March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Clinton worker wins $1 million in accident case > Woman injured at paper mill

A Clinton woman who was injured in an accident at a paper mill has won a $1 million verdict from a federal jury in Bangor.

Candace A. Reynolds, 36, whose right leg was crushed under a conveyor plate in May 1990 at the S.D. Warren mill in Hinckley, received the jury verdict after a seven-day trial that concluded last week in U.S. District Court in Bangor.

The jury of eight people deliberated for about six hours over a two-day period before concluding that Rust International Corp. of Birmingham, Ala., and its subsidiary, Rust Engineering Co., had been negligent in the redesign and installation of the conveyor system and its controls. Another corporation, Valmet-Appleton Inc. of Wisconsin, which manufactured and designed the conveyor, also was found negligent by the jury.

“The jury gave us exactly what we asked for in our closing arguments,” said plaintiff’s attorney Maurice Libner of Topsham. He later said that through the verdict “we were able to get around the inadequacy of the Workers’ Compensation laws with this case.”

Efforts to reach attorney Leonard Langer of Portland, who represented the Birmingham corporation, for comment were unsuccessful.

Reynolds was operating a biwinder, which winds paper into smaller rolls, at the mill in May 1990, when she was pulled into a gap between the floor-level conveyor and a steel floor plate as a co-worker put the conveyor into reverse. The woman had been standing on the slat conveyor, lost her balance and fell, with her foot crushed under the floor plate.

The plaintiff, through her attorney, claimed that the conveyor and plates had been negligently installed, and that controls had been placed in a location where the operator couldn’t see the entire conveyor.

The defendants denied any negligence and claimed that Reynolds was at fault for standing on the conveyor, a practice that violated safety procedures at the mill. They also claimed, according to court documents, that the decision to place the conveyor controls in a place where the conveyor couldn’t be seen was made by S.D. Warren. The defects in the conveyer system also were the results of S.D. Warren’s failure to maintain the equipment, according to the defendants.

The lawsuit originally was filed in state court, but was transferred to federal court because the parties were from different states. Libner said there was a pre-trial settlement with Valmet, which was “only a very minor actor” in the case, but that Rust International had filed a third-party claim against the Wisconsin company.

The trial, which was heard before U.S. Chief Judge Gene Carter, was marked by testimony from expert witnesses and mill workers. Libner also presented an anatomical model of a leg to describe his client’s injuries. The plaintiff’s attorney also tried to introduce a large-scale model of the conveyor, but the court didn’t permit its presentation.

Libner said his client, who is a single mother of two children, was attending vocational college and was receiving retraining in accounting and bookkeeping. He said that without the jury’s verdict, Reynolds would have had limited Workers’ Compensation benefits and “would be left to raise her family for $7 an hour.”

According to the court complaint, Reynolds’ leg was permanently damaged and disfigured because of the accident.

The plaintiff’s attorney also commented on the efforts made on behalf of his client, which included trips to Wisconsin and Alabama and numerous depositions and interviews. Libner estimated that $25,000 in out-of-pocket costs were expended in the case on behalf of Reynolds.

“The public has no comprehension how much work and time is invested to get a decent recovery,” said the attorney.


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