$2.66-Million Award in Fallen Tuna Case
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A fisherman who was injured when a large tuna fell on him as a catch was being hoisted on a boat was awarded $2.66 million Friday by a San Diego Superior Court jury, which found that his employer’s negligence caused the accident.
Tradition Mariner Inc. of San Diego was ordered to pay the judgment to Julio Simoes, 32, in what attorneys called the “fish fall accident.”
The 60- to 80-pound tuna fell from a purse seine net that had been used to capture a school of tuna near Samoa in the Western Pacific. As fisherman used a giant hydraulic winch on the boat to haul the load on-board, a tuna that was caught in the net fell to the deck, striking Simoes on the shoulder.
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