A former Long Branch police officer has received $1.62 million as compensation for injuries he received in two separate accidents: one while off-duty and another while on the job. The Monmouth County cases, which were consolidated for trial purposes, were Aponte v. Hanan and Aponte v. Gorman.

Plaintiff Raul Aponte, now 56, of Long Branch, settled the lawsuits on Nov. 5 with defendants Fortune and Morris Hanan of Brooklyn, and Timothy Gorman Jr. of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and has since received his settlement funds from the three insurance carriers involved, said Aponte's attorney, Jack Sanders.

Aponte retired from the Long Branch Police Department on May 1, 2015, as a result of injuries he sustained in the two accidents, said Sanders, of Shrewsbury's Shebell & Shebell. Aponte had not worked since March 2014 because of the injuries, Sanders said.

Aponte was first injured on Aug. 27, 2012, when Gorman failed to stop in time to avoid a collision on Route 537 in Hamilton Township, Mercer County, Sanders said.

The second accident occurred on Aug. 13, 2013, while Aponte was on duty and performing a traffic stop on Fortune Hanan in front of the Long Branch train station, Sanders said. Hanan accidentally backed up into Aponte's police car, Sanders said.

As a result of the accidents, Aponte sustained lower back injuries, including an aggravation of previous, work-related lower back problems, according to Sanders. Aponte had surgery in March 2014 to fuse two levels of his lumbar spine, which required a second surgery after his back became infected. He then had a third surgery in August 2017 to extend the lumbar fusion over two additional levels, Sanders said.

Hanan had two policies: one from Chubb, which contributed $1.1 million to the settlement, and another from the Hartford Insurance Co., which contributed $500,000, Sanders said. The carriers retained Suzanne Marasco of Hill Wallack in Princeton, who did not return a call seeking comment.

Gorman's carrier, Horace Mann Insurance Co., contributed $20,000 to the settlement, Sanders said. That carrier retained Virginia King of the Philadelphia office of Goldberg, Miller & Rubin.  She declined to comment.

Sanders said the cases settled after mediation with Maria Accardi of the Monmouth County Civil Division Settlement Program.

The consolidated cases, filed in Monmouth County Superior Court, had not been scheduled for trial, Sanders said.

— Michael Booth

$1M for Repairman's Hand Injury

Silva v. Colgate Paper Stock Co.: A man whose hand was crushed while he was repairing a machine at a paper recycling facility agreed to a $1 million settlement in his Middlesex County suit on Dec. 11, 2018.

Domingos Silva was making a repair at Colgate Paper Stock in New Brunswick on June 3, 2014, when a reversible conveyor belt unexpectedly began to rotate, crushing his hand between the conveyor frame and a gear box mount, the suit claimed.

The injury occurred when Silva loosened a chain on the conveyor belt, then made the repair to the conveyor, and was tightening the chain. The reversible conveyor was programmed to activate when a recycling hopper was filled to a certain level, said Peter Chamas of Gill & Chamas in Woodbridge, who was the lawyer for Silva. The hopper had filled to the appropriate level at the time Silva was tightening the chain, Chamas said.

An investigation revealed that a pin assembly that held the gear box mount in place was missing, allowing the mount to rotate, pinning Silva's hand, Chamas said. Photographic evidence after the accident showed that there was improper wearing on the conveyor frame near the pin assembly, he said. The head of the bolt holding the pin assembly in place had broken off, and the vibration from the machine ultimately caused the pin assembly to work itself out of its slot, thereby releasing the gear box mount to move whenever the conveyor was activated, Chamas said.

Silva asserted that the company that produced the conveyor belt system, Machinex, designed and manufactured the pin assembly in a defective manner that allowed for an improper wearing of the mechanical pieces. Silva also claimed that Colgate Paper Stock and a subsidiary, Dinar Management, were partly liable by failing to ensure that the reversible conveyor was locked out at the time of the accident.

Silva, 38 at the time of the accident, suffered a crush injury to the right hand with a partial tendon laceration of the index finger, and ulnar nerve laceration of the middle finger. He underwent two surgeries to repair the right hand but is left with a limited ability to flex his fingers, making him unable to make a fist with that hand, the suit claimed.

He didn't return to T&M Repair, where he worked at the time of the accident, but now is employed as a maintenance worker for another company.

Colgate Paper Stock, Dinar Management and Machinex agreed to the $1 million settlement after mediation with Marc Baldwin, a former Superior Court judge now with Baldwin Resolutions in Vincentown, on Dec. 11. Liberty Mutual was the carrier for all three defendants, and a breakdown of the portion paid on behalf of each was not disclosed, according to Chamas.

Machinex was represented by Thomas Walters of Bolan Jahnsen Dacey in Shrewsbury, who confirmed the settlement.

Colgate was represented by William Bloom of Methfessel & Werbel in Edison. He also confirmed the settlement.

— Charles Toutant