Jury Awards Electrician Helper $5,000,000 for Injuries Sustained After Work-Related Fall

CASE SUMMARY

The accident occurred during the renovation of a warehouse when our client, an electrician’s helper who was installing electrical conduit, fell twelve feet to the ground when the ladder he was working on slipped out from underneath him.

COURT AND COUNTY
Supreme Court, Kings County

AGE AND OCCUPATION OF CLIENT
Client was a 45 year old electrician helper at the time of the accident

INJURIES AND DAMAGES
As a result of the accident, the client ruptured his Achilles tendon. He was placed in a cast and subsequently underwent surgical repair of the damage. Several weeks after the accident he also developed low back pain.

He underwent conservative treatment to his lower back and right foot and ankle, however his pain continued. Ultimately he underwent a scar revision surgery to his right ankle and a Right Ankle Arthroscopy. He also underwent a lumbar fusion at L4-S1 due to lumbar disc herniations.

As a result of an antalgic gait and the need to use of a cane that resulted from his right ankle and low back injuries, our client developed a right ulnar neuropathy and a left knee internal derangement, resulting in a surgery to his right elbow and left knee arthroscopy.

Defendants alleged that our client’s back condition was pre-existing and unrelated to the accident because he had complained of low back pain in the 10 years preceding the accident and underwent nearly four years of chiropractic treatment to his lower back prior to the accident. Defendants further argued that our client’s ongoing foot and ankle pain was related to an injury to the foot that he suffered as a child that resulted in traumatic flat foot. Defendants further argued that man’s elbow and knee pain, which did not exist until nearly three years after the accident, were unrelated to the accident.

JURY VERDICT
$5,000,000

The case was handled by Block O’Toole & Murphy attorneys S. Joseph Donahue and Sean Constable. .