Case Examples

Maritime Injuries

Personal Injury

A man working on a tug boat in heavy seas transferred himself onto a rope ladder hanging down from an adjacent barge. He was climbing the ladder when the seas pushed the hulls of the tug boat and barge together, trapping his foot between the two vessels, degloving the skin and subcutaneous tissues from his foot and resulting in amputation of part of his foot.

Had the man been wearing steel-tipped safety boots as required, would he have sustained the injuries?

Maritime Injuries

Product Liability

A man working on a barge claimed that he was pulling on a cable to take the slack out of it when the keeper allegedly came off of the ratchet, causing him to fall backwards, hit the back of his head on a coaming and suffer a concussion.

Was the fall caused by the keeper coming off of the ratchet or by his letting go of the cable?