Gloucester Daily Times
Monday, January 28, 1985

By Kevin Sulivan

A local fisherman has been awarded $384,000 for injuries suffered in a 1982 accident aboard the fishing boat Andromeda.

Glacomo Purpura, 58, of 10 prospect Square, won that award Friday after a four-day jury trial in U.S. District Court in Boston, according to his attorney, Joseph M. Orlando of Orlandon & White.

Orlando said the jury deliberated for four hours Friday afternoon before ruling that Insurance Company of North America/Aetna (INA) of Boston, which insured the Andromeda, must pay Purpura $384,000. Orlando said he would receive one-third of that settlement-about $128,000-for his services.

Purpura was a deckhand aboard Andromeda on July 28, 1982. Purpura damaged nerves just below his ribs when he tripped and landed on a “checkerboard”-an arrangement of wooden fish pens on the deck, used for sorting, Orlando said.

Although no bones were broken, the nerve damage was permanent, Orlando said. He said Purpura has tried to work as a fisherman three times since the injury, but “found it impossible to work with the pain.”

Orlando said he tried to settle the case without a trial.

Judge David Mazzone had asked both sides to try to negotiate a settlement without going to trial, Orlando said. He said asked for a $150,000 settlement to let the insurance company out of the case “relatively cheaply,” he said.

When the insurance Company offered only $35,000, Orlando said he refuse and the matter went to trial. Orlando said the Insurance company cost itself $234,000 by
refusing to settle the case for the request of $150,000.

“They just keep ondoing it,” Orlando said, “They just won’t listen to reason.”

INA attorney Steven Moore of Boston was unavailable for comment this morning.

Frank Schroeder, a supervisor in Ina’s marine insurance division about the case by saying “Calling from a newspaper, I don’t think there’s anyone here who would talk to you.”

The 97-foot Andromeda is a four-year-old steel dragger owned by Sebastian “Busty” Moceri of 45 Farrington Ave. Moceri could not be reached for comment this morning.

Orlando said Moceri, his son, Nicholas, and his brother, Peter, testified against Purpura. Orlando said he called Andromeda crewmen Frank Catania and Carlo Lena to testify.

Purpura had been a crewman aboard Andromeda since it arrived in port in 1980. Before that, he had worked aboard the Mother and Grace, which was also owned by Moceri Family Inc.

Purpura was aboard Mother and Grace when it sank on April 20, 1980. Orlando said Purpura’s tax returns showed he earned an average of $36,000 a year in the two years before the accident.