New York Construction Accident - Demolition Work Injury
Wingate, Russotti, Shapiro, Moses & Halperin, LLP attorney, Frank J. Lombardo settled this matter in the amount of $1,680,000.00 subsequent to the denial of summary judgment motions on the issues of Labor Law §240(1). Plaintiff, a 53-year-old non-union laborer was caused to slip and fall from a ladder leaning against the rear of a flatbed truck while discarding demolition debris when the ladder tied off at the bottom caused it to twist in a counter-clockwise rotation.
The plaintiff sustained lumbar and cervical disk herniations and underwent a two-level cervical fusion at the C5,6 and 7 levels.
Defense counsel contended that the plaintiff’s accident did not occur as he alleged, in that his employer testified that he witnessed the accident while standing less than 10 feet away and the ladder did not move and the plaintiff simply slipped off the ladder for no reason. The defendants also subpoenaed two EMS attendants that would testify as to the entry in their report regarding the plaintiff’s inconsistent statement that he “slipped off the ladder.” In opposition to these arguments, we contended that the statements provided to the EMS attendants where hearsay and inadmissible in that they were not germane to treatment and that the statements made to the EMS personnel were not inconsistent with the plaintiff’s account of how he fell from the ladder.