Plaintiff adds claims to personal injury suit

GALVESTON - A local man who claimed in a lawsuit last year he injured himself performing a task which required two people has amended his original complaint.

Joel Angel Vargas is currently seeking damages from his employer, Momentum Metals, in response to a leg injury he sustained on Dec. 9, 2009, while using a dolly to move an extremely heavy drum containing scrap metal down a ramp at the defendant's premises in League City.

In court papers filed Nov. 2, 2010, before the Galveston County 56th District Court, Vargas asserts he was overwhelmed by the weight of the drum, which reportedly caused the object to strike his right leg.

According to the suit, Momentum was not a subscriber to workers' compensation and Vargas blames the business for failing to provide a safe workplace and negligently supervising the jobsite.

Vargas revised the suit to additionally state on Dec. 2, 2009, the defendant ordered him to pile aluminum cans while in an "unsafe" large metal container.

He says his employer had equipment to stack the cans within the container, but it nevertheless ordered him to enter said container and shovel cans in a pile.

"The container created an environment for spiders to breed, live or flourish," the 10-page document states.

"On said date, the plaintiff, while shoveling cans was bitten by a spider on his leg, causing a serious infection, resulting in the plaintiff's leg to become disfigured and discolored."

Momentum provided a formal answer to Vargas's allegations more than a month after the suit was entered.

He is represented by attorney Michael G. Martinez of Friendswood.

Case No. 10-cv-4086