Injury during dive; award exceeds $750,000
4/1/2004
Plaintiff, a diver, sustained orthopedic, hyperbaric and psychological injuries from a dive. He filed suit, alleging failure to provide a safe workplace, to provide or use proper equipment on the vessel, to provide a properly trained crew, to provide proper supervision of plaintiff, to decompress plaintiff properly and to provide plaintiff with medical attention.
The 16th Judicial District Court rendered a default judgment to plaintiff. The award included $1,624,403 in special damages and $650,000 in general damages. The 1st Circuit upheld $752,279 of the judgment and remanded awards of $1,358,351 for future lost income and $163,773 for future lost employer-paid benefits.
Oliver v. Cal Dive International, Inc., No. 2003-C-1230, (La.App. 1 Cir. 9/19/2003)
Plaintiff's counsel: L. Clayton Burgess of L. Clayton Burgess, APLC, Lafayette; Kreig A. Breaux of Landry, Watkins, Repaske & Breaux, New Iberia
Plaintiff's experts: Glenn Hebert, vocational rehabilitation, Lafayette; G. Randolph Rice, Ph.D., economics, Baton Rouge