Parish Fails to Backfill Large Sewer-Main Hole; Local Man Injured and Collects more than $600,000

PARISH FAILS TO BACK FILL LARGE SEWER MAIN HOLE;
 LOCAL MAN INJURED AND COLLECTS MORE THAN $600,000

 A local man bush-hogging a field where the parish government had failed to back fill a sewer main hole, sustained serious neck injuries when his tractor tumbled into the hole.  The injury resulted in neck surgery and a settlement negotiated by Kopfler & Hermann for more than $600,000.00. 
 In June of 2006, the Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government failed to properly back fill a sewerage right-of-way in a pasture owned by the father of the injured man.  This left a 3' x 8' hole that became more and more difficult to see as the grass in the pasture grew.  A summer later, the man and his father were bush-hogging the pasture and did not see the hole.  The man’s tractor plunged directly into this now deceptive hole in the ground, thrusting him violently forward in his tractor cab and directly causing two ruptured discs in his neck that necessitated surgery.  The 42-year-old former truck driver is precluded from that occupation and has a loss of earnings and earning capacity. 
 When the right-of-way was granted, the parish government agreed to hold harmless and indemnify the land owner against all claims for bodily injuries to persons resulting from the acts or omissions of the parish government.  The purpose of the right-of-way was for construction and maintenance of sewer gravity mains and force mains and other pertinent facilities within the servitude area.  The sewer facilities were to be placed at a minimum 3' depth and the parish obligated itself to refill all ditches and repair all damages from activities on the right-of-way.  After initially accepting responsibility, the parish later claimed that it had indeed back-filled the hole and that the back fill must have compacted  to create the hole.  If such had indeed been the case, the parish may have escaped all or a good portion of its liability, according to Joseph G. Kopfler, who handled the case for the firm.
 “When the parish claimed it had back-filled the hole, we hired an expert in civil engineering out of Alexandria to examine the area, test the soil and find out, indeed, whether the hole had been back-filled and subsequently settled,” Kopfler said.  “The engineer investigated the site, took the appropriate samples and concluded without hesitation that the hole had never been back-filled.”
 This finding by the engineer expert dove-tailed with the testimony of various parish workers who were on the job site when the hole was initially created.  These workers by a preponderance of their testimony confirmed that the hole had not been back-filled. 
 “These significant findings by our expert, and by the parish employees themselves, cleared up the liability issue in the case and resulted in a fair and reasonable settlement of our client’s claim,” Kopfler said.
 Kopfler & Hermann also  hired the services of experts in vocational rehabilitation as well as economics to calculate the client’s damages from his wage earning capacity. [Full x-ray posters our client’s injuries and surgical hardware showed the extent of medical treatment required to fix our client’s neck.]
 “Our local government generally does a credible job of providing a whole range of services to its citizens – from electricity to water to sewerage to drainage to hurricane levees,” Kopfler added.  “When it’s involved in so many aspects of providing services to its citizens, there are going to be situations which arise and result in injuries to other persons.  When that happens, the citizen has little recourse except to hire an attorney and bring a claim.”
 While the United States Chamber of Commerce and its allies in big insurance and big business have been advocating to severely limit an individual’s right to seek compensation when he or she is injured at the fault of another person, these efforts only serve to benefit the businesses and their insurers who cause people to be injured.
 “The Chamber claims it is all about ‘personal responsibility’ until one of its big business buddies or insurance companies – through their own negligent actions – cause someone to be injured.  Then, they are against personal responsibility entirely, and instead want to limit legitimate claims for just compensation.
 “This hypocrisy has torn the very fabric of our society,” according to Jerry L. Hermann who assisted Kopfler in presenting the case.  “Finally, we are seeing the pendulum swing back towards the center when it comes to lawsuits and claims for fair compensation.
 “The public is beginning to see right through these claims by big business and insurance companies, especially after the last 4 years of hurricane season,” Kopfler noted.  A whole broad swath of the general public got a taste of how insurance companies deal with claimants in the hurricane context, and it didn’t take people long to figure out that insurance companies deal with claimants in every context in a method that it is intended to undermine a citizen’s good faith claim for fair compensation,” Hermann said.

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