The Law Firm of Stephen M. Reck Sues Rand-Whitney Containerboard

The Law Firm of Stephen M. Reck recently filed suit against Rand-Whitney Containerboard on behalf of a client who suffered severe injuries on December 13, 2007, when he stepped into an unguarded floor opening in the box plant and fell into a 20-foot-deep pulp pit.

At the time of the incident, the plaintiff was an employee of Devine Hydraulics, Inc., an industrial machine maintenance contractor, and was in the Rand-Whitney plant as part of a crew working on certain machines during the plant shut-down. The crew was working on a machine when a hydraulic jack failed, causing the crew members to take a break and move away from the machine. While attempting to get to a safe area, the plaintiff fell into the hole, striking several metal bars on the way down. As a result, he suffered numerous serious injuries that have required multiple hospitalizations since last year.

The suit alleges claims for negligence and recklessness against Rand-Whitney, and alleges that the company was at fault in various ways including failing to cover the pit with a floor opening cover of sufficient strength and construction; failing to warn Lesieur of the presence of a floor opening in close proximity to where he was working; failing to provide adequate lighting in the area where he was working; failing to point out safety risks in the area where the crew was working; failing to provide cones, railings, barriers, tape, or other warning to keep workers out of areas where there were serious hazards; failing to inspect the area of the plant in question; failing to follow its own safety procedures regarding covering or warning of dangerous floor openings; and violating various provisions of OSHA. The suit also alleges that Rand-Whitney "acted with reckless disregard and indifference to the rights and safety of the plaintiff, a business invitee on its premises, in that it knew there were extremely dangerous and deep pits near the area where [he] was working, which could cause serious injury or death to persons falling into them, yet failed or refused to cover the pit and/or warn [him] of the danger."