Jury Awards $168,009.00 to Construction Worker
Whose Head was Trapped in a Gang Box

          William Lightfoot and Joshua Davenport secured a jury verdict of $168,009 in the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County, Maryland for a construction worker who, while retrieving tools from a gang box, broke his leg and ankle when a concrete truck collided with the box.  The right rear fender of the concrete truck caught the corner of the gang box—a large metal container used to store tools—causing the box to pivot and the doors to close.  The box was lodged between the truck’s fender and a concrete wall, pinning the construction worker’s head in the box.  The box was also pushed over the worker’s legs.  Fearing that the construction worker might be further injured if the truck were moved, co-workers used sledgehammers for seven minutes on the concrete wall to give clearance to pull the box away from the wall and free the construction worker’s head.

As a result of the incident, the construction worker sustained a compound open fracture of his right leg and multiple fractures to his left ankle, both of which required surgery.  The construction worker had significant post-accident scarring to both legs and had treated with a psychiatrist for more than a year for post-traumatic stress disorder.

           The construction worker had two claims:  (1) a workers’ compensation claim against his employer for injuries sustained on the job; and (2) a negligence claim against the concrete company for its negligence in causing the injuries.  After the jury ruled in favor of the construction worker, William Lightfoot and Joshua Davenport persuaded the workers’ compensation insurer for the worker’s employer to waive its entire lien of $184,000, thereby providing the construction worker with benefits totaling approximately $350,000.