Back & Neck Injury Case Settles for More than a Million

In August 2015, our client was severely injured during a basket transfer from a platform to a nearby motor vessel owned and operated by Cheramie Global Marine L.L.C.

At the time of his accident, he was an A Crane Operator for Island Operating Company getting off of work and was being lowered onto the boat from the platform 80 feet above. The other crane operator that was lowering our client was relying on signals from the deckhand on deck and the Captain in the wheelhouse, however, those signals were not communicated properly. The Captain and the deckhand didn’t notice that the basket had lowered too far and when it swung over to the boat, it hit the side of the vessel, throwing our client onto the deck and injuring his back.

According to an expert witness report in our case:

“The cause of this incident was the failure of the operator of the M/V to communicate effectively with the crane operator to either raise the personnel basket or abort the transfer when it became obvious that the basket had been lowered too far. The Captain failed to maintain a situational awareness of the transfer, which allowed the crane operator to misjudge the position of the basket in relation to the vessel, which was the direct cause of this incident. Further, the captain and deckhand were in a better position to visually judge whether or not the personnel basket would clear the bulwark than the crane operator. Their failure to effectively alert the crane operator of the developing situation caused this incident.”

As a result of the captain and the deckhand’s negligence, our client had to receive a lumbar fusion at two levels as well as neck fusion. His range of motion was greatly diminished and he was unable to return back offshore to the job that he loved.

Because our client was technically a Longshoreman and there were several parties involved, we ultimately filed three cases on his behalf:

• A Worker’s Compensation claim against the Louisiana Department of Labor
• A Longshore claim against Island Operating Company; and
• A General Maritime claim against Cheramie Global Marine.

After a year of fighting with the Louisiana Department of Labor, we proved our client’s injury and he was eventually approved for his surgeries. We won his case and settled the worker’s comp portion for roughly $40,000 and the general tort suit for $1.06 million.

Our client was very pleased with the settlement and happy to be able to move on with his life.

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