Archer Daniels Midland Verdict-Garcia ADM Verdict
Chicago, IL September 15, 2009: ADM learned late September 11, 2009 that it must pay $6,741,730.61 to the parents, brothers and sisters of Francisco Moreno Garcia, who was scalded to death in a March 23, 2007 steam explosion at the ADM Bioproducts plant in Decatur, Illinois*. Ironically, this verdict was handed down just days before the September 18, 2009 release of The Informant, a movie documenting ADM’s notorious 1990’s price fixing scandal.
According to attorney Don Shapiro, the principal of Chicago’s Donald A. Shapiro, Ltd., who represented the family, “this was a record wrongful death verdict for Decatur (Macon County), Illinois and one of the largest in Illinois history for a single male with no spouse or children.”
The four day trial concerned fatal injuries suffered by Francisco Moreno Garcia, a 26 year old employee of ECF, Inc., an ADM contractor. Garcia was insulating pipes 15 feet in the air when a waste compression device over pressurized and showered him with steam and hot caustic liquid. When the scissors lift he was on could not be lowered, Garcia was forced to disengage himself from his safety harness and tumbled onto the ground.
Witnesses testified to a gruesome scenario in which Garcia had third degree burns over 90% of his body that were so extensive that strips of his flesh were peeling off as he was pulled into the safety shower. A veteran emergency room nurse testified at the trial that it was one of the worst cases she had ever seen.
Garcia’s family resides in Tizipan El Alto, Mexico, a small town two hours from Guadalajara. “A key to obtaining this large verdict was calling on the jury’s sense of fairness and decency by asking them to treat the Garcia family like any other coming before the court,” says Attorney Shapiro.
*LAURA DIAZ, Independent Administrator of the Estate of FRANCISCO MORENO GARCIA, Deceased (Plaintiff), v. ARCHER DANIELS MIDLAND COMPANY, (Defendant). No. 07-L-142: Circuit Court of the Sixth Judicial Circuit, Macon County, IL.
Contact Steve Lundin at BIGfrontier Communications Group to interview Donald Shapiro (312) 391-8007 or (312) 602-2434
