No one ever wakes up in the morning expecting to suffer a catastrophic injury at their place of work. But on a fateful day in 2019, our client Greg T. experienced just that.
facts of the case
Location
The incident occured at a farm in East Texas.
What happened
Our client was ran over by a forklift resulting in signficant injuries that ultimately led to amputation of his leg.
Injuries
Loss of limb - Our client lost his leg from the knee down.
Arbitration
Our client signed an arbitration agreement when he was hired, so the matter had to be litigated in a "court" that most firms are unfamiliar with.
Greg's Story
Greg was an employee at one of the world’s largest poultry producers. He was working on location at a client’s farm, having been dispatched there to repair a failing piece of equipment. Greg was walking with the owner of the farm toward the equipment that required his attention when he was struck by a forklift.
The forklift rolled over my leg, then it drove back over my leg to get off of me.
"I was going to go repair a failing piece of equipment on the other side of the farm. Myself and the farm owner were walking across the open area where they were loading trucks and the forklift operator ran us down. I got the worst end of it. It knocked the farmer away from me. He landed probably 15 or 20 feet away. The forklift rolled over my leg, then it drove back over my leg to get off of me. At the time, didn't know how bad hurt I was."
Tragically, Greg’s injuries were grave. The damage done to his right leg as a result of being run over by the forklift left him with two dreadful choices: Undergo multiple surgeries over the course of years and still risk losing his leg, or make the decision to amputate. With unknowable grief, Greg chose the latter.
Three days afterwards, we made the decision to amputate my leg above the knee
“They care flighted me to Texarkana. The damage done to me was pretty substantial. It shredded my hamstrings and my muscle in my lower leg. Three days afterwards, we made the decision to amputate my leg above the knee. Given the option that, or I could have four or five more surgeries over the following two years and still run the risk that I would lose the leg at the end of it regardless. So me and the wife talked it over. We made a decision. I amputated my leg."
As Greg received treatment his wife took up the task of ensuring that justice would be done for the life-altering injuries inflicted upon her husband. From the ICU, she began searching for attorneys who had a record of success holding his employer accountable for workplace injuries. Through a web search, she found Grossman Law.
After initially considering working with a different law firm, Greg decided that Mike Grossman was the person to trust with his case.
Mike drove down to Texarkana to visit with me, and the man spent two hours in a hospital talking to me.
"We had signed a letter of intent with another law firm the night, evening before I contacted Mike, and some of the things that that lawyer said to me, the more I thought about it, the less sense it made to go with him. So I contacted Mike. He drove down to Texarkana to visit with me, and the man spent two hours in a hospital talking to me. But the other guy sat in there 15 minutes."
We were honored to be granted the opportunity to represent Greg. We knew after spending time speaking with him that there was a claim to be made against his massive employer, and we weren’t going to shy away from going after them.
Mike's first thing was, let's go after the big boy first, and then we'll worry about these other guys.
"[the other lawyer said] he would see what he could do about suing the farm and suing the catch company and this other thing that, you know, he might could find us a couple million dollars. You know, that's, that's not the attitude Mike took with it. Mike's first thing was, let's go after the big boy first and then we'll worry about these other guys."
The first challenge to overcome was that the employer has a binding arbitration agreement. This means we couldn’t sue in state district court. So, we sued in arbitration.
We determined that a major factor in the accident was that there was no cordoning off of the area where the forklift was operated as it loaded the trailer. Greg was on the opposite side of the trailer from where it was being loaded, and then the forklift operated whipped around in a large arc and ran him over.
We made the argument that employees are unable to protect themselves unless there is some policy in place that delineates between the zone of danger and the safe zone. In this case, and to the enormous detriment of our client, the employer had no such rules.
I truly didn't believe at the time that the company would hang me out to dry.
"I've never been involved in any litigation of any kind. So this was an eye-opening experience to start with because I truly didn't believe at the time that the company would hang me out to dry. Luckily, my wife is not so trusting, hence hiring you guys."
As the case moved into litigation, the opposing attorneys tried to get the case dismissed on a motion for summary judgment.
Texas has a livestock liability statute that essentially says the owners of horses and other farm animals aren’t liable for normal livestock activities. This law was enacted to protect dude ranches and petting zoos by barring a lawsuit brought by a guest or customer to such a facility.
The opposing lawyers tried to argue that this livestock immunity rule should also apply to Greg’s case. We were able to defeat their motion, and the case moved rapidly toward arbitration. Ultimately, the matter was successfully resolved on confidential terms.
The company tried to do everything in their power to not pay me…and at every turn you guys answered back
“The opposing council tried to invoke some kind of rodeo, farm work clause in the laws of the state of Texas. And Keith shut that down in a matter of two days that it was before the judge. And, and the ruling was, this ain't got nothing to do with that. You know, the company tried to do everything in their power to not pay me, to not do for me. And at every turn you guys answered back within a timely manner and the judge ruled in our favor down the line every time."
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Serious workplace injury? Call Grossman Law 24/7 for a free consultation. We are here to help you recover.
855-326-0000