$20 Million

Settlement for Worker Death at Concrete Plant

The Case: Lennox Hinckson was a 65-year-old man who had built a career performing elevator maintenance and repair around the United States. In December 2019, Hinckson was performing work at the Holcim cement plant in Holly Hill, South Carolina, when he fell approximately 60 feet from the elevator he was working on. This tragic on-the-job incident should have been avoided. But unfortunately, that morning Holcim’s personnel failed to abide by their typical third-party contractor safety policies and procedures that would ensure a safe workplace for Hinckson.

The Outcome: Following a meeting with Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) representatives in Brooklyn, we filed suit against Holcim and four individual defendants just over two months after Hinckson’s death. A preliminary investigation demonstrated that Holcim had a poor safety record with respect to MSHA fines and regulations. We retained engineers, mine safety experts, human factor experts, forensic pathologists, and additional experts to investigate this accident.

Still, somewhat predictably, litigating against “Big Concrete” proved to be a challenge—but one our team was up for. Our diligent pursuit of internal corporate investigation records and communications following the incident and skillful cross-examination during dozens of employee depositions helped us uncover the information needed to achieve this landmark result.