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Lufkin, Texas

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Disclaimer

We designed this website to provide information to consumers, injured people, and their families. Our goal is to level the playing field between consumers and insurance companies and expose the tricks, traps, and techniques they use to cheat injured people out of their legal rights. We also let consumers know about legal news, including verdicts and settlements and other interesting legal information.

But please understand that nothing on this website is meant to provide legal information about your specific case, create an attorney-client relationship, or imply that the results of your legal case will be the same as some other case.

Vujasinovic & Beckcom Blog

Jones Act

10/29/2009
Brian Beckcom
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Casino deckhand injured removing driftwood

A Midwest casino boat deckhand is suing his employer for injuries suffered while removing driftwood under the vessel.

David Otten field the suit against Argosy Gaming Corporation, the owner of the Alton Belle Casino out of Alton, Illinois. Otten claims he suffered a fractured vertebrae, herniated disc, medical expenses and lost earnings.

According to the complaint, Otten was ordered to pull driftwood with spike poles from below the vessel from a 16-foot jon boat with a 30 horsepower motor.

The vessel was dockside at the time. The Mississippi River temperature was reportedly 40 degrees and wind was gusting up to 30 miles per hour.

The complaint states that the rough conditions forced the boat into the Alton Belle's stern, knocking Otten backwards and driving his back into a metal tool box on the jon boat.

Otten says there was a safer method for dislodging the driftwood. Under the process of dedrifting, the boat is spun around by a tug boat to remove drift material. The suit claims dedrifting had been used on the vessel several times previously.

Otten charges he should never have been assigned to operate the boat in unstable conditions and that the boat was not properly secured to the stern.

He is seeking $100,000 plus costs.

Source: The Madison St. Clair Record

Want to know more about back injury cases that occur offshore?

Feel free to call our firm's toll free number, 877.724.7800 , or send us an email through this website, and we would be glad to schedule an appointment with the firm's maritime lawyer, Brian Beckcom.

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