Union Tile Setter Awarded $1.6 Million
October 23, 2003
A union tile setter has been awarded $1.6 million in a settlement with UBM Construction. The tile setter, "Jack," was injured in 1998 when he tripped over a ladder and fell down a flight of stairs while working at the Hillard School.
Jack went to the school on Sept. 25, 1998, after school hours to lay some tile in the furnace room. As he opened the furnace room door, he tripped over a ladder that had been left there and fell.
Jack, who works out of Local 1185 of the Carpenters Union, did not immediately report the injury because there was no one else at the school at the time. But five days later, as the pain worsened he went to a physician.
The pain grew worse over time and doctors eventually determined that Jack had a congenital defect in his back -- spondylolisthesis and spondylolysis -- that was never painful until this accident although it made Jack more susceptible to injury. As a result of the fall, Jack's back condition became debilitating. He lost his construction career and had to undergo a back fusion operation.
"This was a tough four-year battle," Horwitz said.
UBM Construction, the general contractor at the school, denied the claim, arguing that there were no witnesses to the accident and no one else had seen the ladder Jack tripped on. The company also noted that Jack had not reported the accident until five days later.
UBM hired a medical expert who claimed that the accident did not lead to the fusion and testified that Jack was exaggerating his injuries.
Jack's attorney, Clifford Horwitz, argued that the physicians who treated Jack were more credible than the company's highly-paid "hired gun". Further, Horwitz noted that by law the general contractor is required to maintain all entranceways to job sites.
UBM called three employees to testify that the accident couldn't have happened because the door Jack used had been permanently bolted shut and that no one could have walked through it. However, Horwitz found former employees of UBM and other contractors on the site as well as former Hilliard School employees who testified that indeed the door was not bolted shut.
Rather, they said, the door was an old rundown wooden door with a broken lock that was held closed by a ladder. Horwitz also found former UBM employees who testified that they brought materials in after the accident to bolt the door because of the accident.
UBM then blamed Jack for tripping on a ladder that he supposedly should have seen. Further, UBM's liability expert said that the accident couldn't happen the way the Jack testified because the physical dimensions of the ladder and the doorway made the accident impossible.
Horwitz stated that he had just faced this same witness, Eugene Holland in another case and the jury in that case had not believed Holland because everything he said was slanted toward the contractor.
"This was a tough four-year battle," Horwitz said. "We were very concerned when Defendant brought in those three UBM employees to testify that the door had been permanently bolted closed. Thankfully, we were able to find other persons to contradict those deceitful statements."