$1 Million Verdict for River Worker Paralyzed When Support Vessel Capsized at Arkansas Dam Construction Site
Won by McMath Woods.
An oiler paralyzed below the neck after a fuel-supply pontoon vessel capsized in dangerous lock-gate currents on the Arkansas River near Pine Bluff received a $1 million jury award in 1969, reported at the time as the first such verdict in Arkansas federal courts.
What happened
In October 1968, San Ore Construction Company and its joint-venture partner Gardner Engineering Corporation were building Lock and Dam No. 4 on the Arkansas River near Pine Bluff, a major component of the federally funded Arkansas River Navigation Project. Patrick Brinegar worked as an oiler on the construction dredge "The Mud Hen," maintaining machinery at the active construction site.
On October 29, 1968, the Hal-B, a fuel-supply pontoon vessel assigned to the project, attempted to move upstream through an open dam gate. The channeled current at that opening produced what witnesses described as a waterfall effect, with fast-moving water pouring through the narrow passage. Piloting the Hal-B was James Holt, who was 20 years old and held no license. Federal Coast Guard regulations required operators of vessels in that class to be licensed masters or pilots and at least 21 years old. Holt met neither standard.
The Hal-B capsized in the turbulence. As it rolled, part of the hull struck Brinegar in the neck. The blow severed his spinal cord at the C-6 and C-7 vertebrae, leaving him without feeling or movement below the neck. The injury was total and permanent.
Henry Woods and Sidney S. McMath of McMath, Leatherman, Woods & Youngdahl in Little Rock filed suit in the Eastern District of Arkansas, Pine Bluff Division. The claims rested on three theories: negligence under the Jones Act, unseaworthiness of the Hal-B, and the defendants' violation of the Coast Guard licensing statute at 46 U.S.C.A. section 391a. At trial, the firm established that the companies had placed an unlicensed, underage operator on a fuel vessel attempting a hazardous passage through live construction currents.
The jury returned a verdict of one million dollars on May 16, 1969. It found both defendants negligent, the Hal-B unseaworthy, and Brinegar entirely without contributory fault. The defendants moved to challenge the award. District Judge Oren Harris, the former U.S. congressman who presided over the case, denied the motion on June 25, 1969. The full award stood.
The verdict was reported at the time as the first million-dollar personal injury award in the United States District Courts in Arkansas. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas later described it as a "record judgment" in its profile of Henry Woods, noting the legal community's recognition of what the firm had achieved for a river worker injured on the Arkansas River near Pine Bluff.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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