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Jury can't reach verdict in wrongful death case
Judge Tom Baxter declared a mistrial when it became apparent that the case was hopelessly deadlocked around 7:30 Monday night. Reports were that jurors were split seven for the defendants and five for the plaintiffs. One juror was said to have asked, "What did Liberty Mutual do to cause the death of this man?" That echoed the question that the insurance company's lawyers had asked throughout the trial. Ingrid Watson, the fiancée of Terry Chesseboro of Packards Bend brought the suit on behalf of their minor children. Cheeseboro, 19, was killed when he became tangled in a conveyor belt in the bark pit at Gulf States Paper's Demopolis mill in 2003 while working with Burkes Mechanical of Thomasville. Other defendants in the case had either previously settled out of court or been eliminated from the suit. Some of the settlements were said to have been substantial. Liberty Mutual was targeted because it provided loss prevention inspections for Gulf States. Plaintiff lawyers Labarron Boone of the Beasley-Allen law firm in Montgomery and Ric Gilmore of Grove Hill contended that Liberty Mutual was liable because it had signed off on safety regulations and features at the plant and that there were clear violations in the bark pit where Cheeseboro died. "Blame, blame, blame is the name of Liberty Mutual's game," Boone told jurors in closing arguments. The insurance company took millions in premiums from Gulf States for years and said they were a team player with the paper manufacturer, "but they aren't on the team when something goes wrong." Liberty Mutual's Kevin Clark and Sam Franklin said Liberty Mutual did not cause Cheeseboro's death and that their loss prevention "visits" did not amount to "wall to wall safety inspections." The defense lawyers agreed that there were safety violations and that Cheeseboro's death was tragic but asked why it was Liberty Mutual's fault. Cheeseboro committed an unsafe act by putting himself in harm's way. Ric Gilmore, in a final argument for the plaintiffs, asked the jury to "tell Liberty Mutual to do what they were hired to do." He said the case is about being proactive for safety. "In dollars is how we are asking you to do it," he explained. Boone had mentioned the figure of $5 million but Gilmore said Cheeseboro's death was worth "a great deal more than $5 million."
Gilmore said as soon as a verdict was returned an e-mail would be fired off to New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and other cities around the country. Depending on the verdict the message would be either, "We've got a problem here that we need to take care of and we need to make some changes or it is business as usual and we can keep on trucking."
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