Companies Settle With Paralyzed Oilfield Worker for $44M
An oilfield worker who was rendered quadriplegic after a light fixture improperly attached to an oil derrick fell more than 100 feet onto his head has settled his claims against five companies for a total of $44 million.
The multimillion-dollar award is meant to compensate the injured plaintiff, James Burgess, and his wife, Kay Sharon Burgess, who live in rural Texas. The case, which was filed in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, came to a settlement after two days of mediation before retired federal magistrate Judge Diane Welsh.
“Mrs. Burgess’s loss of consortium claim was probably the most significant consortium claim anyone in the case had ever encountered,” Sheridan & Murray attorney Thomas Sheridan, who represented the Burgesses, said. “Her husband is in a hospital over 90 miles away from her house. She drove to the hospital every day for the last six years to see her husband.”