Verdicts and Settlements
At Chris Parks, P.C., we have secured millions of dollars
for clients in Texas and throughout the country. Some examples
of winning verdicts and settlements include:
- Defective Product
- Benzene Exposure
- Falling merchandise
- Maritime Accident/Wrongful Death
- Mesothelioma/Asbestos Exposure
- Maritime Accidents
- Auto/Train Accident
- Maritime Accident/ Wrongful Death
- Auto/Pedestrian Accident
Defective Product
When a brain surgeon was injured by a skeet throwing
machine on display at a national skeet-throwing
tournament in Phoenix, Arizona, the surgeon hired a judge and
former state legislator to represent him who, in turn, hired
our firm to
litigate this case. Today, this doctor has an extremely successful
practice and a worldwide reputation, but at the time of this
accident, his ability to continue to use his dominant right
hand was in doubt. As a participant in this skeet tournament,
he was walking past a display when he heard a noise and felt
a warm liquid in his shoe. He looked down and saw a stream
of blood rushing from his hand, filling his loafer. Our investigation
revealed that the French manufacturer of this machine had
been warned of manufacturing defects that caused these machines
to fire randomly without being triggered. Furthermore, the
manager of the display (an employee of the U.S. distributor
of the machine) had been told not to power the machine while
it was on display. Our client never thought he would need
a personal injury lawyer until this accident almost ended
his medical career. After our investigation and discovery
was completed, the case settled for a confidential amount.
Benzene Exposure
Our client was exposed to benzene at work and suffered from
Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. He was a chemist at Dupont Sabine River
Works in Orange, Texas and worked in the lab. Although
he spent his entire career at Dupont, he was not told until 1976
that benzene could cause cancer of the blood. He was shocked to
learn that Dupont had known this fact long before he was ever
hired in 1954. As
a lab analyst, he had worked with pure (reagent grade) benzene
every day. Since
he was hired, he tested barge loads of benzene before they were
off-loaded at the plant and even cleaned the lab worktables
with benzene at the request of his supervisors. After a long and
spotless career at Dupont, he was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's
Lymphoma. Our
discovery in this case included constructing a detailed outline
of what Dupont knew about benzene and when they knew it. The
awful truth is that perhaps no one knew more about benzene than
Dupont. Dupont’s
executives even discussed the danger of benzene in other Dupont
labs as early as 1943 and yet the employees in this Dupont lab
were never warned of the risk of death posed by benzene until
1976.
Falling Merchandise
An astronaut was injured at a Home Depot in Clear Lake, Texas
by a drill press knocked off an overhead shelf by a Home Depot
employee. Jean-Loup
Chretian was the first foreign citizen to ever be named a U.S.
astronaut. A five-star general in the French Air Force, a decorated
fighter pilot, a veteran of space flights aboard MIR and Spacelab,
General Chretian was a vital part of the U.S. space program. He was
slated to return to space aboard the Space shuttle, and become the only
person to work aboard three separate space stations. When he was injured
at Home Depot, the deputy assistant to the head of NASA recommended
only one attorney to handle the case. General Chretien's wife called
our office, and within a year, this case was settled for a confidential
amount. This case is also referenced on the premises
liability page.
Maritime Accident/ Wrongful Death
Our client's husband fell off a dock although there were no direct
witnesses to this accident. This case was first signed up illegally
by a Houston law firm using a "runner" to solicit the case. After
firing her first lawyers and hiring Chris Parks, P.C., our
firm used a little known maritime theory called the "Wharfinger Duty" to
reach a substantial settlement for his wife and structured a
future settlement to pay for his young children's future education.
The dock was riddled with tripping hazards and the workers, wearing
full sandblasting gear, repeatedly fell and tripped while trying
to access the vessels they were working on. We still visit
often with his widow and her children are growing and prospering
in school. We have also received several referrals from his widow.
Mesothelioma/Asbestos Exposure
Our client was a life-long
mechanic at Dupont in Orange, Texas. He attended a screening
sponsored by our firm, which resulted in a diagnosis of asbestosis. He
refused to believe he had asbestosis and had Dupont retest him. Dupont
concluded he did not have asbestosis. Shortly afterward, he was
diagnosed with the asbestos-related lung cancer mesothelioma. He
had surgery to remove one lung at age 80 yet, despite the surgery,
he died on Holy Thursday before Easter in 2002.
Maritime Accident
Our client was severely
burned on a drilling platform in dry dock. (Case
was turned down by two law firms prior to our firm accepting it.) Our
client was told he would only recover workers' compensation benefits
of a few hundred dollars a week. Our client was hired to work in
a land-based storehouse but was temporarily assigned to work
on a drilling platform. The platform was in dry dock at a shipyard
located on the state line between Orange, Texas and Cacasieu
Parish, Louisiana.
Our client was on the platform, which was moored on an island in Louisiana state waters when he was hit with a stream of highly pressured, flaming, hydrocarbon residue that shot out of a pipe which was being cut with a torch by a fellow employee. The workers had been promised that the pipes were all “gas free.” Since they had experienced several small gas fires, they had requested and been denied cold cut saws. They were working in deplorable, filthy conditions and there were no working fire extinguishers. And that is just a summary of the negligence of their employer.
Our client was burned over 80% of his body. He lost fingers and parts of his ears, hands, legs and torso. He suffered for weeks in the burn unit of Methodist Hospital in Houston. He had to be bathed in a vat every day and his raw wounds had to be scrubbed to prevent infection. He had successive surgeries to amputate dying skin and tissue. The horror of his recovery caused him temporary insanity. While all of this was happening inside the hospital, his first team of lawyers were telling his wife the case was only covered by the Longshore Act and they would never obtain a recovery in court.
Our firm was hired both for our expertise in maritime law and Mr. Parks’ license to practice in both Louisiana and Texas. After hiring our firm, we filed suit under a part of the Longshore Act called 905(b). Our first deposition was of the employers’ head of personnel. We sent a lawyer with less than six months experience and a script which guaranteed the questioning would continue all day. The deposition started at 8:00 a.m. at one of the largest law firms in Houston. As we expected, the first, and most senior, lawyer sat in until noon and got another lawyer to cover for him. The second lawyer left at 3:00 p.m. At 4:30 Friday afternoon, we were on our third defense lawyer and we had our fourth conference call with our young associate attorney. We confirmed that he had now gotten to a line of questions concerning our client’s personnel file. The witness had been purposely asked question after question which he could answer by simply looking at our client’s personnel file. We then instructed our associate to ask the only question that we cared about–a question which could be answered by simply looking at the file. However, it was a question about which the employer could, and we thought probably would, lie. We thought this because under 905(b) of the Longshore Act, it was a crucial question, the answer to which would determine the outcome of the entire case and whether our client recovered fair compensation for his horrendous injuries or nothing. The question was: What was he (our client) originally hired to do?” The answer, to our relief, was the truth, and exactly what was written in the employer’s file, “He was hired to work on land in the storehouse.” That answer provided the only possible foundation to our case under 905(b).
Personal note on this case from Chris Parks: Fewer
than six months later, and after many more depositions of witnesses,
doctors and experts, this case settled at a mediation in Houston. When
our client and his wife drove home from Houston, they had a binding settlement
worth millions. However, years later, they told me over a glass
of wine and a lot of tears that they did not have enough money
driving home to afford a McDonald’s hamburger. This case,
and the fact that this client later became one of my best friends, is
a large part of what kept me practicing law for the last 18 years. Careful
planning, lots of hard work and some luck made the difference
between a man recovering his dignity and being financially secure for
life and the previous alternative as told to his wife by his first lawyers–recovering
only enough in a compensation check to afford a meager, humiliating
survival.
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Auto/Train Accident
In this case, our client's daughter was killed at a railroad crossing.
A prom night turned tragic when an innocent young girl fell victim to carelessness and negligence during a nighttime train accident. A young couple had just left one prom to go to another when their car was struck by an oncoming train at an unmarked crossing. Not only did the train not blow its horn to alert passersby of the oncoming danger, this heinous example of negligence was compounded by the fact that train personnel called their home office to report the incident before attempting to offer medical aid or call paramedics.
If only human compassion had prevailed, rather than crass and unfeeling callousness, a life might have been saved. Unfortunately, this was not to be the case, and a young lady lost her life because another company had lost sight of what was most important. During our thorough investigation, we discovered the chain of events that resulted this tragedy could have easily been prevented if only the most rudimentary safety precautions had been followed. We fought for the family of the young girl who lost her life, and eventually claimed just compensation from the negligent Railroad Company.[top of page]
Maritime Accident/Wrongful Death
Client’s son disappeared from crew boat. (Unwitnessed accident.)
This particularly tragic accident need not have happened at all, if only the proper procedures had been followed. A young crewman was working on an offshore pipelaying barge when, suddenly he began hallucinating and “talking to chairs or anything else that would listen.” He was locked in his quarters by the chief medic on the vessel, who also alerted the captain to the situation. The medic pleaded with the captain to authorize an immediate MedEvac, but the captain refused, insisting that the crewman would be fine on the crew boat transfer the next morning. After completing his detailed report describing how he had determined MedEvac was the best medical course of action, the chief medic turned in. The seaman boarded the crew boat the next morning, but never reached dry land. His body turned up a week later, in a way every maritime sailor and seamen dreads. It turns out that no one alerted the crewboat to the medical needs of the crewman, and in his delusional state he fell overboard into the sea. This tragedy could have been avoided. While investigating this case we discovered a nearly identical incident in which another crewman suffered similar hallucinations on another barge in this company's fleet only a year earlier. That young seaman also lost his life due to the company's failure to supervise and provide proper medical care.
Maritime law cases are by their very nature some of the most difficult forms of litigation, but this case in particular was fraught with legal difficulties of every kind. For instance, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals eliminated a seaman's rights to collect punitive damages in a situation where the employer failed to provide adequate medical care. This decision was handed down while our case was still being litigated. Undaunted by the challenges, Chris Parks took the case and used his vast maritime and even contract law backgrounds to pursue justice for the family of the sailor. He won a substantial award based on existing maritime law, and the duties every maritime worker is due under the Jones Act.
In a strange
twist of fate, the owner of the vessel in question sought out
the talents of Chris Parks in several further cases. We consider it an honor that a former adversary later employed our firm to later represent him.
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Auto/Pedestrian/18-wheeler Accident
Here, our client's father was crushed by hit-and-run truck
driver on I-10 near Pearsall, Texas. To begin this case,
we hired two investigators that previously worked for U.S.
government intelligence agencies. This accident occurred
on a Thursday, and before the weekend was over, our investigators
had visited with the driver in his jail cell and taken two
recorded statements. In the following week we investigated
the Poultry Company whose 18-wheeler truck he was driving
and documented he had driven well over the allowed amount
of time in the week prior to this accident. Most of his driving
time spent on the road that week was in the searing heat
(sometimes over 100 degrees) of South Texas. He was traveling
between the Mexican border and Seguin, Texas, when he fell
asleep and hit our client's father, whose car had broken
down on the highway. Before the insurance company began its
investigation, our investigation, written report, settlement
brochure and settlement video resulted in a substantial settlement
before suit was ever filed.
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