BEAUMONT — A Peruvian maritime worker suing his former employers, alleging negligence for an injury he says he sustained aboard a vessel docked in Port Neches.
Armando Villafuerte of Peru filed a lawsuit Feb. 1 in Jefferson County District Court against Antillana Holding Inc., Transgas Shipping Lines SAC and Transgas International Inc., alleging negligence, unseaworthiness and maintenance and cure.
According to the compliant, Villafuerte was assigned as a member of the M/V Pablo, a vessel in navigation. On Jan. 14, the suit says, Villafuerte was working aboard the V Pablo while it was docked at a terminal in Port Neches when, without warning, the vessel’s mooring lines or cables became entangled with the ship’s propellers.
The lawsuit states Villafuerte’s legs and feet also became entangled and this caused him to have “serious, disabling and permanent injuries.” The suit says the vessel was unsafe, the crew was not properly trained and the defendants did not provide a reasonable safe place to work.
Villafuerte seeks damages of more than $1 million and the cost of the court. He is represented by attorneys John W. Stevenson Jr. and W. Robert Hand of Stevenson and Murray in Houston and D. Clinton Brasher and Joseph Muckleroy of The Brasher Law Firm PLLC in Beaumont.
Jefferson County District Court Case number D-198065