Wrongful termination suit against Brand Energy Services settled

CHARLESTON - A wrongful termination suit against Brand Energy Services was settled and dismissed last year.

Bayer Corporation and Scott Blankenship, a safety officer for Brand Energy, were also named as defendants in the suit.

The parties in the lawsuit announced that the matter had been settled and moved the court to dismiss the case in its entirety, according to a Dismissal Order filed Feb. 23, 2012.

On Nov. 19, 2010, David McDermott was injured while walking up a set of stairs to the break room, according to a complaint filed Feb. 17, 2011, in Kanawha Circuit Court.

Blankenship accompanied McDermott to St. Mary's Medical Center where he sought treatment and was diagnosed with a knee injury.

McDermott claimed Blankenship informed Dr. Allen Young that even though he should not do any climbing, extended walking or physical labor, it was against Brand policy to accept doctor's orders with physical working restrictions on a patient and demanded the physician send him back to work with no restrictions, to which Young complied.

When McDermott returned to work, he claimed he was ordered to sit in an empty room by himself for the duration of each work day and on the fourth day, his employment was wrongfully terminated, according to the suit.

McDermott was seeking compensatory and punitive damages. He was represented by Michael O. Callaghan of the Law Offices of Neely and Callaghan.

The defendants were being represented by Joseph M. Price and Benjamin W. Price of Robinson & McElwee PLLC.

The case was assigned to Circuit Judge Louis H. Bloom.

Kanawha Circuit Court case number: 11-C-267