Jury awards $5 million to man injured in forklift accident

LAS CRUCES - A jury in state district court on Friday awarded a man a $5 million verdict in connection to a forklift injury that caused him severe harm.

The verdict was awarded to Benjamin Contreras, who was injured in a forklift accident at Biad Chili Ltd. Co Leasburg in November 2016.

Contreras, who was at the plant to drop off and pick up a load, was standing on a truck trailer when a Biad Chili employee was driving a forklift, loading and unloading pallets onto it, a court complaint states. That's when Contreras was hit "with the forklift and/or the pallets," the document states.

"The impact caused Mr. Contreras to fall from the trailer, approximately 10 feet to the ground," the complaint states.

Contreras suffered brain bleeding, spinal cord injury, three broken ribs and a broken clavicle, according to court records.

As originally filed, the lawsuit named Biad Chili and Permian Machinery Movers, a company that rented the forklift to Biad Chili.

According to Contreras' attorneys, the forklift involved in the incident was defective, and it had been inspected by the company. However, the company refused to take it out of service before the incident.

The verdict was issued solely against Biad Chili. After determining gross negligence, jurors assigned $4.5 million in actual damages and $550,000 in punitive damages, according to Contreras' attorneys.

Throughout the lawsuit, the highest offer of settlement from the defendant forklift company was $1.5 million.

Glasheen, Valles & Inderman represented Contreras and his family in the civil trial, which ran from Nov. 5 to 9. The jury returned a plaintiff’s verdict, compensating Contreras for his medical bills and pain and suffering.

Kevin Glasheen of Glasheen, Valles & Inderman, a personal injury law firm with offices in Texas and New Mexico, said he was "grateful that our clients trusted us to try the case, and I’m proud that such fine people were able to get justice."

There's a possibility the verdict could be appealed.

Update: This article has been updated to include the amount of damages and the assigning of responsibility for the damages.