Jury Awards $142k in Workplace Negligence Case

In a recent case of workplace injury in Dallas County, a jury awarded $142,301 to a laborer whose hand was crushed in a backhoe accident on the workplace. The facts were that in 2005, Ambrocio Barcenas-Gomez, then 57, worked at Best Scrap Metal, a Dallas scrap yard. While Mr. Gomez was loading equipment onto a backhoe the grapple closed on his right hand, crushing it. Mr. Gomez underwent surgery to repair the fractures, however his injuries are permanent and he cannot open his hand completely and has minimal gripping strength, which prevents him from returning to work as a laborer. Gomez blamed Best Scrap Metal, citing poor safety procedures and poor equipment maintenance. In direct examination during trial, the backhoe operator testified that the backhoe had malfunctioned several times before the incident. The Defendant scrap metal company denied any negligence and argued that it was not liable for Gomez's injuries because he was an independent contractor.

In Texas before negligence can be found in the workplace, certain facts have to be present.

The factual elements include:

(1) The defendant owed a legal duty to the plaintiff,

(2) The defendant breached that duty, and

(3) The breach was a proximate cause of the plaintiff's personal injury or property damages.

See, D. Houston, Inc. v. Love, 92 S.W.3d 450, 454 (Tex.2002). Moreover, the existence of a duty owed is a threshold consideration for a negligence claim. Centeq Realty, Inc. v. Siegler, 899 S.W.2d 195, 197 (Tex.1995), and is a question of law for the court. See, Texas Home Management., Inc. v. Peavy, 89 S.W.2d 30, 33 (Tex.2002). If there is no duty, liability for negligence cannot exist. Thapar v. Zezulka, 994 S.W.2d 635, 637 (Tex. 1999). There is a general common law duty for everyone to exercise reasonable care to avoid foreseeable injury to others. See El Chico Corp. v. Poole, 732 S.W.2d 306, 311 (Tex.1987). In the Gomez case, the jury determined that the scrap metal company had a general common law duty to avoid the foreseeable injury.

National Data Fact:

Nonfatal injuries in the workplace accounted for roughly 4,002,700 injuries in 2007 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics: http://www.bls.gov/iif/