Verdicts & Settlements - Ladder Accident

Carpentry Laborer Who Broke His Arm When He Fell from a Ladder on a Construction Site Receives $150,000 Settlement

Plaintiff was working for a subcontractor hired to do framing work on a new residential development in Toms River, New Jersey. At the time of the accident, the framers had just completed installing the plywood on the second floor of the house they were working on. As had been the practice at this jobsite, the framers were accessing the second floor by way of an A-frame ladder . As plaintiff stepped from the second floor to the first step of the ladder, the ladder tipped over and he fell hard to the concrete floor below and suffered a broken arm injury. Plaintiff's attorney was able to show that falls in the residential construction industry are the "granddaddy" of all hazards. The attorneys proved that both the general contractor and the subcontractor failed to guard the stairway opening with a standard guardrail. These defendants breached their non-delegable duty to manage safety on the work site by having subcontractors access second floors via a-frame ladders instead of straight ladders, and failing to have ladder way openings on the second floors of the framed houses. These contractors were negligent in failing to have a construction site safety program and policy that required monitoring to insure safe means of access in this regard. The defendant contractors violated the OSHA safety regulations and showed a "callous disregard" for the safety of people on this job site by not taking fundamental steps to understand how safety laws and regulations apply to the business activity in which they are engaged.

In addition, plaintiff's attorneys showed that despite the fact that defendants made millions of dollars on this residential development, they made a conscious economic decision not to properly manage safety. That is, defendants were more interested in maximizing profits than they were about the safety and health of workers such as plaintiff who sustained severe and multiple fractures to his left wrist as a result of the accident.

For more information or to speak with an experienced New Jersey ladder accident injury lawyer, contact Keefe Bartels & Clark LLC.

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