An Eau Claire County jury awarded $5.5 million to a Menards’s worker who was injured on the job at the company’s distribution center.
In 2019 a worker was hit in the head by metal pallets that were being moved by a temporary forklift worker at the Eau Claire facility, according to the MacGillis Law Group, which represented the worker. The firm said the worker needed emergency surgery and was left with permanent injuries.
The case has worked its way through the court system since 2020. The verdict came down on April 20 and assigned Menards 100% at fault.
At a press conference on April 28, Attorney Chris MacGillis of MacGillis Law Group said the incident was “preventable” if the company had followed industry standards set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
“It’s a message for people in Wisconsin that if you are a corporation, you have to follow OSHA and safety rules. That is not optional,” MacGillis said. “If you cause serious injury to someone, you are going to be held responsible.”
Neither Menards nor its attorney has responded to requests for comment.
MacGillis said OSHA not involved in the case as it was a civil jury trial.
“We believe the evidence showed at trial that Menards did not notify OSHA of this incident. We are unaware of OSHA investigating this incident,” MacGillis said. “We think it’s clear based on the evidence that was submitted that the OSHA relations and the OSHA safety standards were violated by Menards.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Jury awards Menards worker $5.5 million after workplace injury
Reporting by Ricardo Torres, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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