Attorney Carmine Goncalves of Wingate, Russotti, Shapiro, Moses & Halperin LLP obtained a $2,000,000 settlement for a 40-year-old construction worker from Brazil who fell from a temporary makeshift ladder while bringing down a sheet of plywood at a construction site. As a consequence of the accident, the plaintiff sustained injuries to his right ankle and back and required both ankle and back surgery.
Defense counsel argued that the Labor Law was not violated because workers were provided with a towline and instructed not to transport materials by ladder. The Court initially agreed with the defendants and denied our motion for summary judgment.
Carmine was able to convince the Court, upon reargument, that the plaintiff’s work on the ladder was a covered activity and that the rules regulating the construction and placement of temporary ladders on the job applied. He also successfully argued that the recalcitrant worker defense was inapplicable here.
Based upon the Court’s findings that the stringent laws protecting construction workers applied in this matter, Carmine was able to obtain an accelerated settlement prior to the trial at a private mediation.