$6.35 Million Settlement for Worker Injured by Production Machine

Larry Bendesky, Robert Zimmerman, and John Lang secured a $6.35 million settlement for a manufacturing worker whose hand was crushed when it was pulled into an unguarded pinch point of a production machine.

The firm filed suit against the parent company of the worker’s employer, claiming the parent company was negligent in its activities at its subsidiary’s facility.

Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky alleged that the parent company undertook certain responsibilities at the plant, including developing written safety policies and performing safety audits and inspections by parent-company employees. However, the lawsuit alleged, the safety checks failed to identify unsafe work practices and deficient machine guarding which allowed the worker’s hand to contact the rollers of the machine. The in-running nip point pulled the worker’s arm into the hazard zone and caused debilitating injuries which required surgery.

Plaintiff argued that he and his co-workers were pressured to work as efficiently as possible, which resulted in workers, including the plaintiff, interacting with the machine while it was still running rather than waiting until the machine was shut down. In response, Defendant argued that Plaintiff was not following the written job procedures at the plant, and that it was Plaintiff’s employer that was responsible for ensuring the guards on the machine in the mill were adequate.