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(USGovernment-News.Com, September 06, 2012 ) Boston, MA -- A maritime worker’s case was settled for $2.5 million in May for injuries she sustained onboard a vessel owned by the United States. The worker, a 43-year-old radio electronics officer, was electrocuted while she was changing a light bulb on the range light on the radar range mast in June 2007 on board the M/V CAPE HENRY. As a result of the electrocution, the plaintiff suffered a stroke, irreversible brain damage, deafness, tinnitus, scotoma, ataxia, vestibular ocular reflex, left vestibular dysfunction, ataxia, mild to moderate cognitive deficits and oscillospia.
The M/V CAPE HENRY, owned by the United States but operated by Pacific Gulf Lines, began shipping military supplies overseas in April of 2007. According to the complaint, the plaintiff noted that the switch that controlled the bulb was in its “off” position prior to switching out the bulb, and another crewmember confirmed this fact. An investigation determined that one of the wires to the range light was still providing energy to the bulb despite the switch being off at the time of the accident. An additional switch on the switchboard needed to also be in the off position but was not. The Defendant failed to set up the procedures and operations for crewmembers to safely change the light bulb. Additionally, wiring and cables leading to the range light were poorly maintained and/or repaired. The plaintiff filed the complaint under the Jones Act for negligence and general maritime law for unseaworthiness.
“This was a tragic incident that caused a great deal of pain and suffering for my client,” said the plaintiff’s attorney, Carolyn Latti. “Her life will never be the same, and we are pleased that she received the compensation she will need to pay for her care and to support herself and her family.”
Carolyn Latti represented the client with her partner David Anderson. Latti is a partner at the law firm of Latti & Anderson LLP, and she is one of the few female maritime Plaintiffs’ attorneys on the East Coast. In 2001, Carolyn won the honor of being in the Top 10 Massachusetts Lawyers of the Year by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, and cases she has tried have twice been featured in its “Top Ten Verdicts of the Year.”
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