WASHINGTON
Former Rep. David Valadao’s family dairy is asking a California appeals court to reconsider part of a recent jury verdict that held the farm mostly responsible for a 2016 accident that severed an employee’s hand.
His dairy’s worker’s compensation insurance carrier had been trying to limit its potential financial losses from an incident in which employee Carlos Martinez Ocampo’s arm was caught in an auger and cut off below the right elbow.
A Kings County jury in October found that Valadao Dairy bore the greatest share of responsibility for the incident, assigning 80 percent of fault to the dairy, while the manufacturer of the equipment, Tulare-based U.S. Farm Systems, was deemed 20 percent responsible.