05/24/2022
This week Morgan Levine Dolan partner Glenn Dolan completed a unified jury trial in the Bronx County Supreme Court, securing a $4,741,015 verdict against a single-family homeowner, a general contractor and an excavation company, on behalf of a 50-year-old construction worker who fell 11 feet into a pool excavation in the basement of a Manhattan brownstone. The evidence demonstrated the excavation partially collapsed, causing a plank that had been placed over a corner of the hole, and the worker who was standing on the plank, to fall. At the conclusion of the four-week trial, the jury determined the homeowner (who denied being present) directed and controlled the work, and the construction manager (who claimed to have quit the job two weeks before) was a “general contractor” on the date of this incident. The jury also determined the homeowner, general contractor and employer violated Sections 240, 241(6) and 200 of the New York State Labor Law, in instructing the worker to stand on the plank, and in failing to provide the requisite sheeting, shoring, bracing, safety lines and safety nets at the job site. The jury found the homeowner 10% at fault; the general contractor 50% at fault; the employer 40% at fault, and attributed no fault against the worker. Amongst other claims, defendants argued the worker delayed reporting his injuries; the CT scans, MRIs and other diagnostic studies showed negative findings; the worker’s neck, back and shoulder injuries were degenerative, and the worker exaggerated his symptoms and made a full recovery. The jury did not find defendants’ claims to be credible. Instead, the jury awarded the now permanently disabled, non-union worker a total of $4,741,015 in damages, finding he sustained numerous causally-related injuries, including a traumatic brain injury, a herniated cervical disc that necessitated fusion surgery, a herniated lumbar disc that was treated with epidural steroid injections, and a torn labrum of the right shoulder that necessitated arthroscopic surgery. While the compensation designated by the jury will not eliminate the worker’s pain and suffering, it will allow the worker the financial security necessary to continue to provide for his three children and to get the medical attention he needs. The firm of Morgan Levine Dolan is proud to have played a role in helping to make this happen.
