MARITIME INJURY VERDICTS & SETTLEMENTS

$55.2 MILLION JURY AWARD

Wrongful Death / Longshore Worker
In one of the largest personal injury verdicts of 2007, Charles D. Naylor, along with co-counsel Scott Neeley and Robert Nelson of Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, San Francisco, won $50 million in punitive damages, and $5.2 in compensatory damages, against DaimlerChrysler for the wrongful death of longshoreman Richard Mraz.

Mraz, 38, suffered fatal head injuries when the 1992 Dodge Dakota he had been driving ran him over when he stepped out of the vehicle. The jury found that a "park-to-reverse" defect in the truck's automatic transmission, said to affect more than one million DaimlerChrysler vehicles, was a substantial factor in Mraz's death.

  Watch a video about the Park-to-Reverse defect

This was the first part-to-reverse case against DaimlerChrysler in 25 years to make it to trial. It was also the first case in the nation to test the impact of a recent Supreme Court ruling relating to jury instructions on punitive damages.

In 2009, even after Chrysler filed for bankruptcy, Naylor successfully negotiated a $24 million settlement for the Mraz family.

LEARN MORE: Wrongful death case study

$3.2 MILLION Settlement

Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act (LHWCA)
In what is believed to be the largest settlement for an injury to a longshore worker in the ports history, the U.S. Department of Labor in Long Beach California has approved a $3.2 million injury settlement involving a 62 year old female longshore worker. The injury, which resulted in a below the knee amputation of the workers right leg occurred at the Hanjin terminal when the longshore worker was struck by an "outside" truck driver who was lost in the terminal.

$180,000 SETTLEMENT

Cruise Ship Injury, Slip and Fall
81-year-old woman broke her hip after falling off a poorly marked single step in the lounge area.

$250,000 Settlement

Cruise Ship Accident, Trip and Fall
A 66-year-old man tripped and fell on the deck of the ship injuring both legs (bilateral quadriceps tendon tears)

SETTLEMENT: $300,000

Cruise Ship Injury, Slip and Fall
A 64-year-old man fell walking on a wet, slippery and poorly lit deck, requiring knee surgery

$150,000 SETTLEMENT

Cruise Ship Accident, Slip and Fall
A 46-year-old Mexican citizen injured his knee and shoulder when he slipped and fell on a wet “lido” deck

$317,000 SETTLEMENT

Cruise Ship Accident, Fall
A 52 year old visitor on a Lake Arrowhead tour boat fell into an open hatch and fractured her ankle, requiring ankle surgery.

$150,000 SETTLEMENT

Cruise Injury, Ship Listing
A married couple, both 58-years-old, suffered physical and psychological injuries when a cruise ship severely listed and threw them out of bed.