners of the operations at this facility failed to ensure that workers were given a safe place to work, where they could return home safely to their families at the end of the day. And the defendants who were brought in to review and come up with safe work procedures and stacking procedures failed in their responsibilities, which left a young wife without a husband, and a young child without a father.”

Representatives for the defendants could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.

The Abney estate is represented by Larry Bendesky, Robert W. Zimmerman and John L. Lang of Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky.

Counsel information for the defendants was not available Thursday.

The case is Abney v. Philadelphia Regional Port Authority et al., case number 250902517, in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania.