Cavanagh Law Group to Represent Family of Suburban Man Killed While Transporting Troops to the Mideast

CHICAGO, Dec. 7, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- The family of a United Airlines employee killed while helping to transport members of the United States military to Kuwait has filed a lawsuit against CAV International Inc., the Boeing Company and NMC/Wollard Inc.

Sixty-four-year-old John Bruce of Arlington Heights was killed while trying to unload baggage for American military personnel from a United Airlines 747 at the Al-Mubarak Air Base in Kuwait on October 9, 2009.  The U.S. military contracted with CAV International, an American corporation, to operate this and other U.S. airbases around the world.

Bruce leaves behind a wife and two children. The family's lawyer, Chicago attorney Timothy Cavanagh of the Cavanagh Law Group has spent the past year fighting to get the family basic information about what happened.

"For more than a year, CAV International has refused to provide any information or even acknowledge the death of John Bruce at the airbase it operates in Kuwait," says Timothy Cavanagh. "John Bruce was serving his country by helping to transport troops around the world. His family deserves answers."

According to the lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court on Monday, Bruce was working on a mobile belt loader know as TC-888 at the time.  The machine did not have any fall protection device and was at the cargo door of the 747 when a CAV International employee moved the machine without any warning.  Bruce fell more than a dozen feet to the tarmac and suffered a fatal brain injury.

The lawsuit alleges if the CAV employee had been paying attention and doing his job and if NMC/Wollard and Boeing had provided fall protection devices on its products, this never would have happened.

"My husband's death has been a terrible tragedy for our family made worse by the lack of information about what really happened," says Patty Bruce. "We don't want this to happen to any other American working outside the country."

Cavanagh says United Airlines agreed to produce documents that prove Bruce's death could have been prevented.  However, CAV has refused to produce responsive documents or acknowledge their culpability and did not want the case tried in the Cook County.

"You would not try a case like this in Kuwait. This involves an American worker and American businesses. Thousands of Americans are working overseas for U.S. companies and they don't lose their legal rights just because they are working beyond the U.S. borders," says Cavanagh.

Docket #: 10 L 13818

SOURCE Cavanagh Law Group