Cunningham Bounds Reaches Settlement for Shipyard Workers

A few weeks before trial was set to begin in August, Cunningham Bounds obtained an $8.25-million settlement on behalf of 17 Mobile shipyard workers who were seriously injured at work while using a power tool. Brian Duncan, Billy Bonner and David Wirtes were the co-lead attorneys on the case. Duncan and Bonner obtained and studied thousands of pages of internal company documents and emails. They traveled across the U.S. and Europe to take depositions of more than 20 witnesses, including salesmen, managers, engineers and executives. Wirtes, who was responsible for most of the legal briefing in the case, successfully fought to have the case remanded from federal court to Alabama state court, successfully prevailed at the Alabama Supreme Court on a defendant’s mandamus petition relating to the plaintiffs’ legal theories and successfully briefed numerous important legal motions in the Mobile County Circuit Court.