Verdicts & Settlements - Construction Accident Lawsuit

$500,000 Settlement for Carpentry Laborer Who Suffered Severe Finger Lacerations While Using Unsafe Saw on Construction Site

Plaintiff was working as a carpentry laborer on a $2 million dollar conversation of an old Long Beach Island motel into luxury condominiums. The owner of the construction project was Ship Bottom Development Corporation, LLC. The general contractor on the job was Makeo Construction. The interim sub-contractor that hired plaintiff's employer was Island Earth Construction.

The case settled recently during a day long settlement conference before an Ocean County Superior Court Judge. Plaintiff was represented by John E, Keefe, Jr., Esq. and Gerald H. Clark, Esq. of the Keefe Bartels & Clark law firm in Monmouth County, New Jersey.

At the time of the accident plaintiff was working for a carpentry subcontractor on the construction job. Proper installation of the door jams required that pieces of cedar shake be hammered into the door frames at various points to create a tight fit of the door jam into the frames. At the time of the accident plaintiff was using an unguarded table saw to cut about three pieces of cedar shake at a time into the sizes needed for the door jams. Plaintiff had been directed to use this unguarded saw for some two to three weeks before the accident.

While performing his assigned tasks on this unguarded table saw, the wood got stuck, his hand came in contact with the blade and he suffered multiple severe finger amputation degloving type injuries requiring extensive surgery including hardware fixation. He has lost significant use of the hand.

Clark argued in the injury litigation that all three sets of defendants had liability as follows:

Ship Bottom Development Corporation, LLC- project owner- The general contractor, also happened to be a 35% owner of the Ship Bottom Development Corp., LLC. Contrary to their legal duty, the principal of the general contractor, Makeo Construction, admitted he was completely ignorant of OSHA and he and his company did absolutely nothing to enforce its provisions or maintain a safe worksite. The general contractor was- by their own admission- entirely incompetent as it pertains to construction site safety and OSHA. Given he was the majority owner of the Ship Bottom LLC who essentially hired himself as the general contractor, the Ship Bottom LLC has liability for hiring an incompetent contractor. See, e.g. Majestic Realty Associates v. Toti Contracting Co., 30 N.J. 425 (1959); Dawson v. Bunker Hill Plaza Assocs., 289 N.J. Super. 309, 318 (App.Div. 1996).

Makeo Construction- general contractor- Under the law, the general contractor had a non-delegable duty to maintain a safe workplace that includes "ensur[ing] 'prospective and continuing compliance' with the legislatively imposed non-delegable obligation to all employees on the job site, without regard to contractual or employer obligations." Alloway v. Bradlees Inc., 157 N.J. 221, 237-38 (1999), citing, Kane v. Hartz Mountain, 278 N.J.Super. 129, 142-43 (App. Div. 1994). As such the general contractor bears responsibility for all OSHA violations on the jobsite. Meder v. Resorts International, 240 N.J.Super. 470, 473-77 (App. Div. 1989), cert. den. 121 N.J. 608; Kane, 278 N.J.Super. at 142-43; Dawson v. Bunker Hill Plaza Assocs., 289 N.J.Super. 309, 320-21 (App.Div.1996). As indicated above however, the general contractor- by his own admission- had zero knowledge of OSHA and did nothing to satisfy his legal obligations thereunder.

Island Earth Construction- interim sub contractor- OSHA is supposed to be enforced from the top down. The interim sub-contractor who hired plaintiff's employer also bears responsibility for failing to see to it that OSHA was enforced with respect to its sub-contractors on the site. See, e.g., Carvalho v. Toll Bros., 143 N.J. 565 (1996) (contractor with control over sub-contractor responsible for job site OSHA violations). Like the primary general contractor, the principal of Island Earth too readily admitted he was entirely ignorant of construction site safety and did absolutely nothing to enforce OSHA safety requirements of its sub-contractors.

Clark argued in the litigation that all defendants were negligent in failing to enforce OSHA and other construction site safety responsibilities to maintain a safe workplace and ensure OSHA compliance on the job site. Specifically, defendants should not have allowed the saw in question to be used without the required safety features. Plaintiff was presented with a hazardous and dangerous condition on the work site on the date of the accident by being required to use a table saw without a guard, fence or push block. OSHA has mandated specific safety requirements with respect to the use of table saws. Table saws are required to have a guard on the blade, a fence to secure the wood to be cut and a push stick to push the wood to the blade instead of the worker using his fingers.

As discussed in the report of plaintiff's liability expert, OSHA compliance on this construction project was virtually non-existent. All major project players readily admitted they knew nothing, or next to nothing, about OSHA and construction site safety. They also readily admitted they did absolutely nothing to prevent accidents and injuries on the job and had absolutely no safety management plan whatsoever. Safety training of workers such as plaintiff was non-existent. When asked about whether defendants did any kind of job monitoring to foresee and prevent accidents all witnesses were completely dumbfounded, such concepts being entirely foreign to them.

As such, plaintiff, a young man in his early 20s, was routinely exposed to an extremely hazardous unguarded table saw. He was given absolutely no training (contrary to OSHA) to even recognize these hazards, much less to know how to properly use this saw. As such, the serious injuries he sustained were inevitable, yet entirely preventable, and all defendants share liability.

For more information or to speak with an experienced New Jersey unsafe construction site safety violation lawyer, contact Keefe Bartels & Clark LLC.

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