Pearce Law Firm recently negotiated a million dollar settlement for the victim of dangerous and defective machine that caused a severe injury to his hand. The case involved a 16-year old boy at that time, who was temporarily placed by his employer, a staffing company, to work at a sheet metal forming facility outside Philadelphia. The facility had been cited previously by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA, of the U.S. Department of Labor for safety violations within the plant. While temporarily working at the facility on a machine used to bend sheets of metal, the boy’s glove and hand were drawn into the rollers causing severe injury to his hand. The matter become quite complex as there was a dispute as to whom, if anyone was in control of the premises and who, if anyone, could be considered Plaintiff’s employer at the time of the accident. Also, since the Plaintiff was under 18 years old and considered a child, there were additional violations of the child labor laws.
Edith Pearce, a well-known Philadelphia injury attorney sued both the temporary agency for placing the Plaintiff at the dangerous factory without any training and the owner of the dangerous machine. Through discovery, Edith obtained records showing that the machine had been cited by OSHA for various safety violations. Because Edith specializes in the Philadelphia area as both a personal injury lawyer and an employment lawyer, she was able to understand all the claims and pursue a large settlement. Not only was a Pennsylvania workers’ compensation settlement obtained earlier for over $100,000, but Edith negotiated a settlement with the owners of the property and the machine for $975,000, making the total settlement over a million dollars.