$835,000 Fall From Fork-Lift
The plaintiff was a 50 year-old electrician who fell from a height of about 20 feet while working from inside a steel “cage” that was atop a fork-lift operated by his co-worker that had lifted him to the roof of a building. The general contractor’s foreman testified at a deposition that the electricians had been told not to use the fork-lift and that it should be operated only by the general contractor’s employees. We argued that by failing to properly secure the cage to the fork-lift or to furnish our client with safety equipment, the owner and general contractor had violated the NYSLabor Law. Our client, who had been earning $25,000 per annum, sustained fractures to his vertebrae, ribs and sternum and required open surgery to his back. The case settled before trial for $835,000.