A Pittsburgh jury, on Friday December 1, 2006, awarded $2.45 million in damages to the widow of a West Virginia instrument control technician for the wrongful death of her husband that stemmed from a 1997 accident in a South Korean steel mill.
Chuck Miller of South Charleston, West Virginia, had been working for BAS Technical Services on a Continuous Casting Machine project in Korea for its designer, SMS Demag of Pittsburgh, when 30 tons of molten steel was spilled during testing of the machine. The testing of the machine was being supervised by SMS. Miller was horribly burned but miraculously was not killed instantly. Instead, he survived for 46 days. After being transferred from Korea to the Brook Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, Miller underwent several surgeries, including bilateral leg amputations, but eventually died due to multiple complications.
In holding SMS liable, the jury found that they failed to properly inspect the facility and to train the new operators before running tests with 2,800 degree molten steel. SMS claimed that their Korean customer was solely to blame. The jury disagreed.
Attorneys for Donna Miller, the widow, were Warren Hampton of Hampton & McCreary in Pottstown, Mark Parisi of White and Williams in Philadelphia and Jason Archinaco of White and Williams in Pittsburgh. The case was on trial for a month and involved a team of five attorneys from White and Williams joining with Hampton for the plaintiff. “The case had been bounced to three different courts before going to trial in state court in Pittsburgh,” Parisi explained. “We were very anxious to try this case and the fact that we won, shows why.” Parisi was highly complementary about his White and Williams team.
Warren Hampton, who specializes in difficult personal injury cases, said “The trial was particularly challenging because the accident occurred overseas and witnesses were so difficult to track down. We logged a lot of miles putting this case together and it was worth it.”
Hampton also specializes in complex products liability cases and cases involving food related injury and death such as E-Coli O157:H7 and Hepatitis A in state and federal courts across the country.
Disclaimer: results described above are determined by the facts of each case and are not intended to be construed or as a gaurantee or representation of the likelihood of future success.
