Las Vegas Jury Awards $19.85 Million to Worker Crushed by Rolling Forklift

Thomas Novick was working at a Las Vegas job site when a 14,000-pound Sky-Trak 5028 rough-terrain forklift came down on him. The operator, Floyd Nielsen, was parking the machine. As Nielsen set it in place, the forklift rolled slowly backward, and one of its large tires passed over Novick's entire body before it stopped.

The injuries were catastrophic and permanent. Novick lost his spleen. Surgeons amputated his right leg in two separate procedures. He sustained permanent brain damage and was left totally disabled, unable to return to the work he had done. His past medical bills already ran close to $1.5 million by the time of trial, and his future care was projected at roughly $7 million more.

Nielsen was the brother-in-law of the owner of Panelized Structures, the company Novick worked for, and he was the one operating the forklift when it rolled. The company later described the event as the most serious injury in its history. Nielsen was afterward promoted to safety director.

John Shook of Shook & Stone tried the case in the Eighth Judicial District Court for Clark County, under the caption Liberty Mutual Insurance v. Nielsen, Panelized Structures. Liberty Mutual, the workers' compensation carrier that had paid Novick's benefits, joined as a co-plaintiff seeking subrogation and was represented by Elizabeth Foley. Shook's argument to the jury was direct: a heavy machine left to roll during parking crushed a worker who had no time to get clear.

In May 2011 the jury returned a total award of $19,854,217. The figure broke down into about $8.5 million in past and future medical costs, roughly $685,000 in lost earning capacity, and about $10.5 million for past and future pain and suffering.

The jury also weighed Novick's own conduct at the site. It placed 20 percent of the fault on him and 80 percent on Nielsen and his employer. Under Nevada's comparative negligence rule, that allocation reduced Novick's recoverable damages by his 20 percent share, bringing the amount he could collect to roughly $15.9 million.