$6,600,000 Construction Accident

$6,600,000

Construction Accident

Our client, 47, was a laborer for a steel erector and was working on the demolition of a barn at the Bergen County Equestrian Center in Leonia. He was directed by a foreman to climb an extension ladder and use a sledgehammer to pound a steel beam. The beam moved, causing our client to fall from the ladder eight feet to the ground. He sustained multiple injuries and fractures to both legs, including compartment syndrome in his right leg that ultimately resulted in an elective above-the-knee amputation.

Initially the General Contractor and other contractors with responsibility for the demolition work at the premises denied fault. They argued that the accident was our client’s fault for swinging a sledge hammer from a ladder. They argued that our client should have tied off the ladder, footed the ladder or otherwise been more careful.

After filing the case, James Lynch and Arthur Lynch were able to establish through review of thousands of pages of documents along with taking the depositions of engineers, superintendents, foremen, workers, architects and others at the site that both the general contractor and its sub-contractor had an obligation to plan for safety of this aspect of the job, which they failed to do. The Lynches were able to establish that because of this lack of safety planning, work was being performed in a dangerous manner, and someone was likely to be seriously injured. No ladders should have been used during demolition as work platforms. Because beams move, ladders then move and people get hurt. With proper planning, ladders would have been excluded from this portion of the job and no one, including our client would have been injured.

In order to prove these issues at trial and to prove our client’s extensive damages, the Lynches hired some of the most well-respected experts in the nation. The Lynch Law Firm, PC prepared and lined up 17 expert witnesses for trial, including experts in the fields of orthopedics, general surgery, vascular surgery, pain management, psychiatry, rehabilitation, prosthetics, life care planning, vocational planning, economics and construction safety. In addition, more than 400 exhibits were prepared for trial, including 3D volumizations from CT Scan and animations to the experts in demonstrating the injuries.

Finally, during jury selection the matter was settled for $6,600,000, with $3,400,000 coming from the general contractor’s insurance company and $3,200,000 from the sub-contractor’s insurance company.

During jury selection, the parties settled the case for $6.6 million. Of the total settlement, JG Drywall paid $3.4 million and Triple B paid $3.2 million.