Texas Lawyers

January 18, 1993

 

Jury awards $3.7 million to family of longshoreman

By Brenda Sapino

 

Pearlie Mac Neal, et al. v. Kompco: Houston's Helm, Pletcher, Hogan, Bowen & Saunders won a $3.7 million judgment for the family of a Houston longshoreman who died when he was struck by a 4 - ton shipping container that fell from a crane.

 

Judge Hugo Touchy of the 129th District court in Harris County signed a final judgment Dec. 15 awarding Paul Neal's widow , Pearlie Mae, $3.66 million in past and future damages, including $1.6 million in prejudgment interest, and awarding each of he couple's five adult sons $13,142 in past and future damages, including $3, 142 each in prejudgment interest.

 

The judgment indicates the Port of Houston Authority is responsible for $100,000 of damages, a statutory limit, while defendant Paceco Inc., a subsidiary of Fruehauf Corp., is jointly and severally liable for the remainder.

 

The plaintiffs were represented by John W. Tavormina and associate Richard P. Hogan Jr.

 

The Port of Houston Authority was represented by Phillip Dye and Danny Van Winkle, both partners in Houston’s Vinson & Elkins.

 

Attorneys for Paceco were John Lancaster III, a partner in Jackson & Walker of Dallas, and former Jackson & Walker associate Keith Trent, now a shareholder in Dallas’ O’Neil, Snell. Banowsky & McClure.

 

Neal, 57, was killed in July 1987 while working at the Barbours Cut Terminal when the crane- manufactured by Paceco Inc. and owned and maintained by the Port of Houston Authority- dropped the container as it was being lifted from a ship. A suit filed by the widow of another man who died in the accident, Leo F. Rusk, was consolidated with the Neal suit, but that cause of action ended with Gertrude Rusk's death before the trial.

 

A jury in April 1992 found that a marketing and design defect in the crane contributed to the accident that killed Neal. The jury, which assessed 75 percent of the liability against Paceco and 25 percent against the port authority, awarded the plaintiffs about $3.6 million in actual damages. Touchy deleted $1 million of the jury's $2 million award for pain, suffering and mental anguish, but the addition of prejudgment interest brought the total judgment close to the jury's award.

 

Lancaster said he will appeal the judgment.