$8.25 million settlement in case involving injuries to 17 Alabama shipyard workers

Written by Nick Blenkey
image description

Mobile, Ala., personal injury law firm Cunningham Bounds reports that last month, a few weeks before trial was set to begin, it obtained an $8.25 million settlement on behalf of 17 shipyard workers who were seriously injured at work while using a power tool known as a miller saw.

The law firm says the case involved claims against power tool manufacturer Metabo and distributor Southern Gas & Supply for “recommending, approving, and endorsing that their handheld angle grinders be equipped with dangerous carbide toothed circular saw blades, which resulted in the maiming and injuring of dozens of shipyard workers in Mobile, Alabama.”

Cunningham Bounds says that its clients alleged that, among other things, “Metabo put profits over safety by repeatedly making misrepresentations, falsehoods, and outright lies to the local Alabama shipyard.”

The law firm says the settlement was the culmination of tireless work by its attorneys, investigators, and staff, Brian Duncan, Billy Bonner, and David Wirtes were the co-lead attorneys on the case. Duncan and Bonner obtained and studied thousands of pages of internal company documents and e-mails that dated back years before plaintiffs were injured. They traveled across the United States and Europe to take depositions of over twenty different witnesses including salesmen, managers, engineers, and high-level executives.

David Wirtes, who was responsible for most of the legal briefing in the case, successfully fought to have the case remanded from federal court to Alabama state court, successfully prevailed at the Alabama Supreme Court on a defendant’s mandamus petition relating to plaintiffs’ legal theories, and successfully briefed numerous important legal motions in the Mobile County Circuit Court.

Categories: Legal, News, Shipyards Tags: