$8 Million Verdict for Ironworker Who Tore His Shoulder Escaping an ARTCO Barge Strike on the Chicago River

On May 2, 2012, Anthony Fonte was stationed in a small john boat tied alongside a McHugh Construction work-flat barge near the Adams Street Bridge on the Chicago River. His assignment was to stand by in case a fellow ironworker fell into the water. It was unglamorous work, and it should have been uneventful.

A towboat pushing an American River Transportation Co. (ARTCO) barge came down the river and struck the john boat. As Fonte scrambled to get clear, his hand caught in a chain. The sudden wrench tore apart his shoulder: a subscapularis tear, a bicep tendon tear, fraying of the supraspinatus, and a posterior labral tear. He underwent three surgeries over the years that followed. None restored full function. By the time the case went to trial, Fonte carried a permanent five-pound lifting restriction on that arm.

The lawsuit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, alleged that ARTCO and its crew failed to follow proper protocols for navigating a marked construction zone on the Chicago River, ignored weather and traffic warnings, and had not trained personnel adequately to handle the conditions. ARTCO, in turn, filed a third-party complaint against McHugh Construction, arguing that any responsibility lay with the general contractor. ARTCO also asked the jury to cap Fonte's recovery at the value of the john boat itself -- a longstanding maritime damages doctrine that the defense said limited its exposure to a fraction of the claimed damages.

The jury rejected that argument entirely. After a three-week trial, jurors on November 3, 2016, found no comparative fault on Fonte, assigned ARTCO 95 percent of the liability, and attributed the remaining 5 percent to McHugh. The gross award came to $8,055,000 -- the full measure of Fonte's damages -- with no reduction for any fault of his own.

John L. Kirkton of the Illinois Jury Verdict Reporter, a division of Law Bulletin Publishing Co., confirmed the record: it was the highest reported verdict in Illinois history for an adult male shoulder injury, surpassing the prior mark of $3.8 million set a decade earlier in 2006. Clifford Horwitz and Jay Luchsinger of Horwitz, Horwitz and Associates tried the case alongside co-counsel Michael D. Carter Jr. No post-verdict reduction or successful appeal of the judgment has been reported.