Industrial Injury

In Technician v. Hazardous Waste Disposal Company (case number and court confidential), Doris Cheng and Andrew McDevitt negotiated a confidential settlement including third party and workers’ compensation benefits with a present value in excess of $14,000,000. The injury arose from a Northern California industrial workplace fire and explosion in which our client suffered disfiguring burns to his face and hands. The Plaintiff was a 50-year-old technical engineer involved in the fabrication of semiconductors. As part of his job he was required to clean flammable product residue from fabricating equipment. In order to protect himself from flash fires, plaintiff consulted the product’s manufacturer and the hazardous waste disposal company which serviced his employer’s factory. The defendant manufacturer knew that there was no safe way to perform cleaning on the machine but did not disclose that fact or provide any useful information that the [plaintiff could use to protect himself. While performing routine cleaning. a major explosion occurred. The client sustained major burns to his face and hands. In their defense, defendants alleged that the injury was entirely the fault of the injured plaintiff for creating an unsafe cleaning protocol. The multi-party settlement was contributed to by both defendants as well as the workers compensation carrier for the injured plaintiff.