On April 9, 2013, John recovered $2,750,000 for a 62 year old sprinkler fitter who was injured at a construction project in Chester (Orange County), New York.

The plaintiff, a Saugerties native, sustained a traumatic brain injury when he fell 12 feet while installing sprinkler pipe on an elevated rack platform (the kind you see at Lowe’s). The case presented an interesting “recalcitrant worker” defense. The plaintiff was provided with a full-body safety harness and lanyard and was instructed by the foreman to tie-off the lanyard when working six feet above floor level. The plaintiff had no memory of the accident and the nearest co-worker did not witness the fall and thus, it was difficult to prove why the plaintiff did not tie-off his lanyard to the nearest part of the rack platform.

I hired Bill Westwood of Westwood Communications in Albany to reconstruct the rack platform from which the plaintiff fell. Bill created a replica of the rack platform and we used the replica to show that it would have been difficult for the plaintiff to reach a tie-off point in the area where the plaintiff was working.

Just BTW: Bill Westwood does tremendous work on visual courtroom exhibits ranging from timelines, replicas of construction accidents and medical illustrations. Bill was a guest on a recent podcast interview for the Ultimate Practice Builder for New York Injury Lawyers; if you’d like to find out how Bill can help with your cases, listen to Bill’s interview on iTunes or just give him a call.

$2,750,000 recovered for 62 year old injured at construction project in Chester, New York