A man whose leg was amputated after being run over by a forklift has reached a $9 million settlement with Newman & Co. and its affiliates as well as the staffing agency that assigned him to the worksite where he was injured, Pennsylvania Association for Justice reported.

Charles Jones was assigned to a Newman & Co. warehouse in North Philadelphia in July 2015 by Fort Washington, Pennsylvania-based Corestaff Inc. According to the plaintiff’s pretrial memorandum, Jones was run over twice by a forklift operated by a Mill Corp. employee. In addition to Newman & Co., Jones filed suit against Mill Corp., Bridge View Paper Co. and United States Recycling, all affiliates of Newman & Co.

According to court documents, Mill Corp. employee Emmitt Johnson was not looking where he was going when operating the forklift in reverse, did not come to a complete stop before reversing around a corner and did not sound his horn. “Johnson admits that he violated all basic rules of forklift safety on the date of this tragedy, as a direct result of which he did not see Charles and ran him over,” the report said.

According to the Pennsylvania Association for Justice, the defendants claimed to have an indemnity agreement in place, requiring the staffing provider to defend the companies “regardless of whether the accident was caused in whole or in part by” the other defendants.

Corestaff, an industrial staffing provider, denied that claim, Pennsylvania Association for Justice reported, saying it was joined into the case by Newman and Mill, and that no indemnity agreement exists.

[Editor’s note: Corestaff Inc. is not related to Corestaff Services, a professional staffing company that is part of the Impellam Group.]

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