Family of Pipefitter Killed by Overhead Crane Settles Virginia Plant Case for $4.7 Million

On October 5, 2012, a pipefitter was working on the conversion of a paper manufacturing plant in Southeast Virginia. The plant was being retooled into a tissue mill, and several contractors shared the site at once. As he moved a section of pipe along a rail, an overhead crane operated by a different contractor's crew struck him. He did not survive.

He had no warning. He was focused on his own task and did not know that another crew was running the overhead crane in the same area. Investigators later concluded that the companies on the job had failed to coordinate their work, leaving a man in the path of moving equipment he could not see coming.

His family hired Geoff McDonald & Associates, where attorney Justin Sheldon handled the case with co-counsel from Breit Drescher Imprevento. The defense opened with a procedural attack: the plant owner and the contractors argued that Virginia's Workers' Compensation Act barred the family from suing at all, since the death happened on a shared industrial project. Sheldon answered that the owner was not the pipefitter's statutory employer. The court overruled the defendants' pleas in bar and cleared the claim to move forward.

The legal team rebuilt the scene with forensic engineer Richard Ziernicki of Knott Laboratory. Using 3D laser scans, before-and-after photographs, aerial drone footage, and three-dimensional computer animations, they showed how the crane, the rail, and the worker came together, and where the duty to keep the area safe fell among the different employers. The reconstruction was tested with a focus group before any courtroom date was set.

The case settled before trial for $4.7 million, as Virginia Lawyers Weekly reported in October 2018. The money came from three insurers: $2.5 million from the carrier for the contractor whose crew ran the crane, $1.2 million from the contractor supervising the conversion, and $1 million from the plant owner. Because the parties resolved the matter by agreement, there was no verdict and no reduction on appeal. The family's economic losses included $1,738,155 in future wages the pipefitter would have earned.