EAST ST. LOUIS – Jurors in U.S. district court awarded $3,025,171.82 to former truck driver Steven Liss of Madison County on June 29, for injuries he suffered on the property of steel fabricator TMS International in Granite City.
Jurors found Liss’s damages amounted to $3,361,302.02, but they deducted ten percent for his own negligence.
TMS International filed an appeal notice on July 1, not to challenge the verdict but to assert that Magistrate Judge Gilbert Sison shouldn’t have held trial at all.
TMS International also intends to plead that Sison improperly closed off a third party complaint it filed against United Scrap Metal of Lemay, Mo.
In 2019, United Scrap Metal hired Supreme Trucking and Excavating of Roxana to haul metal to TMS International.
Supreme put its driver Liss at the wheel, and upon arrival he found a storm had left much of the property under water.
A cone stopped him and he walked toward the office to see about unloading.
Liss, six feet and three inches tall, ducked under a catwalk five feet high.
Someone in the office said he couldn’t unload, so he started back to the truck.
This time at the catwalk, he twisted an ankle and injured a leg.
Attorney Lanny Darr of Alton sued TMS International, claiming Liss encountered uneven ground conditions or metal slates that water obscured.
In 2020, TMS filed a third party complaint for contribution against Supreme Trucking and United Scrap Metal.
TMS alleged that Supreme failed to train Liss to exercise care when exiting his vehicle or to follow protocol when a delivery location closed.
TMS alleged that United knew or should have known Supreme didn’t properly train and supervise employees.
TMS moved for summary judgment against Liss last September, citing a general rule against negligence claims for open and obvious hazards.
TMS claimed Liss offered no evidence of uneven grounds or slates.
At the same time Supreme and United moved for summary judgment against TMS.
Sison denied judgment to TMS in May.
He found bodies of water are open and obvious but their risks don’t include submerged hazards that are variable and can’t be detected.
He found Liss successfully introduced doubt as to the character of the condition that TMS claimed was open and obvious.
He found the question of whether an exception absolved TMS of duty to prevent access remained properly before the jury.
In June, Sison denied judgment to Supreme and granted it to United.
Trial started on June 21, and Liss testified for three hours on June 23 and 24.
Also on the 24th, TMS dismissed its claim against Supreme.
On June 29, jurors heard closing arguments from Darr and TMS counsel Siobahn Murphy of Chicago.
Jurors retired at 3:24 p.m. and delivered a verdict at 6:39 p.m.
They set damages for lost earnings at $835,000.
They set damages at $513,151.01 for past medical expenses and the same amount for past pain and suffering.
They set damages at $500,000 for disability, $400,000 for disfigurement, $300,000 for future medical expenses, $250,000 for emotional distress, and $50,000 for future pain and suffering.