16
Wednesday, August 12, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
ATTORNEY: Pilot was
hit by toxic fumes
in plane cockpit
Continued from page 1
that ended his flying career
and left him with significant
debility.
After years of workers9
compensation litigation with
JetBlue9s insurer, AIG 4
Chartis Claims, Inc., Sisters
attorney Glen Lasken pre-
vailed on behalf of his cli-
ent. Administrative Law
judge Darren Otto ordered
on July 31 that claim deni-
als and closures be set aside
or overturned, and awarded
attorney9s fees and costs to
Lasken.
Lasken summed up the
immediate result for his
client:
<It means he has a via-
ble workers9 compensation
claim,= Lasken said.
That will translate into
hundreds of thousands of
dollars in benefits over a
period of years. Lasken sees
the outcome as a modicum
of justice for a man whose
career and active way of
life were derailed due to the
workplace incident.
<He9s permanently dis-
abled; he9ll never fly again,=
Lasken said. <He was a
gonzo athlete 4 he can9t do
any of that now. His quality
of life has been taken from
him.=
In his arguments before
the court, Lasken starkly
laid out the stakes for his
client: <Once again, this is
not a back strain. This is a
career-ending, brain dam-
age injury to somebody who
had an extremely high salary
and a valuable career. Short
of a death case, it is hard
to imagine that there could
be a higher value of inter-
est than in the present mat-
ter. Everything is at stake for
Captain Myers. His claim
is denied, his financial and
medical benefits are cut off
and all of his actual condi-
tions are denied.=
According to Lasken,
AIG had initially offered a
settlement of $70,000, which
Myers declined to accept. He
$
10
OFF
parted with his attorney in
Portland and sought Lasken
out to litigate the case.
It was a big decision for
the Sisters attorney. He knew
it was the biggest case he
had ever taken, and that he
would be going up against an
adversary with tremendous
legal and financial resources
at their disposal.
<I had to make the deci-
sion whether I was willing
to go all in or not,= Lasken
told The Nugget. <And I was.
This was such a good man
and such a grave injustice to
be righted.=
The case was enormously
complex, which Judge Otto
acknowledged in his July 31
orders:
<There is little doubt
that the medical and legal
posture of this case made
it extraordinarily complex.
The evidentiary record was
enormous. The scientific
explanations regarding air-
plane toxic fume exposures
were highly technical and
frequently not in agreement.
The expert medical opinions
were lengthy and, at times,
diametrically opposed. In
addition, the case has been in
litigation for three years and
part of the record included
more than seventy years
and thousands of pages of
research articles.=
Lasken brought in scien-
tific experts from across the
PHOTO PROVIDED
Andrew K. Myers was an airline
pilot until exposure to toxic
fumes in an airplane left him
with serious, ongoing medical
problems.
DOT & FAA
PHYSICALS
country 4 and from across
the Atlantic. Dr. Susan
Michaelis, a global aviation
accident investigator, was
flown in from the UK for
a hearing in March 4 just
before the coronavirus pan-
demic shut down travel.
A full grasp of the science
of the means and effects of
toxic exposure was key to
Lasken9s case.
<I thought the science
was on our side, and it was
evolving,= Lasken said.
The demands of the case
were tremendous, particu-
larly since this complex
matter was only one among
many cases Lasken9s prac-
tice had to manage at the
same time.
<A lot of people told me I
was crazy to take the indus-
try on by myself,= he said.
<It9s a validation, if you will,
of my ability to try a case
this complex. And, I have
to say, I couldn9t have done
it without (assistant) Wendy
Rullman.=
The Nugget reached out
for comment to JetBlue and
AIG9s attorney Matthey M.
Fisher, but did not hear back
by press time.
Lasken said, <I have
praise for him and his law
firm. It was an ethical fight.
Basically, it was a clean
fight.=
Lasken takes great satis-
faction in prevailing in that
battle.
<There was this feeling
of trying to achieve a just
cause that will affect Captain
Myers and hundreds of other
people across the world,= he
said.
The Sisters attorney
believes that the case 4
and the science upon which
it was based 4 will have a
broad effect on the airline
industry and the safety of
airplane design around man-
aging the risk from toxic
chemical fumes.
That is the biggest hope
for Myers9 wife Wendy as
well.
<Something has to be
done; something has to
change,= she told The
PHOTO BY JIM CORNELIUS
Sisters attorney Glen Lasken, with assistant Wendy Rullman, part-time
assistant Karissa Hester, and Lasken’s papillon Mariposa, sat down in
Lasken’s COVID-safe “outdoor office” for an interview last week.
Nugget.
She noted that the work-
ers9 comp case will help with
medical bills going forward,
but said the main reason for
the hard fight for the out-
come was to help others.
<The biggest impact is
a ruling that supports this
problem,= she said. <Maybe
it will start to shed light on
this problem so that it can be
fixed.=
That9s a significant mark
for a small workers9 compen-
sation practice based in Bend
and Sisters. And Lasken
acknowledges that he paid a
price in making it.
<It took a toll on me to
manage this,= he said.
The attorney doesn9t have
time to rest on his laurels just
yet. He9s got other cases to
work, and, he said, <I9ve got
a couple of years till I retire.=
He does plan to reward
himself for a job well done,
though.
<I9m going to get a
kayak,= he said. <I9ve been
wanting to do that.=
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