Personal Injury Litigation: The Drum Case

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York

Worker hurt in fall from fork-lift; In second trial, a jury in Pittsburgh awarded $7.9 million

After a lengthy legal battle spanning seven years and several appeals, an Allegheny County jury handed down a verdict of nearly $7.9 million for a Pittsburgh worker seriously injured in a fall from a fork lift. It was the second trial for James T. Drum, a heating and plumbing worker who suffered a spinal fracture that has left him unable to walk and with only partial use of his upper body.

The mishap occurred on Feb. 15, 1996, when Drum, working on a heating system at Shaull Equipment and Supply Co., was instructed by Shaull employees to stand on a wooden pallet raised by the forklift so he could reach the ceiling. Drum had intended to construct scaffolding but was told the makeshift lift would save time. When Drum tried to catch a piece of falling pipe, he fell some 12 feet to the ground.

In a first trial, in 1999, Drum himself was found mostly responsible for the accident, but Pennsylvania Superior Court found that jury had been "hopelessly confused" and ordered a new trial. In the latest case, decided in November 2003, Drum, represented by Jonathan Cohen of the Philadelphia law firm Kline & Specter, was found only 10 percent responsible. The jury found Shaull, whose executives had wanted to hurry the heating installation, bore the brunt of the negligence. Drum was awarded $6.5 million and his wife, Linda, $1.375 million for loss of consortium.

(See The Legal Intelligencer, Nov. 24, 2003)