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Report: Baggage handler suing Maple Leafs over 'permanent and disabling' injuries

Roberto Machado Noa / LightRocket / Getty

An American baggage handler is reportedly suing the Toronto Maple Leafs after suffering multiple shoulder injuries while helping the team rush to board its charter flight after a game.

Kenneth Osborne filed a suit this month alleging he sustained "severe permanent and disabling injuries" that will cause "great physical pain and suffering," Sean Fitz-Gerald of the Toronto Star reports.

Osborne was a St. Clair County, Illinois-based airport employee who worked in nearby St. Louis, where the Leafs lost to the Blues on Jan. 17, 2015. Toronto's next game was on Jan. 19.

Osborne and his co-workers were allegedly using a conveyor belt to load the aircraft when a Leafs equipment worker repeatedly tried to speed up the loading operation despite being warned not to intervene, according to the complaint against Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment.

From Fitz-Gerald's report:

With Osborne inside the aircraft, discussing how best to continue loading the team’s gear, the Leafs employee allegedly 'operated the belt loader without permission,' and ... he, without warning, 'turned the belt loader lever to full speed, causing equipment crates to enter the aircraft at a high rate of speed'.

Osborne - who was inside the plane receiving the gear - claims his right shoulder was injured when he was struck by one of the crates.

A spokesman for MLSE declined comment when prompted by The Star on Monday. The allegations have not been proven in court and damages have reportedly not been specified.

Osborne's lawyer, Matthew R. Chapman, told the publication his client needed "a substantial rotator cuff repair" and "substantial post-surgery physical therapy," requiring around $100,000 in medical costs.

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