■ VOLUME 29
AUGUST 7, 2015
NUMBER 36
■■$120,000 SETTLEMENT
Gateway Arch worker settles over injury on tram By Alan Scher Zagier Special to Missouri Lawyers Media
A former Gateway Arch maintenance worker who was crushed while riding on the outside of a moving tram at the apex of the iconic riverfront attraction settled a suit against a Clayton electrical contractor for $120,000. John Daniel Leslie of Franklin County sued Guarantee Electrical Co. in February 2013, two years after he was briefly pinned between the tram and the Arch’s interior wall while attempting a repair. The suit was settled in April. Judge Bryan Hettenbach officially dismissed the case in June. Plaintiff ’s attorney Gary Burger of Cantor & Burger in St. Louis said his client, a National Park Service electrician at the time, suffered a fractured sternum and multiple broken ribs but has made a full recovery and now works elsewhere. According to the complaint and Burger, Guarantee Electrical employees were replacing the electronic sensors that help stop the trams that carry tourists to an interior viewing
platform at the top of the Arch. Leslie was bringing an electric relay switch to the other repair workers, who had removed a safety switch that allowed the train to brake and disabled electrical timers that monitored the tram’s speed on its ascent. Burger said Leslie was instructed to ride the tram in the “usual and customary manner — on a platform on the outside, and in front of the tram.” He said the defense cited that decision in contending that their work did not affect the tram’s operation. Defense attorney J. Michael Waller, who represents Travelers Insurance on behalf of the electrical company, declined comment. The suit initially named Maida Engineering as a co-defendant, but the Springfield company was dropped from the suit. The suit was removed to federal court but then remanded to state court since the Arch grounds are not exclusively on federal land. Under Missouri law, the state retained “concurrent jurisdiction, both civil and criminal,” over the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Historic Site, Burger noted. mo
Gary K. Burger
PERSONAL INJURY ■Venue: ■ St. Louis City Circuit Court ■Case ■ Number/Date: 1322-CC00445-01/April 7, 2015 ■Judge: ■ Bryan Hettenbach ■Insurance: ■ Travelers (for Guarantee Electric) ■Special ■ Damages: $44,000 in billed medical expenses; $20,000 in paid medical expenses ■Injuries: ■ crush injury to sternum and ribs, including fractures to both ■Caption: ■ John Daniel Leslie v. Guarantee Electrical Co. ■Plaintiff’s ■ Attorney: Gary Burger, Cantor & Burger, St. Louis ■Defendant’s ■ Attorneys: J. Michael Waller, Law Office of Stephen Larson, St. Louis
Reprinted with permission from Missouri Lawyers Media, 319 North Fourth Street, Fifth Floor, St. Louis, MO 63102. © 2015
