Award upheld in mill accident

PORTLAND — The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday upheld a jury award of more than $1 million in damages for deaths and injuries resulting from a 1981 accident at a Westbrook paper mill.

The justices affirmed the jurors’ finding that negligence by the Falmouth engineer who designed the structure had led to its collapse, leaving two construction workers dead and a third injured.

The court cited arithmetical errors by William H. Marshall in determining the size of steel rafter beams to be used to construct a biomass storage building at Scott Paper Co.’s S.D. Warren mill.

“Based on this evidence the jury rationally could find that it was more probable than not that the negligence of William Marshall was a proximate cause of the collapse of the structure resulting in the death of Loren Kimball and Brian Leavitt and the injuries to David Mudgett,” the court concluded.

Marshall, one of three defendants in the various lawsuits resulting from the accident, died in 1985 while the case was pending and Barbara Marshall, as personal representative of his estate, was substituted as a defendant.

Nearly two years ago, the jury awarded $572,556 to Mudgett, 30, of Kezar Falls, an ironworker who broke his thigh, pelvis and shoulder in the accident. An additional $463,277 was awarded to the families of Kimball, 33, of Arundel, and Leavitt, 20, of Kezar Falls.

As a result of the Aug. 31, 1981, accident, Mudgett and the estates of Kimball and Leavitt filed separate lawsuits against Paper Industry Engineers Inc., Megquier & Jones Corp. and Marshall.

After the case went to trial, the court granted directed verdicts in favor of Paper Industry Engineers and Megquier & Jones and denied Marshall’s motions for a judgment notwithstanding the jury’s verdict. Following appeals and cross-appeals, the high court upheld the judgments.

The justices found that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that either Paper Industry Engineers or Megquier & Jones were obligated to review Marshall’s design computations for arithmetical errors.

The supreme court also rejected the claim that there was sufficient evidence to find steel fabricators Megquier & Jones “vicariously liable” for Marshall’s negligence.

“The general principle is well established that an employer of an independent contractor is not liable for physical harm caused to another by an act or omission of the contractor or his servant,” the court said.