Logging facility crane operator dies after equipment collapse — $6.15 million settlement

Injuries alleged: Death

Name of mediator: Judge Westbrook J. Parker (Ret.)

Date resolved: Jan. 17, 2025

Attorneys for plaintiff: Kyle McNew, Charlottesville, MichieHamlett; Ed Fisher, Beaumont, Texas, Provost Umphrey

Description of case: The decedent was a crane operator at an industrial facility in Virginia that processes logs into consumer products. The operator’s cab is approximately 80 feet off the ground and moves east-west along the underside of a horizontal girder structure. The entire crane moves north-south in the wood yard on two leg assemblies running on rails. The operator uses a grapple hanging below the cab to take loads of logs off the logging trucks to either lay down in the wood yard for later use or to transport to the first stage of processing for debarking and cutting.

To allow for placement of logs onto the first stage, a portion of the horizontal girder structure is cantilevered beyond one of the leg assemblies. Thus, when the operator is placing logs onto the first stage, he and the grapple full of logs are outside of the leg assembly. The operator was lowering a load of logs onto the first stage when the entire cantilevered section of the horizontal girder — with the operator’s cab and grapple — collapsed and fell to the ground. The decedent died instantly.

The horizontal girder is a massive triangular tube with one I-beam at the top and two I-beams forming the base, connected by a lattice of struts running the length of the girder. The collapse was caused by a crack in the top I-beam where the girder connects to the leg assembly. This is the area of highest stress when the cab and grapple are out on the cantilevered section to place logs onto the first stage.

The crack grew over time until the top I-beam failed. Without the top beam in tension, the two lower I-beams could not support the weight of the cantilevered section, causing their instantaneous failure.

The plaintiff alleged claims of negligence against two companies that performed periodic services on the crane, one of which had been onsite just three days before the collapse. The plaintiff’s experts — a crane expert, an engineer and a metallurgist — determined that the crack in the top I-beam had been growing and was detectable for at least three years prior to the collapse. The defendants did not disclose any liability experts to rebut the plaintiff’s liability experts. Instead, they primarily defended on legal grounds: that they were statutory co-employees of the plaintiff and thus immune from suit under Va. Code § 65.2-307 and that because their work in relation to the crane was performed pursuant to contract with the decedent’s employer, they had no common law duty in tort to the decedent. The circuit court rejected both arguments.

The decedent, in his 50s, left a spouse of over 30 years and three adult children. The case resolved for $6.15 million shortly before trial with the assistance of Judge Westbrook J. Parker (Ret.) as mediator.

Kyle McNew, counsel for the plaintiff, provided case information.

[025-T-066]