Jury awards $29M in on-the-job burning death

[ttt]

www.11alive.com/story/news/local/east-point/2015/09/08/newell-jury-award-fulton-county-erik-hilario/71902008/


ATLANTA – A Fulton County jury has awarded $29.2 million to the family of a 19-year-old man who burned to death while working at Newell Recycling of Atlanta's in East Point plant four years ago.

Attorneys for the man's family thinks jurors wanted to send a message about unregulated, unsafe practices in the workforce.

On January 2011, Erik Hilario worked at the plant with his dad and two brothers.

Erik worked in an area where the company would punch holes in vehicle gas tanks and drain them before they were crushed and shredded.

"The way they (the plant operators) were dealing with gas in cars that came in to be recycled, was to essentially pick up the car by the roof structure with a crane grapple and swing it around and slam it around on a steel spike that was mounted above a big steel trough and let the gas just fall into that trough," said Alan Hamilton, with Shivers Hamilton, the firm representing the estate of Erik Hilario. "Our client was pushing the scrap metal across the concrete to clean it up, a spark happened and it ignited the gasoline and the vapors from that day."

Hamilton said the jury saw shocking, difficult to watch surveillance video of Hilario doing his job cleaning the area by using a front-end loader and scraping the metal, but on the night he died, the machine caused a spark, igniting the gasoline vapors.

"Even though he tried to back away, it just consumed that whole area and literally seconds. And he tragically burned to death," said Hamilton.

Roger E. Harris, a partner with the law firm Swift and Currie, sent 11Alive a statement.

On behalf of Newell Recycling of Atlanta, Inc., the following represents the company's media statement with respect to the trial: 

MEDIA STATEMENT

The accident that happened on January 6, 2011, was a tragedy, and the entire Newell organization deeply regrets what happened at its East Point facility. Newell has heard the verdict loud and clear, and after several years of litigation and a trial that lasted two weeks, the case resolved post-verdict by way of a confidential settlement. This confidential settlement has the effect of fully and finally resolving many outstanding legal issues that were raised during the course of the trial, and that would have been considered by the Georgia Court of Appeals absent the settlement. Importantly, this confidential settlement brings closure to this matter for the entire Hilario family who lost their loved one, and it brings closure to this long legal battle for the Newell organization. Jeff Shiver and Alan Hamilton tried an excellent case and advocated very well on behalf of their client. There are several reasons why this case went to trial, and the entire defense team, including Dan McGrew, Lee Clayton, Neil Edwards, and Dan Kingsley, deserves credit for working tirelessly to provide Newell Recycling of Atlanta, Inc., with the strong defense that it deserved.

[Elsa]

That company where the guy recently burnt to death in an oven has to be shaking in their boots right about now.

[iammalcolmx]

Damn

[pamela]

That media release is just weird.

[onomatopoeia]

Sept 9, 2015 8:36:50 GMT -5 ttt said:

Erik worked in an area where the company would punch holes in vehicle gas tanks and drain them before they were crushed and shredded.

"The way they (the plant operators) were dealing with gas in cars that came in to be recycled, was to essentially pick up the car by the roof structure with a crane grapple and swing it around and slam it around on a steel spike that was mounted above a big steel trough and let the gas just fall into that trough," said Alan Hamilton, with Shivers Hamilton, the firm representing the estate of Erik Hilario. "Our client was pushing the scrap metal across the concrete to clean it up, a spark happened and it ignited the gasoline and the vapors from that day."

Hamilton said the jury saw shocking, difficult to watch surveillance video of Hilario doing his job cleaning the area by using a front-end loader and scraping the metal, but on the night he died, the machine caused a spark, igniting the gasoline vapors.

"Even though he tried to back away, it just consumed that whole area and literally seconds. And he tragically burned to death," said Hamilton.

Holy crap.  I mean, I don't know a thing about working in a recycling plant, but even I can see that this is a very, very bad workplace practice.  That poor guy.

[bernsteincat]

A good friend of mine and my husbands recently died as a result of a distillery explosion. I think they're looking at suing the maker of the still part that failed, but really the whole operation looked pretty shoddy from the pics our friend posted on social media. I know a monetary sum won't bring him back, but I hope his family gets some peace from it.

Not really related to the story above, but anecdotes.