Electrician awarded $1/4M in damages

A “JOURNEYMAN” electrician who was injured in a vehicular accident in 2001, stands to  receive more than $1/4 million in damages. However, he will have to wait for the money until his attorneys sue the insurance company of the vehicle responsible for his accident. Justice David Myers, by consent, has already entered judgment in favour of Herman Williams who suffered injuries in the accident which occurred on July 26, 2001. Through his attorneys’ Ken Sagar and Yaseen Ahmed, Williams sued the owner of the other vehicle involved in the accident — Egan Antoine Alvairez. When the matter came up for trial on March 18, 2004, Alvairez’s attorney  agreed to accept 90 percent of blame for the accident before Justice Myers.

The matter was then sent for assessment before a Master of the High Court. The assessment hearing came up before Master Ralph Doyle and on March 10, the parties agreed that Williams should receive a total of $675,000 for his personal injuries, loss and damages. He has already received an interim payment of $125,000 which went towards urgent medical expenses. Legal costs were also ordered in favour of Williams’ attorneys. Williams, a Trinidadian living in the United States, was back home when Alvairez’s vehicle collided with his pick-up truck on the Eastern Main Road, Arouca.

Williams, a father of two whose profession was given as a “journeyman” electrician, was working with a construction company based in Brooklyn, New York at the time. His injuries included trauma to the right forearm and lower back, left lower back pain with paraesthesia radiating down his left leg, prolapsed intervertebral disc, decreased power in left leg, and disc degeneration with moderately severe prolapsed and moderate foraminal stenosis. As a result of the accident, Williams could not bend, stoop, stand or sit for long periods or lie down for any length of time. He also could not sit in an upright position and he did not have the strength to pull wires or bend conduits, climb ladders or lift anything more than 25 pounds. He has not been able to work, and since August 2001 he has not been paid a salary.