13-Nov-16 – Eight million dollars has been awarded to an ironworker who sustained severe shoulder injuries when a passing boat pushing a barge collided with his stationary work boat on the Chicago River.

Anthony Fonte sued American River Transportation Company in August 2012, alleging that three months earlier, the crew of the pushboat Dale White failed to stop or switch direction before crashing into Fonte’s craft and injuring his right shoulder.

The jury award on November 3 is the highest in Illinois for a shoulder injury of an adult male, according to Jury Verdict Reporter, a division of Law Bulletin Publishing Company. The previous record was $3.8 million awarded in 2006.

Fonte, age 56 at the time, was working for James McHugh Construction Company on a safety boat stationed at a construction site near the Adams Street Bridge, when the northbound 100-foot barge struck his boat. As it was capsizing, Fonte jumped out of his boat but, according to his attorney, Clifford Horwitz, caught his hand in a chain that wrenched his shoulder and tore his rotator cuff.

“He ended up having three surgeries and complications resulting from his injuries and the surgeries,” said Horwitz (right). He says Fonte now lives with “significant dysfunction” and chronic pain, cannot touch his nose or his back, and cannot lift more than five pounds.

American River Transportation denied Fonte’s allegations and contended in a third-party lawsuit that his employer was at fault. The company alleged McHugh failed to properly position the boat in the water, train and supervise Fonte, and warn him about foreseeable dangers.

“They’re claiming he should have been tied up to the shore, that it is too risky to be on the channel side because you could get hit by traffic in the narrow part of the river,” said Horwitz.

Robert Franco, representing McHugh, says although Fonte’s boat was in a safe spot, Fonte would have had fewer than four seconds to react once the barge started to move toward him.

After a four-week trial, the jury found American River Transportation Company 95 percent liable and McHugh five percent liable. “We view five percent as a vindication of our safety program,” said Franco (left). An attorney for American River Transportation Company declined to comment.

In 2011, on the Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal near Palisades, Illinois, the Dale White (right), while pushing an empty barge, took on water after possibly hitting a submerged object. Photo by Mark Haury.

The United States Coast Guard started a rescue operation but called it off after determining the 78-foot-long Dale White was in water 12 feet deep and in no danger of sinking.