EDWARDSVILLE – Madison County jurors awarded $3,310,000 to former Lewis and Clark Fleeting tugboat worker Kevin Mogensen on Jan. 13.
His counsel Benjamin Tobin and Zachary Tobin of East Alton called it a reasonable amount to compensate him for permanent pulmonary injuries.
"After a weeklong trial, the jury found that $3.3 Million Dollars was a reasonable amount in which to compensate Kevin for the permanent pulmonary injuries that he suffered as well as for what he is reasonably certain to have to deal with the rest of his life secondary to those injuries. We feel that justice has been served," Benjamin Tobin stated.
Jurors deliberated for two hours and 18 minutes after five days of trial before Circuit Judge Sarah Smith.
They awarded $2,750,000 for past and future pain and suffering, $500,000 for loss of normal life, and $60,000 in lost earnings.
Mogensen worked as a deckhand on the tugboat Velda Taylor.
He sued Lewis and Clark Fleeting in 2018 under federal law covering seamen.
He claimed his employer negligently ordered him to board a barge at the Granite City dock while a crew cleaned excess corn gluten fertilizer from it.
Lewis and Clark Fleeting claimed his injuries resulted from childhood asthma.
Tobin and Tobin claimed his exposure to grain dust caused an acute aggravation of his asthma and made his condition permanent.
After trial, Benjamin Tobin said employees testified that grain dust constituted an unsafe working condition.
“There was also testimony indicating that the exposure was so significant that Mogensen looked similar to a minion [on the computer animated comedy film "Minions"], as corn gluten fertilizer is bright yellow in color,” Tobin said.
Benjamin and Zachary Tobin argued in the lawsuit that doctors at Alton Memorial Hospital diagnosed Mogensen with acute respiratory failure 24 hours after exposure.
They claimed doctors intubated Mogensen and placed him on a ventilator.
They claimed Mogensen's treatment consists of using an inhaler and a nebulizer, a device that converts liquid medicine to mist.
They wrote that Joseph Hoefert of Alton also represented Mogensen but didn’t participate at trial due to recent surgery.
Neal Settergren of St. Louis represented Lewis and Clark Fleeting.
The verdict will undergo review at U. S. district court, where Lewis and Clark Fleeting filed an action to limit its liability in 2020.
Lewis and Clark Fleeting relied on federal law providing that liability for a seaman’s injury can’t exceed the value of his employer’s vessel.
According to Settergren, the value of the Velda Taylor doesn’t exceed $800,000.
The suit remains pending before Chief U. S. District Judge Nancy Rosenstengel, who directed the parties to file a joint report after trial.