IP Mill Explosion Settlement Proposals Due
The family of two workers sued International Paper (IP) after an explosion killed a contract worker and injured 22 others at its Redwood, Mississippi plant on May 3, 2008.
According to this Associated Press article on Philly.com, the blast killed a 28-year-old male employee. The two workers who filed the lawsuit and several other workers were severely burned when the 12-story boiler exploded during an attempt to restart it after annual maintenance.
In the lawsuit filed last year, the IP plant acknowledged that the boiler had been shut down for maintenance, there was an explosion, and the company knew workers would be present that day. The company argued that workers did not exercise reasonable care for their own safety.
One of the employees, who was burned over 60 percent of his body, said that workers should have been cleared from the area before the boiler was restarted.
OSHA fined International Paper $77,000 in the months following the explosion for one alleged willful violation and one alleged serious violation.
OSHA also found that some company officials did not share an internal memo about starting the boiler with workers in the facility’s control room, the report said.
A settlement conference is scheduled for Sept. 15 in U.S. District Court in Gulfport.
Any worker who has sustained an injury arising out of and in the course of their employment has a potential workers’ compensation claim. The injury can occur while traveling on business, doing a work-related errand, attending a required business-related social function, or even while on a break or using restroom facilities and you are still legally covered by workers compensation.
A worker who has been injured on the job would be well advised to contact an experienced Philadelphia worker’s compensation attorney who can carefully examine the incident to identify any negligence or wrongdoing. An experienced attorney would also look into a “third party claim.” These are claims that are filed against parties that are not the worker’s employer. It could be a contractor, a sub-contractor, or even the manufacturer of a defective product. If it is determined that one of those parties was responsible for the accident and any injuries, then they could be held liable.
If your injury was a simple slip and fall, or involves serious injuries, Cherry, Fieger, & Marciano can help you. These dedicated PA work injury lawyers will do everything possible to get the monetary compensation that is owed to you to help pay medical bills, physical therapy, loss of work and more.
Source article: http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/business/20090907_ap_settlementproposalsdueinipmillexplosionsuit.html
