Thursday, January 7, 1999
By Jeff Blumenthal

Orphans Court of Philadelphia approved a $7.2 million settlement to a forklift operator who suffered a severe brain injury after his head was impaled on a steel beam in a steel distribution center in Grays Ferry. The settlement, awarded Dec. 29 to James Galbraith, comes from three defendants–two of which remain confidential–for their role in the May 1994 accident at the Philadelphia plant. Galbraith, then 33, was guiding a special forklift through narrow aisles separating 20-foot-high metal racks that served as a storage system for steel beams. Galbraith caught his head on one of the storage rack I-beam's sharp ends, which form the rack's arms, while he was attempting to load steel beams.

The three defendants included the storage system manufacturer, Ross Technologies, the forklift manufacturer; and the outside vendor Galbraith's employer hired to assemble and install the forklift.

Galbraith's attorneys, Martin Brigham and Eunice Trevor of Galfand Berger Lurie Brigham Jacobs Swan Jurewicz & Jensen, said the settlement included a confidentiality agreement that forbids them to speak publicly about how much each defendant paid or reveal the names of two of the three defendants.

According to Brigham and Trevor, the forklift was supposed to be equipped with a railroad-like guidance system to travel smoothly through the narrow aisles between the storage racks.

But the guidance system only works if the forklift's guide rollers fit into the rail-like tracks at the edge of the storage racks. Brigham said Ross built its part of the guidance system–the tracks along the storage racks–too wide for the forklifts. Compounding Ross's error, he said, the outside vendor that installed the forklift knew about the error but failed to mention it to anyone.

"Part of the defense was to try and pin some liability on the employer [who also remains nameless due to the confidentiality agreement]," Brigham said. "And yes OSHA [Occupational Safety & Health Administration] says employers are responsible for providing a safe working environment. But the equipment we're talking about [the forklift and rack system] was new, and they hired an outside vendor to handle it.

"Well, the [vendor] didn't handle it properly and compounded it by not telling anyone. Every company I can think of would trust an outside vendor brought in to handle something like that."

Ross' attorney, Richard Kramer of Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin, could not be reached for comment yesterday afternoon.

Co-workers discovered Galbraith with the right side of his head pinned against the side of the forklift and the left side impaled on the end of one of the I-beams. Galbraith was the only eyewitness, but severe brain damage left him mentally retarded and unable to compose sentences longer than one or two words. He was declared incapacitated in Orphan Court proceedings.