Morrison Mahoney partner Ted Murphy recently secured a defense verdict for our client, a leading designer and builder of U.S. Navy submarines, in a Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (LHWCA) case heard by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Massachusetts District Office.
The matter focused on a series of repetitive trauma injuries suffered by the plaintiff, including a contested, career-ending neck injury. After evaluating the testimony of the parties’ orthopedic and neurology experts, the judge found that plaintiff had not proven a causal relationship between the advanced degenerative disc disease in his neck and his contortionist-like duties as a quality control inspector.
Although the company previously acknowledged responsibility for previous loss of function injuries to plaintiff’s knees, hands, and neck, Morrison Mahoney convinced the judge that the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1980 decision in PEPCO barred any recovery from our client in this case.