Worker That Suffered Severe Burns From Electric Explosion Settles for $28 Million

Teaneck, NJ: The personal injury law firm of Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, P.C. is honored
to announce its founding partner, Samuel L. Davis, has been recognized by the New Jersey
Law Journal as achieving the largest reported New Jersey Personal Injury Settlement
during the Court’s 2022-2023 term.

On August 7, 2023, The New Jersey Law Journal, a publication serving the members of New
Jersey’s Judiciary and Bar since 1878 released its annual survey of the Top 20 New Jersey
Personal Injury Awards between July 29, 2022, and July 1, 2023. The largest and top New
Jersey personal injury case reported as a settlement was $28 million that was achieved by
Samuel L. Davis, founding partner of New Jersey’s personal injury boutique firm Davis,
Saperstein & Salomon, P.C. on behalf of an injured worker.

The New Jersey Law Journal reported that the case involved a man who suffered burn injuries
covering over 60% of his body that were caused by an electric panel explosion while the man
was working on the electrical system within the Newark, NJ office building.

The facts of the case as disclosed in a February 24, 2023, court opinion by the Essex County
Assignment Judge, the Honorable Sheila Venable disclosed that the 2019 explosion caused the
worker to burst into flames from his knees to head leaving him severely injured and disfigured.
Normally, injured workers are barred from suing their employers and are left solely with a
workers’ compensation claim, but Davis successfully proved that the injured worker, a non-electrician was improperly directed to remove a protective shroud covering multiple energized
high voltage electrical components. This action by his employer amounted to sufficient gross
negligence entitling the injured worker to bring a separate claim for damages in the Superior
Court of New Jersey.

The explosion occurred while the injured worker was standing on a 6-foot ladder within a closet
housing an electrical panel. The electrical explosion was so violent that it threw him off his
ladder and caused him to catch on fire. He ran 60 feet to an office seeking assistance, but finding
no help, he used a fire extinguisher to extinguish the flames. With his skin melted and still
smoking and in unimaginable pain, he took the stairs down two floors seeking help only to
collapse and fall unconscious on a restroom floor.

The injured worker was placed in an induced coma for six weeks and underwent, at great pain,
166 surgical procedures. He may still face 20 more surgeries and a lifetime of care. The $28
million award represents payment for his pain, suffering and financial losses. The settlement
also included damages for his disfiguring scars and emotional harms and losses including post-
traumatic stress disorder. A portion of the $28 million was allocated to his wife for her losses,
including the extra physical, emotional, and financial burden the electrical accident caused to
her.

Davis obtained the man’s burned and partially melted cellphone, which had fragments of the
worker’s skin and clothing melted into it. The preservation of the device allowed Davis to prove
past communications between the injured worker and his supervisors about the nature and scope
of the injured worker’s work at the building, and enabled Davis to refute the defense’s claim that
their employee was defying his supervisor’s orders when he entered the electrical closet.

Davis, and his partners are no strangers to The New Jersey Law Journal’s Top 20 Injury Awards,
the firm having made the Top 20 several times over the years. In 2017, the Law Journal also
recognized Davis for having the number one spot for the highest reported verdict and settlement
in New Jersey. In August of 2016, Davis received a $9.5 million jury verdict for two sisters who
suffered serious orthopedic and brain injuries from a boating accident.

Recently, Davis and his partners made national news when because of several personal injury
claims brought against Madison Square Garden and its affiliated venues, Davis and all the
attorneys in his firm, as well as other lawyers suing Madison Square Garden were barred from
entering MSG’s venues such as Radio City Music Hall and the Beacon Theater. This caused one
of Davis’ partners to be singled out by facial recognition and ejected in front of her 9-year-old
daughter from entering Radio City to enjoy the Christmas show. Despite that, during July, of
2023 Davis settled a claim against its LAVO restaurant for $5.3 million for a woman who
slipped on grease and suffered neck and back injuries that required several surgeries. During
2022, Davis also landed an out-of-court settlement of a drowning case on behalf of the family of
a minor.

The names of the parties to this litigation are withheld to protect their privacy. Further
information is available by contacting Samuel.Davis@dsslaw.com or calling 201-907-5000.