Matt Shaffer’s Case on Cover of Professional Mariner Magazine

Schechter, Shaffer & Harris, L.L.P., Accident & Injury Lawyers Partner Matt Shaffer represents Mrs. Laura Cloudy, widow of a tugboat captain who was killed in a fall from a ladder aboard his vessel in the Houston Ship Channel.

Charles Langston Cloudy, 54 and a a licensed master of towing vessels, sadly died when he fell about 7 feet from a ladder on Oct. 8, 2009, at a dock in Channelview, Texas.

Witnesses had seen him on the 57-foot vessel’s second level moments before his body was discovered face-down on the galley level with catastrophic injuries to his head.

Cloudy, of Hemphill, Texas, had been an employee of Houston-based Hard’s Marine Service Ltd. for 15 years.

The cause of death was blunt trauma to the head with skull fractures and brain injuries. The medical examiner ruled the death an accident.

Mr. Shaffer recently reached a confidential settlement on behalf of Mrs. Cloudy less than four months after Mr. Cloudy’s death.

Working with the surviving families after a catastrophic maritime accident is something that the maritime lawyers of Schechter, Shaffer & Harris, LLP have done for over 45 years.  For a confidential discussion about your offshore accident or Death on the High Seas Act case, please contact us .