$2,585,000 Settlement

Our client was a hard-working truck driver. He was tending to his usual day of depositing a load of debris at an upstate landfill dumpsite. After he unloaded the debris from his container truck, he exited his vehicle to secure the tailgate prior to departing the facility. While he was standing next to his vehicle, another dump truck inadvertently backed into him, killing him almost instantly. An action was brought against the owner and operator of the dump truck, together with the owner and operator of the landfill. The allegations against the landfill were that it failed to have proper safe practices and protocols to prevent this type of occurrence. The action against the truck driver was straightforward – he should not have permitted himself to become distracted by another vehicle when attempting to back-up his truck, and in fact, he was distracted. One of the defenses was that the defendants’ dump truck had two loud backup alarms that were engaged prior to the incident, and that our client would have heard those alarms, but failed to move out of harm’s way when he had ample time to do so, and no prior similar accident had occurred at the landfill.

The case was hard fought and our firm conducted depositions of numerous defense representatives and witnesses. Ultimately, the Court suggested and the parties agreed to a non-binding Court-sponsored mediation. Although the case did not settle at mediation, ultimately with the assistance of the mediator, a resolution was achieved.