Florida man seriously injured when hit by palm tree in Myrtle Beach, suit claims
A couple from Highlands County, Florida, is suing a Grand Strand-based landscaping company after the man was allegedly injured by a suspended palm tree.
Daniel Tucker was “seriously injured when he was struck multiple times while unloading his trailer because his customer, Smith’s Landscaping, failed to account for his whereabouts and/or failed to maintain control of the machinery and the load being carried while offloading the trailer,” the complaint reads.
Messages for Smith’s Landscaping and the plaintiff’s attorney were not immediately returned on Thursday.
On Dec. 7, 2022, Tucker arrived at an apartment complex where he was scheduled to deliver 40 palm trees to Smith’s Landscaping to use on the property, the suit states. According to the suit, because there was not enough manpower at the complex that day, Tucker was forced to help unload the delivery. Once he arrived, the suit alleges that Tucker placed a netting device from the forklift on one of the trees to move it.
An unnamed Smith’s Landscaping employee who was operating the lift “moved the tree and struck Mr. Tucker’s left side with the fronds of the palm tree,” the suit reads.
Seconds after the first strike, the suit says that the same employee struck Tucker a second time, knocking him off the flat-bed trailer and onto the pavement below.
Tucker was left with a fractured left hip, left femur, left elbow — which required surgery — and abdomen trauma, resulting in an inflamed gallbladder and eventually developing into sepsis. These injuries left Tucker “gravely ill” and kept him from returning home to his wife who was scheduled to have brain surgery, the lawsuit states.
The suit claims that the forklift operator that day showed negligence in operating the machinery, which led to Tucker’s injuries.
As a result of his injuries, Tucker and his wife are seeking loss of consortium, a legal claim that allows for a spouse or close family member to seek compensation for the loss of an injured person’s companionship or support, according to a personal injury law firm.
The complaint requests a jury trial and “fair and reasonable” judgments against Smith’s Landscaping to compensate Daniel Tucker for his past, present and future pain and suffering, Michelle Tucker for loss of consortium and all other economic and non-economic losses.
