On Tuesday, an Appeal panel in California upheld the $30 million verdict awarded to the family of a construction worker killed in a work accident. According to the suit, a man was killed when he was dragged into a rock-crusher machine. General Equipment & Supplies Inc and R.J. Noble were sued by the children of Rolando Anaya, the man killed in the accident. R.J Noble was later dropped from the suit, but both companies were accused of negligence. The court found that GE&S Inc was negligent in failing to install the proper safety equipment to prevent this tragedy.
A Los Angeles court found that General Equipment was 70% responsible for the death of Mr. Amaya, while R.J Noble was 30% responsible. General Equipment filed for an appeal immediately. They argued that the trial judge excluded evidence that showed the rock crusher was in compliance with industry practices. However, the appeal court disagreed. Just because the crusher was up to “industry standards” doesn’t mean they aren’t liable for product liability claims. The panel’s opinion read: “General Equipment fails to show it even attempted to meet — let alone did meet — its threshold burden to admit industry custom and practice evidence.”
Several experts testified at the trial, saying that a fail-safe could have been installed on the rock crusher. This could be accomplished easily and would be relatively inexpensive. Even washing machines automatically shut off when the lid is opened. There is no reason that the company could not afford to have an interlock system installed in order to prevent this tragedy. Something this simple could have shut off the system to prevent the untimely death of Mr. Amaya.
Contact The Law Giant Today for your wrongful death case
A Texas wrongful death case is a complex task. Allow The Law Giant, Personal Injury & Accident Lawyers to take care of this while you focus on recovering. We will fight for you to be compensated fairly for this damage, as well as other types of harm you have suffered as the result of someone else’s negligence. Contact us today at (866) 243-8068 to schedule a free, initial consultation of your case.
