Wingate, Russotti, Shapiro, Moses & Halperin, LLP attorneys Cliff Shapiro and Noah Katz represented a demolition worker who was struck by an air conditioning unit that was being demolished in the moments before his accident. It was the defendants’ position that the unit was to fall directly to the floor as part of the demolition and that the plaintiff knew this and should have avoided being in the “zone of danger”. In the course of discovery, however, we showed through the testimony of the general contractor that the unit should have been mechanically lowered, which would have prevented this accident from occurring, instead of simply being dropped. Given this testimony, we moved for summary judgment based upon defendants’ violations of the New York State Labor Law and the Court granted the motion prior to trial. Our client, in his 20s, sustained bilateral tibia fractures requiring surgery and had not yet returned to work. The case settled for $3,8500,00 before having reached trial.
