Roy Eagles selling building to pay for severe workplace injury lawsuit

THURSDAY , SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 - 5:15 AM

MARK SHENEFELT, Standard-Examiner Staff

ROY — The Roy Eagles are in danger of losing their roost after an employee’s catastrophic kitchen burns resulted in a $642,000 court judgment against the nonprofit charitable group.

Valline Poulson was being trained in the group’s private club and bar on Oct. 24, 2014, when a manager released 450-degree cooking oil into a plastic bucket on the floor next to Poulson. ... The bucket melted, spilling oil on Poulson’s feet and across the floor, her attorney, Ron Nichols, said Wednesday. She fell to the floor, suffering more third-degree burns. ... “All of her back, from the tailbone to the neck and shoulders, and her feet,” Nichols said.

Poulson’s injury propelled her into a lifetime of pain and disfigurement, Nichols said. Meantime, the Eagles president said the calamity has put the 300-member group on the brink of losing its modest but venerable club building, 5130 S. 1700 West. ... The tragedy also illustrates the perils of running a small nonprofit with limited resources and an apparent lack of attention to some basic business details.

Poulson recovered enough health to eventually return to work at the bar. ... “I was told when I got out of the hospital that there was no workers’ comp,” Poulson said in an interview Wednesday. She said she was under the assumption that the Eagles would still step in to cover her medical expenses. ... Medical bill collectors, though, put a lien on her mobile home, garnished her wages and tapped her tax refunds. ... “I’m not even blaming them, but they were in the wrong when they could have resolved it,” she said of the Eagles. “I knew they were scared. But had they had workers’ comp, none of this would have happened.”
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You can reach reporter Mark Shenefelt at mshenefelt@standard.net or 801 625-4224. Follow him on Twitter at @mshenefelt and like him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SEmarkshenefelt.