50-Year-Old Construction Worker Injured When a Piece of a 10-Foot Wall Collapsed on Him
PAULA M. GRECO obtained an $800,000 recovery at a mediation for a 50-year-old man who was injured while he was working at a construction site. Our client sustained multiple fractures to his skull, temporal, frontal, zygomatic and orbital bones along with herniated discs at L4-L5 and L5-S1. He also sustained an injury to his left knee and left shoulder. Additionally, our client had surgery to repair a possible nasal fracture. Fortunately, our client did not sustain any cognitive injury as a result of this incident and his fractures healed.
Plaintiff was injured as he was building a foundation in a seven-foot trench, when portions of an improperly braced building wall collapsed on him. Paula argued at the mediation that the building owner left this wall remaining at the site so the project could be called a renovation instead of new construction, thereby reducing the owner's cost and building department safety oversight of the project. The defendant received several OSHA violations and was subsequently fined.
Our client had initially retained another attorney to handle this matter, but he failed to timely file and serve a Summons and Complaint within the three year statute of limitations; accordingly, the client could not sue anyone for these serious injuries. We started a legal malpractice case against the attorney for not filing the case on time, which resulted in this recovery.