We Recovered $5,000,000 Through a Wrongful Death Settlement for a Forklift Operator’s Family After a Rack Beam Pinned Him in a Northlake Warehouse

A Standup Forklift With an Open Back

A standup reach forklift is built for narrow warehouse aisles. The operator rides standing, in a compartment at the rear of the truck, and on the forklift he was driving the back of that compartment was open.

In 2022, at a distribution center in Northlake, a lower rack beam entered that opening and pinned him. He died in the hospital days later. Many families hear that a death at work is only a workers’ compensation matter. His family hired us to look at all of it.

OSHA Wrote It Down Thirteen Years Earlier

In 2009, OSHA published a safety bulletin on standup forklifts. Covering 1993 through 2008, it reported that “at least nine employees have been killed and three employees sustained severe crushing injuries when operating a standup forklift in reverse.” Describing the machines involved, the bulletin states:

OSHA recommended that employers “Purchase, where appropriate, standup forklifts that have corner posts, extended backrests, rear post guards, or other features to prevent an under-ride from occurring.” It also suggested a curb or a lowest shelf placed so the bottom of the forklift strikes it first. The bulletin is advisory, and in its words it “is not a standard or a regulation, and it creates no new legal obligations.” We used it to show what was known, and it had been published thirteen years before his death.

We Looked Past the Employer to the Machine and the Warehouse

Against the companies that designed, built, sold and maintained the forklift, we brought product liability claims in strict liability and negligence. Texas design defect law, § 82.005, required us to show “there was a safer alternative design” and that the defect “was a producing cause” of the death. We contended that a rear vertical post from the console up to the overhead guard, sometimes called a “third corner” post, would have kept the beam out of the compartment and was “economically and technologically feasible.”

Against his employer, which also owned and ran the warehouse, we claimed negligence in failing to provide a safe workplace. We contended that lower rack beams were set at a height that could enter the operator’s compartment, a danger an operator could not readily see, and that forklifts were supplied without rear posts. Changing the beam height, installing curbs or bollards, or retrofitting rear posts were options.

We also alleged gross negligence against both groups. Those were the family’s claims, and the case settled before a jury decided them.

David Trosman Read the Machine Like the Defense Engineers Do

This was a case for a trial lawyer who understands machines. Each step below was built so the case could go to trial if it had to.

Lead attorneyDavid Trosman, Of Counsel Attorney

David trained as an industrial engineer before law school, and he has more than 100 jury trials behind him in courtrooms across Texas and over 17 years on the Texas bar. He has litigated more than 1,000 cases, and he personally takes on our matters that turn most on engineering and trial work. Read David’s profile

Beyond workers’ compensation

Intake picks up day or night, and each family we take on is assigned a single case manager who checks in no less than once every 14 days. David looked at the forklift, the companies that designed, built, sold and serviced it, and the warehouse itself. Workers’ compensation alone would have left those questions unasked.

Engineering and standards

We gathered the forklift industry’s safety standard, ANSI B56.1, OSHA’s 2009 bulletin and a 2022 forensic engineering paper on the hazard. David held the forklift’s design and the rack layout up against each one.

Medical proof

We obtained the medical examiner’s investigation and autopsy, and a retired county chief medical examiner reviewed them for the case.

What his family lost

Under Chapter 71, the wrongful death action is “for the exclusive benefit of the surviving spouse, children, and parents of the deceased” (§ 71.004(a)), and a personal injury action “survives to and in favor of the heirs, legal representatives, and estate of the injured person” (§ 71.021(b)). An economist’s report measured what the family lost. The firm’s wrongful death page walks through both claims.

Suit, then settlement

The lawsuit was filed in a Dallas County Court at Law. With the evidence built for trial, the case settled in litigation in 2025.

$5,000,000 Recovered for the Family

The $5,000,000 is a gross amount. Attorney fees and case expenses come out of it before the family receives its portion. His family’s result came from the facts and proof of this case, and it cannot tell another family what their own case will bring.

Attorney Review

Case handled by: David Trosman, Of Counsel Attorney

Licensed in Texas for more than 17 years

Reviewed by: Josh Alexander, Founder and Managing Attorney

Published and reviewed on October 15, 2026

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