A circuit court jury in Calhoun County, Ala., awarded Gregory Bell and his wife, Althea, $500,000 in compensation for a serious, permanent injury he sustained on the job as a furnace operator at Union Foundry Co. Mr. Bell was operating the furnace on Sept. 28, 2010, when he stepped into an unguarded opening and into hot melted iron. As a result, he lost a portion of his right foot.
The jury found the furnace was defectively designed, lacking any type of guard that would prevent such a devastating injury. Beasley Allen lawyers Kendall Dunson and Evan Allen represented the Bells. DISA Industries, Inc., was the only defendant to go to trial in the case.
“Employees have a reasonable expectation that when they go to work, they will be able to do their jobs safely,” Dunson said. “In this case, Mr. Bell was exposed to a very serious hazard that could very easily have been prevented by simply changing the design of the furnace so that the molten metal was guarded, preventing a worker from accidentally being exposed to the burn hazard. It is our hope that this verdict will lead to safety changes that will prevent any other workers from having to suffer a similar injury.”
The jury’s verdict confirmed the Plaintiff’s allegations that DISA was guilty of negligence and that its design violated Alabama’s product liability laws. The case was filed in the Circuit Court of Calhoun County, Ala., case number CV-2012-900465.
