Approximately a month and a half after the family of the 16-year-old employee who was killed at Mar-Jac Poultry in Hattiesburg filed suit against the plant for that incident, officials from that facility have denied all liability for the teenager’s death – even though federal safety workers had previously determined the plant was responsible.
In a legal response filed March 15 in Forrest County Circuit Court, Mar-Jac alleges that Duvan Perez’s death was caused by “persons or entities” other than Mar-Jac, and that his negligence was the sole contributing cause of such. Mar-Jac also claims that Perez’s family should be denied punitive damages, as their request does not alight with provisions of the Mississippi Worker’s Compensation Act.
“(Mar-Jac) denies that the (Perez family) is entitled to a judgment against them in any amount whatsoever,” the response states.
Perez was killed on July 14, 2023, while performing a deep clean of the deboning area of the plant on James Street. During that process, the teenager was sanitizing the machine – which was still energized – when he was caught in the rotating shafts and sprockets of the machine, which caused fatal injuries.
At the time of the incident, Perez was assigned by Onin Staffing to work with various companies and individuals, including Mar-Jac.
Approximately six months after Perez’s death, federal safety inspectors determined the plant was responsible for the incident and cited Mar-Jac with several health and safety violations, which come with a proposed total of $212,646 in fines.
According to a January 12 letter to Mar-Jac from OSHA and the United States Department of Labor, the plant was hit with 14 “serious” violations and three “other-than-serious” violations after a recent OSHA inspection of the facility. The letter, which is signed by Courtney Bohannon, who serves as area director at OSHA’s Jackson office, states that Mar-Jac officials must fix the violations and pay the proposed fines, unless within 15 working days of the citation, the plant schedules an informal conference with OSHA or mails a notice of contest to the U.S. Department of Labor.
"Mar-Jac Poultry is aware of how dangerous the machinery they use can be when safety standards are not in place to prevent serious injury and death,” said OSHA regional administrator Kurt Petermeyer in a statement. “The company's inaction has directly led to this terrible tragedy, which has left so many to mourn this child's preventable death.”
The violations cited by OSHA include, but are not limited to, occasions when:
- The employer allowed sanitation employees to use the top run and cap of a portable fiberglass stepladder, exposing the employees to fall hazards of up to approximately nine feet to the concrete below (serious violation, $15,625 fine);
- The employer did not ensure that a front half incline conveyor was turned off before a sanitation employee performed hand-scrubbing sanitation work, exposing the employee to a caught-in hazard (serious violation, $15,625 fine);
- The employer did not ensure sanitation employees affixed a locking device to the electrical disconnect switch for a front half dumper when performing sanitation work and standing on and under the equipment, exposing employees to caught-in and struck-by hazards (serious violation, $15,625 fine); and
- The area around a front half dumper was not guarded to prevent employees from entering the danger zone while the dumper was in motion, exposing employees to struck-by hazards (serious violation, $15,625 fine).
According to a new release issued after the incident by James Dickinson Jr., who serves as human resources supervisor at the plant, the plant immediately reported Perez’s death. Dickinson said the plant readily made records available for inspection, and plant workers have been open for interviews with OSHA and the department of labor.
“Both agencies have spent multiple days in the plant,” the release stated. “Moreover, we have always maintained an ‘open door’ policy and encouraged all of our employees to bring any matter of concern to the company’s attention, without fear of retaliation.
“Finally, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Labor, we have taken concrete steps in the form of new protocols and conditions for the staffing companies who assist us in meeting our labor requirements.”
On September 11, 2023, officials from the department of labor announced that investigators were seeking to interview MAR-JAC employees as the investigation of Perez’s death continued. Immediately preceding that announcement, OSHA obtained a warrant from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi to secure access to the Mar-Jac facility and investigate safety hazards related to the incident.
That warrant allowed federal officials to question any employer, operator, agent or employee privately and to review records related to the operation and maintenance of the equipment involved in the incident.
Given Mar-Jac’s large number of Hispanic employees, OSHA officials said they also worked with local community groups to establish trust with workers and their families. In addition, the agency collaborated with advocacy groups such as the Immigrant Alliance for Justice & Equity of Mississippi to contact immigrant workers who may be fearful of retaliation by their employer if they cooperated with investigators.
On July 19, 2023, Mar-Jac officials issued a release stating that Perez “should not have been hired” because of his status as a minor, and that the employee’s age and identity were misrepresented on his hiring paperwork.
According to the release, plant officials immediately reported the teenager’s death to OSHA, which commenced an investigation into the incident. At that time, Mar-Jac leadership discovered Perez was a minor, which goes against a law that disallows individuals under the age of 18 to perform certain dangerous tasks.
“Due to an unprecedentedly tight labor market, Mar-Jac MS relies on staffing companies to fill positions at its facility,” the statement read. “These companies’ contracts with Mar-Jac MS require them to verify that every applicant is legally qualified to work before they start any job.
“This includes verifying their identity (including age) and immigration status using the I-9 form prescribed by the Department of Homeland Security and through the government’s E-Verify system. Mar-Jac MS relies on these companies to complete these checks and it is a condition of their contracts with Mar-Jac MS that they do so for every job application, without exception.
"Mar-Jac MS would never knowingly put any employee, and certainly not a minor, in harm’s way but it appears, at this point in the investigation, that this individual’s age and identity were misrepresented on the paperwork.”
On February 1, Edilma Perez Ramirez, the mother of Duvan Perez, filed suit in Forrest County Circuit Court against the plant, Onin Staffing and employees of the plant for the death of the teenager. Ramirez is seeking any compensatory damages available, including but not limited to funeral and burial expenses; value of the future earnings Perez would have earned; damages for conscious pain and suffering, emotional distress, mental anguish and loss of enjoyment of life; loss of relationship, consortium, love and affection incurred by the wrongful death; attorney fees; and punitive damages.
The suit specifically names Letissha Hill, who serves as the human resources and staffing director at Mar-Jac, and Josh Daniels, who serves as a safety supervisor there. According to the suit, lack of safety actions taken by Hill and Daniels – along with several unnamed employees – directly led to Perez’s death, along with other fatal accidents that have occurred at the plant in the past.
“Mar-Jac and its employees, including defendants Hill and Daniels, had a duty to act reasonably and exercise ordinary care under the circumstances and failed to do so,” the suit states. “These defendants were actively and grossly negligent, and breached their obligation by … failing to ensure procedures were used to prevent the unexpected start-up of machines while Perez performed sanitation; failing to ensure workers used lockout-tagout devices on machinery when performing cleaning; negligently starting and/or operating the machinery; (and) failing to comply with industry safety standards.
“Mar-Jac, as the owner of the premises in question and the entity in control of the premises, had a duty to Perez to provide a reasonable safe place to work and/or alternatively warn of dangerous conditions in the work area. Mar-Jac by its actions and inactions as set forth herein breached this duty proximately causing injury and death to Perez.”
