Worker Wins $1.1 Million Settlement for Tree-Trimming Fall

Friday, September 13, 2019 | 0

A tree trimmer from Mexico who was paralyzed in a fall has settled his workers' compensation claim for more than $1.1 million.

The settlement comes 14 years after Jose Angel Valdez Garcia fell almost 15 feet from a ladder, according to a Missouri legal news report. Garcia, 36 at the time, had been on the job less than three weeks when the accident occurred in 2005, said his lawyer, Richard Hein, of St. Louis.

Garcia was in the United States on an agricultural worker visa, the news site reported.

“This was not a typical case, given the seriousness of the injury,” Hein said. “The parties spent quite some time negotiating the claim.”

Garcia was on the ladder using a chain saw in a St. Louis suburb when a tree limb fell, knocking him to the ground. The man was diagnosed with fractures throughout his vertebrae.

He returned to his home in Mexico and has received $200 a week in temporary disability payments since then, for a total of almost $150,000, the news site reported. His employer, Valley Crest Cos., of Bridgeton, and its insurer also have paid more than $2.3 million in medical expenses.

The settlement provides another $1.1 million, including an immediate payment of $500,000, plus $3,400 monthly for 15 years.

Missouri law, as of 2018, provides two-thirds of the workers' average weekly wage for up to 400 weeks for temporary total disability, and the same amount, with no duration limit, for permanent total disability, according to the Workers Compensation Research Institute.