Edgardo Toucet Echevarria is suing Future Foam Carpet Cushion for Florida personal injury. The 44-year-old contract worker is seeking compensatory and punitive damages after a “peeler machine” he was working with severed his penis on January 13, 2010.
Echevarria, who is employed by Spartan Staffing, contends that he wasn’t trained to run the machine, which employs a steel blade to cut blocks of carpeting foam. In his Florida injury complaint, he states that the “surgically sharp steel blade” cut through his pelvis, severing his penis and testicles, and “virtually cutting his body in half.”
Echevarria says that he was injured while removing a “foam core” from the machine at the request of supervisors and that this maneuver activated the machine. He claims that employees improperly took off the machine’s protective guard and that Future Foam knew of prior instances of workers getting hurt or dying when this type of machine lacked the required protections. He is arguing that Future Foam “had a duty” to not act in a way that would likely result in a worker’s injury or death.
Echevarria is seeking compensatory and punitive damages. Also named as a defendant in Echevarria’s Florida injury complaint is Baumer of America, which manufactured the peeler machine.
Florida Personal Injury Lawsuits Over Work Accidents
In Florida, not only can workers sue third parties that are not employers for personal injury, but also, in certain situations-per recent state court rulings and the Florida Workers’ Compensation code’s intentional tort exemption-they sue an employer that “should have known that its conduct was substantially certain to result in injury or death.”
St. Cloud man loses penis in industrial accident, files lawsuit against Orlando company, Orlando Sentinel, February 16, 2011
Workplace violence: Florida law opens liability beyond workers’ comp, Business Management Daily, May 10, 2007
Related Web Resources:
Florida Division of Workers’ Compensation