Burns v. RNH Installations

The Freibott Law Firm was recently successful in its prosecution of a case in front of the Industrial Accident Board in the case of Burns v. RNH Installations.  Claimant alleged that on March 9, 2015, he was injured at a job site in Bel Air, Maryland while moving furniture.  Our client was carrying an overhead cabinet down a ramp and fell backwards, with the overhead unit falling on top of him.  The incident was witnessed by our client’s brother (a co-employee) and by several other co-employees.  Our client severely injured his back necessitating surgery.  At the Industrial Accident Board hearing, the Employer alleged that our client’s back injury was not due to the incident on March 9, 2015; rather, it was caused by an injury that our client sustained in the year 2000.  The Board did not find that argument persuasive.  Another interesting event occurred at the Industrial Accident Board hearing.  One of the employees that witnessed the accident did not appear at the hearing despite having been served a subpoena by our office.  Interestingly enough, the Employer also intended, so it said, to call this employee as one of its witnesses.  It was alleged by our office that this employee had no intention to appear at the hearing because the Employer knew that this employee would not help its case as he was an eye witness to the incident.  Specifically, this employee was at the other end of the piece of furniture when our client fell down the ramp.  The non-appearance of this necessary witness, as we alleged, was caused by the Employer’s instructing the witness not to appear.  The owner of the business testified, under cross-examination by Mr. Freibott, that he did observe our client lying on the ground with the piece of furniture on top of him and that he and another employee lifted the piece of furniture off our client.  In the end, the Industrial Accident Board found that an industrial accident occurred.  The Industrial Accident Board ordered the Employer’s insurance company to pay for all of our client’s medical expenses, including the surgical expenses; ordered the Employer to pay an attorney’s fee; and to reimburse our firm for the expert witness fee of our client’s medical expert.  (Burns v. RNH Installations,Hearing No.: 1427423)