The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 4,693 workers died on the job in 2011, slightly more than in 2010. According to the report 1,937 workers died in transportation incidents; 710 through “contact with objects and equipment”; 681 from “falls, slips [and] trips”; and 419 from “exposure to harmful substances or environments.”
At least 33 residents and four local insurance agencies have filed suit against Adair Grain Inc., the owner of the fertilizer plant that exploded last week in West, Texas. The explosion on April 17 killed at least 14, injured more than 200 and damaged more than 70 homes and businesses in a five-block area of…
A third passenger on the charter bus that crashed along a North Texas highway earlier this month has died. According to a spokeswoman for Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, 82-year-old Alice Stanley died Sunday. Two other women — Paula Hahn, 69, and Sue Taylor, 81 — died in the immediate aftermath of the April 11…
Investigations are underway to determine the cause of a deadly explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas. It is not yet known how many died or were injured in the devastating explosion. The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is assisting the state fire marshal’s office in determining the cause of the…
Federal workplace safety investigations show that at least 11 deaths in Texas’ oilfields could have been prevented if companies followed safety protocols. The San Antonio Express-News recently reported that it used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain details about accident investigations in the Eagle Ford Shale oilfields since 2009 from the Occupational Safety and…
Steiner Ranch is a residential development about 20 miles west of Austin. Last September, fire destroyed 23 homes and consumed roughly 160 acres in the area. Travis County Constable Cpl. Kevin Aigner collapsed and died Sept. 10, 2011, while helping victims and working at the fire site.
The doctrine of sovereign immunity derives from the common law and has long been part of Texas jurisprudence. See Hosner v. DeYoung, 1 Tex. 764, 769 (1847) (holding that the State could not be sued in her own courts absent her consent “and then only in the manner indicated”). The Texas Legislature has waived governmental…
A Florida family recently settled a lawsuit relating to the death of their 19 year-old son, who died during a hazing ritual while a pledge of the Theta Chi fraternity. Harrison Kowiak died in November 2008 while a sophomore at Lenoire-Rhyne University in Hickory, North Carolina. The lawsuit against the national fraternity alleged that Kowiak…
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, July 2012 was the warmest month in the U.S. since the agency began keeping records in 1895. The recent nation-wide heat-wave broke a record set in 1936.
The lawsuit underlying the recent ruling by the Houston Court of Appeals in Magee v. G & H Towing Co,.— S.W.3d —-, 2012 WL 1065856 (Tex. App.–Houston [1st Dist.] March 29, 2012) was filed by the children of a couple who had been killed in a fatal two-car collision. The plaintiffs alleged that the man…
Heygood, Orr & Pearson, along with attorney Robert Lee, represented Amy Rutherford in a wrongful death case against TXI stemming from the January 7, 2003 death of her husband Gordon Rutherford. On that date, Gordon was working as a welder on a 4-person crew for Circle 4M Welding in man-lift baskets 90 feet above the…