$1,400,000 Settlement

Plaintiff was a deck hand on small cruise vessel and had been working for several weeks prior to his injury. The vessel was at the dock, and the plaintiff was ordered by the mate to take up slack in the line. In order to do that, the plaintiff turned on the capstan. When he did that, all of his four fingers were pulled into the capstan and were severed off after being crushed between the capstan the rope. Liability focused on the failure to properly train the plaintiff in use of the capstan and the failure to properly mark the controls of the capstan. The injury compensation damages were solely for physical disfigurement, plaintiff’s pain and suffering and future costs for prosthesis for the plaintiff.