The Manila Rope Holding a 131-Pound Pipe Broke Forty Feet Above Him, and the Landing Zone Had Never Been Cleared. A $27.7 Million Verdict Was Paid Out at $6.45 Million.
After trial: Paid and satisfied, which is rarer than a large verdict. The jury returned $27,707,930 on February 2, 2023. The February 10, 2023 final judgment applied the 88 percent fault allocation, giving $17,705,600 to the son and $6,677,378 to the widow; that step is arithmetic, not a remittitur. On September 28, 2023 the district court granted remittitur, cutting the son's general damages to $4,360,708.59 and the widow's to $5,104,226.22. The Fifth Circuit affirmed on March 28, 2025 in Warner v. Talos ERT, 133 F.4th 412 (No. 23-30755), except for the remittitur of the widow's general damages, which it vacated and remanded. On remand the district court reduced her general damages to $1,115,808.70; an amended judgment was entered June 13, 2025 and a Satisfaction of Judgment was filed July 1, 2025. The approximately $6.45 million total is computed from those components because the amended judgment itself is not public.
Won by Arnold & Itkin.
Walter Jackson, 48, was a rigger on an offshore platform 65 miles south of Lake Charles. The crew was lowering sections of corroded firewater pipe when the manila rope holding a 131-pound section broke. He was standing in a landing zone nobody had cleared, and it killed him instantly.
What happened
Walter Jackson was 48 and worked as a rigger for the offshore marine contractor DLS. On February 17, 2018 he was on the West Cameron 215A platform, about 65 miles south of Lake Charles in the Gulf of Mexico, operated by Talos ERT.
The crew was cutting corroded firewater pipe into sections and lowering them about forty feet to the main deck. The rope holding a 131-pound section was manila. It broke.
Jackson was standing in what the crew called the landing zone. Nobody had cleared it before the load came down. The pipe struck him in the head and killed him instantly.
The case against Talos was not about the rope alone. It was that Talos, as the platform operator, owed a safe place to work and did not provide one: there was no adequate safety plan, and the landing zone was not cleared before a load was lowered into it. On February 2, 2023 the jury agreed, awarding $20,120,000 to Jackson's young son and $7,587,930 to his widow Vantrece Jackson, and assessing Talos 88 percent at fault with the remaining 12 percent to DLS. None of the fault was assigned to Jackson himself, so there is no comparative-negligence story here.
What happened after the verdict is the part worth reading, because it is the clearest illustration in Louisiana of the distance between a headline and a payment.
The February 2023 final judgment applied the 88 percent allocation, which is arithmetic and not a reduction. In September 2023 the district court granted remittitur and cut the son's general damages from $20 million to $4,360,708.59 and the widow's from $6.6 million to $5,104,226.22. On March 28, 2025 the Fifth Circuit affirmed everything except the remittitur of the widow's general damages, which it vacated and remanded. On remand the district court cut her general damages again, to $1,115,808.70. An amended judgment was entered on June 13, 2025, and a Satisfaction of Judgment was filed on July 1, 2025.
The family ended up with roughly $6.45 million, about 23 percent of the jury's number, and unlike most large verdicts this one is actually paid.
Jackson's son was represented by J. Kyle Findley and John G. Grinnan Jr. of Arnold and Itkin with Michael K. Cox of Cox, Cox, Filo, Camel and Wilson in Lake Charles. His widow was represented by Ryan H. Zehl of Zehl and Associates. The child is not named.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Warner v. Talos ERT, LLC, 133 F.4th 412 (5th Cir. Mar. 28, 2025), No. 23-30755: the opinion, affirming except for the remittitur of Mrs. Jackson's general damages, which it vacated and remanded
- 2.Final Judgment of Feb. 10, 2023 in W.D. La. 2:18-cv-01435, applying the 88 percent fault allocation: $17,705,600 to the son and $6,677,378 to the widow
- 3.W.D. La. docket 2:18-cv-01435 (Lake Charles, Judge James D. Cain Jr.), consolidated with 2:19-cv-00044: the venue, the attorney listings, the September 2023 remittitur, the June 2025 amended judgment and the July 1, 2025 Satisfaction of Judgment
- 4.Louisiana Jury Verdict Reporter, February 2023: the verdict, the 131-pound pipe section and the broken manila rope, that the plaintiff at trial represented both the wife and the son from another relationship, and the counsel line naming J. Kyle Findley and John G. Grinnan Jr. of Arnold and Itkin, Michael K. Cox of Cox Cox Filo Camel and Wilson, and Zehl Associates
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