Construction Accident - On the Job Injury
WRSMH attorney Kenneth Halperin obtained a settlement in the amount of $1.150 Million for a 43-year-old Local 1 Bricklayer who was injured in an accident on a construction site.
The accident in question occurred at a commercial building site in Manhattan that was under construction at the time. Plaintiff was in the process of laying brick on an elevated scaffold when he was suddenly struck in the hand by a falling object that he later learned was a brick. The defendants argued that plaintiff could not conclusively say that he was struck by a brick since he never saw the object that hit him before or after the accident, which was true. We were able to counter that by establishing that there were workers on a scaffold above him using bricks. In addition, we conducted a deposition of the site safety officer, who testified that there should have been overhead protection in place to protect our client.
As a result of the accident plaintiff sustained an injury to his thumb and wrist requiring two surgeries. He returned to work immediately after the accident. He missed work while recuperating from both surgeries, but also sustained a back injury in an unrelated incident after he returned, which also contributed to him missing time from work. Defendants’ doctors argued that plaintiff’s wrist and thumb injuries were not due to the accident, but rather degenerative conditions that came from his ten plus year career as a bricklayer. We countered that argument by establishing that the plaintiff had no prior injuries or treatment for his thumb or hand.