Family of port worker killed on job can sue, court rules

NORFOLK

The family of a port worker killed on the job can sue Virginia International Terminals, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled Friday, overturning a Portsmouth court decision.

Hugh Britt Jr. was 57 when he suffered extensive injuries in an accident at Norfolk International Terminals in 2008. He died several days later. At the time, he was working for a private stevedore company hired by a shipping company to unload a cargo vessel.

His family sued VIT, which manages local marine terminals, including NIT, for the Virginia Port Authority. A Portsmouth Circuit Court judge threw out the case, ruling that under Virginia law employees, or in this case their estate, can't sue a contractual employer, or subcontractor, for injuries or death.

Their only remedy is through the Workers' Compensation Act, the judge found, which pays only for lost wages.

The judge found that even though there was no written contract, Britt's company had a de facto "employment relationship" with the port authority.

The Supreme Court reversed that ruling, finding that Britt wasn't employed by VPA or VIT and that "no such contractual relationship exists."

The attorney for Britt's estate said this is an important ruling for workers or their families who have been barred from seeking damages for injury or death in these circumstances.

"It seemed like a stinging injustice to me that the children of this man who was killed got nothing," said the attorney, Lance Jackson. "The children can get some compensation for the loss of their father."

Britt, who lived in Chesapeake, was survived by three children.

The case will now be returned to the Circuit Court for trial.

The decision was one of 20 handed down Friday by the Virginia Supreme Court. The court also upheld the death sentence of Alfredo Prieto, a Fairfax County man convicted of killing two people.

Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com