$10.28 Million Verdict for Worker Trapped When Trailer's Landing Gear Collapsed
Won by Elrod Pope.
A South Carolina warehouse worker suffered permanent lumbar spinal injuries when a commercial trailer's improperly installed landing gear buckled during loading, sending a jury to award Anthony Avery $7.48 million in compensatory damages and $2.8 million in punitive damages against MG Logistics, Inc.
What happened
On March 27, 2021, Anthony Avery was inside a commercial trailer at a South Carolina warehouse, using a grab truck to load an 8,000-pound paper roll, when the trailer's landing gear gave way. The legs collapsed sideways. The trailer tipped onto its side with Avery still inside.
Investigation revealed that MG Logistics, Inc., a Chicago-based trucking company, had replaced the trailer's landing gear in July 2020 without installing required diagonal cross-bracing. The replacement assembly had no structural support against lateral load, the kind of force generated by a heavy roll being positioned inside an unweighted trailer.
Avery sustained severe lower back injuries. Surgeons performed an L3-L5 lumbar decompression and fusion. The damage to his spinal nerves proved permanent, leaving him unable to return to work.
Attorneys Andrew 'Drew' Creech and Harold C. Staley, Jr. of Elrod Pope Accident and Injury Attorneys, joined by co-counsel Ashley Creech of McGowan Hood Felder and Phillips, tried the negligence case in the Rock Hill Division of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina before Judge Joseph F. Anderson. The firm's trial team documented MG Logistics' awareness of the deficient installation and the company's decision not to remedy it, the basis for the punitive claim.
Before trial, MG Logistics offered $300,000 to settle. On May 9, 2026, the jury returned a verdict of $7.48 million in compensatory damages and $2.8 million in punitive damages, totaling $10.28 million. The result represents the largest verdict in the firm's more than 45-year history.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Firm PR wire: 24-7 Press Release·Archived copy
- 2.Avery et al v. MG Logistics Inc et al: Justia federal docket (Case No. 0:23-cv-00222, D.S.C.); court record
- 3.Avery et al v. MG Logistics Inc et al: PacerMonitor public docket (Case No. 0:23-cv-00222, D.S.C.); court record
- 4.Andrew W. Creech (Elrod Pope) litigation history: Law360; docket-derived attorney record listing Avery v. MG Logistics
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