Band Photographer Awarded $18 Million After Being Crushed by Forklift at Concert

A band photographer received a $18 million settlement after being crushed by a forklift following a Green Day concert.

Photographer Jake Chamseddine reached the settlement for his personal injury lawsuit on November 1 following seven days of trial in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas.

The suits stemmed from an incident that occurred when Chamseddine was working as a photographer on Green Day’s Hella Mega Tour in 2021.

According to a report by Law.com, Chamseddine was attempting to exit Citizens Bank Park, the stadium that is home to the Philadelphia Phillies, after Green Day’s concert.

As Chamseddine left the stadium, Tri-State Stage Labor employees were removing stage and concert equipment from the venue.

In a pretrial memo, the photographer’s lawyers allege that Tri-State employee and forklift driver Michael Conenna suddenly jumped off the piece of equipment without engaging the parking brake.

According to the lawsuit, Chamseddine was walking on the ramp when the unmanned forklift came rolling down the ramp, crushing him between the lift and a concrete metal post.

As a result, the photographer suffered numerous, ongoing injuries — including a lacerated femoral artery, broken pelvis, broken femur, and broken lower back.

Chamseddine sued over the incident, with multiple defendants named in the litigation, including the Phillies, entertainment company Live Nation, Tri-State Stage Labor, and Tri-State’s employee Michael Conenna.

Chamseddine originally sought $20 million for the injury lawsuit. But the photographer reached an $18 million settlement before he was scheduled to testify in the trial. Live Nation and Tri-State will pay the majority of the settlement, while the remainder will be paid by the Phillies and others.

“I do credit Live Nation and Tri-State for doing the right thing and resolving the case before my client had to take the witness stand, which would have unnecessarily re-traumatized him,” the photographer’s attorney Kevin P. O’Brien says in a statement to Law.com.

“My client is happy to have this trial behind him and is thankful to his medical team for saving his life and his leg.

“He is hopeful that the lessons about forklift safety are learned from this incident and trial, so that something positive may come out of this tragedy.”

 
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.