$4.35 Million Settlement for DeQuincy Police Officer Burned by a Damaged CLECO Power Line
After trial: The settlement was completed and was never appealed. The later litigation was the City of DeQuincy's workers' compensation credit claim, in which the Louisiana Supreme Court held on March 15, 2011 that the City's credit against the settlement covers Henry's future medical costs as well as disability benefits.
Won by Broussard Knoll Law Firm.
DeQuincy police corporal Randy James Henry was badly burned by a power line in November 2000 while investigating a truck crash that had left live CLECO lines sagging over the scene. He sued the utility, the driver and the driver's insurer, and nearly eight years after the accident settled with CLECO at mediation on October 23, 2008 for $4,350,000. The settlement stood; the later fight was over his employer's workers' compensation credit.
What happened
In the early morning hours of November 26, 2000, a pickup truck left Louisiana Highway 12 in DeQuincy and struck a utility pole that fed a nearby funeral home. The pole sheared at its base but stayed upright, held by the tension of the lines. Two lines hung about a foot and a half above the cab of the truck, and a third had pulled loose and lay on the ground.
Corporal Randy James Henry of the DeQuincy Police Department was sent to investigate. The driver and his passenger were released to their father, a tow truck pulled the pickup out from under the wires, and the officers walked the area picking up debris. As Henry and a fellow corporal headed back to their patrol cars, the other officer heard an arcing sound and turned to find Henry unconscious on the ground. He had come into contact with a live line owned by CLECO Utility Group.
Henry was taken by ambulance and then by helicopter to Galveston, Texas. He had electrical burns to his head and feet and was later treated by a neurologist and a clinical psychologist; in the litigation he described a cognitive impairment that affected his memory and could cause communication problems. The Third Circuit later called his injuries severe and totally disabling, and in 2009 described him as a 49-year-old former officer who would apparently never work again.
Henry sued the truck driver, the driver's auto insurer and CLECO in October 2001. Steven Broussard of Broussard & Hart, LLC in Lake Charles, a firm that now practices as Broussard Knoll Law Firm, represented Henry and his wife. The case went to the Third Circuit twice, once to reverse a summary judgment that had dismissed the driver and his insurer, and once over the terms of independent medical examinations, and several times to the Louisiana Supreme Court on writs.
On October 23, 2008, nearly eight years after the accident, Henry and CLECO mediated the case and agreed to settle for $4,350,000. Henry, his wife, their lawyer and CLECO's lawyer signed the terms that day. Henry allocated $235,500 of the total to his wife and children for loss of consortium and none of it to future medical expenses.
The City of DeQuincy, which had paid his workers' compensation benefits and intervened in the suit, did not attend the mediation. It later argued that it was owed a credit against his future medical costs, a dispute the Louisiana Supreme Court decided in the City's favor in March 2011.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.City of DeQuincy v. Henry, 62 So. 3d 43 (La. 2011)·Archived copy
- 2.City of DeQuincy v. Henry, 25 So. 3d 237 (La. App. 3 Cir. 2009)·Archived copy
- 3.Henry v. Barlow, 901 So. 2d 1207 (La. App. 3 Cir. 2005)·Archived copy
- 4.Henry v. Barlow, 937 So. 2d 895 (La. App. 3 Cir. 2006)·Archived copy
- 5.Henry v. Barlow, 948 So. 2d 153 (La. 2007)
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