$5.42 Million Verdict for Worker Who Lost a Leg When Forklift Reversed and Dragged Pipe Onto His Foot
After trial: Affirmed in full. The jury returned $5,415,811 on August 14, 2018, and the Fourth Circuit affirmed on June 26, 2020 (No.
Won by Powell & Majestro, PLLC.
Richard Edwards Jr. was loading lengths of metal pipe onto his truck when the forklift operator reversed without warning, dragging the pipe off the bed and onto his foot. His right leg was amputated below the knee. The jury held both trucking companies liable, and the Fourth Circuit affirmed every dollar.
What happened
In October 2015 Richard Edwards Jr., a truck driver, was loading lengths of metal pipe onto his truck. Danny McGowan, the owner of McElliotts Trucking, was running the forklift.
Edwards was setting the last piece in place when McGowan suddenly reversed the forklift. No warning. The heavy pipe was dragged back off the truck bed and came down on Edwards's foot, crushing it. His right leg was amputated below the knee.
The jury found McElliotts Trucking negligent. The harder question was Cardinal Transport, and it is the reason this case is worth reading. Cardinal argued it was not responsible for McGowan's conduct. The jury found otherwise: the two companies were operating as a joint venture, and the commercial vehicle involved was registered to Cardinal. Liability for the forklift operator's negligence therefore reached Cardinal too.
On August 14, 2018 the jury returned $5,415,811, itemized as $4,000,000 for physical pain, suffering and reduced capacity to function and $1,415,811 for medical bills, past lost earnings and reduced earning capacity.
Cardinal appealed, and made an argument worth understanding because it comes up whenever a motor carrier is sued: that the federal motor-carrier safety regulations displace the state common-law analysis of who employs whom, and that under the federal scheme it could not be on the hook. On June 26, 2020 the Fourth Circuit rejected it and affirmed.
Edwards was represented on appeal by Anthony J. Majestro of Powell and Majestro, with Richard W. Weston and Connor D. Robertson of Weston Robertson in Huntington.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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