Charles M. Baker v. Pidgeon Thomas Company and Allen & Hoshall, Engineers

McCREE, Circuit Judge.

Charles Baker was operating a backhoe (a tractor-type vehicle with a rear-mounted scoop used for excavating and shoveling) on a construction project in West Memphis, Arkansas, when a steel joist forty feet in length fell from a twenty-four foot high steel column and struck his back. His spine was shattered, and he is now a paraplegic. He collected $33,330.70 from his employer’s workman’s compensation insurer, and then filed suit in the United States District Court in Memphis against some of the other contractors who were on the project. We consider his appeal from a…