He Lit a Cigarette in a Space Where LNG Vapour Had Collected. The Jury Still Put 95 Percent of the Fault on the Vessel Operator.
After trial: The verdict is the public figure and the final recovery is confidential. The jury returned $9,958,001 on November 4, 2025 and apportioned 5 percent of the fault to Galland, leaving $9,460,101. No judgment was ever entered: on February 9, 2026 the court granted a joint consent motion and dismissed the action with prejudice, which is the signature of a post-verdict settlement whose amount was not disclosed. Read the figure as the jury's award and not as money paid. On scope, the action also carried a second injured deckhand as a co-plaintiff, so the case is multi-plaintiff, but the verdict form awarded the entire sum to Paul Galland alone, which is why this is recorded as an individual result.
Won by Broussard Knoll Law Firm.
Paul Galland was a deckhand doing repairs aboard an LNG-powered supply vessel at Port Fourchon. LNG vapour had accumulated near a vent on the fly deck. He lit a cigarette and it flashed. He escaped by jumping between decks, breaking his leg on the way down, and suffered severe burns.
What happened
On April 28, 2023 Paul Galland was working as a deckhand doing repairs aboard the Harvey Energy, an LNG-powered platform supply vessel, at Port Fourchon, Louisiana.
LNG vapour had accumulated near a vent on the fly deck, in a space where crew were working.
Galland lit a cigarette. The vapour flashed. He escaped the fire by jumping from one deck to another, breaking his leg on the way down, and he suffered severe burns.
The honest way to tell this case is not to leave that out. He lit the cigarette, and the jury heard that he did. It then found Harvey Gulf 95 percent at fault and Galland 5 percent, because the question a Jones Act jury answers is not who struck the match but who allowed flammable vapour to collect in a space where crew were sent to work.
On November 4, 2025 the jury awarded $9,958,001, itemized as $5,000,000 for past pain, $3,800,000 for future pain, $197,964 in past lost wages and $960,037 for future earning capacity. Net of his 5 percent share that is $9,460,101.
Galland was represented by Aaron J. Broussard, Christopher Mann, Jerold Knoll and Laura B. Knoll of Broussard Knoll in Lake Charles.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Galland v. Harvey Gulf International Marine, LLC, E.D. La. No. 2:23-cv-03392 before Chief Judge Wendy B. Vitter: the venue, and the description of Paul Galland and a second deckhand injured while working aboard the vessel
- 2.The federal docket: no judgment was entered, and on February 9, 2026 the motion to dismiss was granted and the action dismissed with prejudice on a joint consent motion; the docket's attorney and firm fields corroborate counsel
- 3.Louisiana Jury Verdict Reporter, December 2025: the $9,958,001 verdict with the 95/5 fault split and the itemized $5,000,000 past pain, $3,800,000 future pain, $197,964 past lost wages and $960,037 future earning capacity, and the counsel line naming Aaron J. Broussard, Christopher Mann, Jerold Knoll and Laura B. Knoll of Broussard Knoll, Lake Charles
- 4.The verdict form itself, Question 5, awarding the full sum to Paul Galland alone
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