NEW BEDFORD, Mass., — June 3, 2014 — Eastern Fisheries, Inc. has settled a lawsuit brought by the family of a fisherman who died in a January 2011 fall from a Hassey Street dock that was slippery with snow and ice.
The firm agreed to pay the family of Guiseppi Cracchiolo of Gloucester $900,000 in the case, but only after a 10-day trial in U.S. District Court in Boston. The settlement came during jury deliberations.
The O'Hara Corp., owner of the fishing boat Sunlight, had earlier settled with the family for $450,000 without going to trial.
In its defense, Eastern Fisheries contended that the accident was partly the result of an act of God and the fisherman's own negligence.
Police surveillance video showed the fisherman trying to pull himself up onto a platform to board the vessel when he slipped on the ice and fell 20 feet into the freezing harbor. Police said he had returned to the boat just after 1 a.m. after a night out socializing.