Clark Law Firm Attains $750,000 Settlement for Worker Who Fell from Ladder
Mark W. Morris of the Clark Law Firm attained a $750,000 Settlement for a construction worker who fell from a ladder.
A Clark Law Firm, P.C. client was injured on April 3, 2019 when he fell from an A-Frame ladder. The client, Judson Ferreira, was injured while working as a laborer on a construction project in Kearny, New Jersey. Mr. Ferreira was attempting to guide a steel beam in to place as a co-worker hoisted the beam on a lift. Mr. Ferreira, who had no fall protection, no OSHA safety training and had never worked with steel before, was standing on a collapsed A-Frame ladder leaning up against a wall, attempting to guide the beam in to place with a rope.
Due to the weight of the beam and the high winds that day, Mr. Ferreira’s co-worker began to lower the beam when it fell from the lift, causing Judson, who was holding the rope attached to one end of the beam, to fall to the ground as well. While all of this was going on, Plaintiff alleged, the job site supervisor for the general contractor was standing 20 feet away, watching the work.
Judson fell to the ground and broke bones in his foot and ankle. He underwent surgery with the insertion of a plate and screws. The hardware was later removed.
The Defendant General Contractor, Dover Construction Company denied liability for the incident. They argued they were not responsible for job site safety and that the fault for the incident fell exclusively on the injured worker. Dover argued their job site supervisor was not on site at the time of the incident, they had no notice unsafe work was taking place and even if they did, Dover was not responsible for a lower tier contractor’s employees’ safety.
On this and other grounds, Defendant Dover moved to have the case thrown out of Court. Plaintiff vigorously opposed Defendants application, citing bedrock New Jersey Supreme Court case law and OSHA standards which stand for the proposition that the general contractor has a top down, non–delegable duty for job site safety to prevent incidents just like this one. Too often, Plaintiff’s counsel argued, the corporation at the top of a project thinks they can cut corners and hire cheap, untrained laborers, fail to screen if those workers are properly trained or provide training and then seek to dodge fault when a worker is inevitably injured while performing a task. OSHA and the case law in New Jersey stand to dissuade this type of behavior, not encourage it.
On January 31, 2025, Defendants’ application was denied. The case proceeded to mediation with the Honorable Jamie D. Happas, P.J.Civ. (Ret.) on February 17, 2025. At the mediation the matter ultimately resolved for a gross amount of $750,000.
“While we are pleased with this settlement, we wish job site safety rules had been implemented and followed and that this incident never happened,” said Mr. Ferreira’s attorney, Mark W. Morris, with the Clark Law Firm in Belmar, NJ. “Worker safety rules exist so that each day when people leave their families to go to the office, or to a job site, when they leave at the end of the day, they’re in the same condition, free from needless injury or harm.”
Please contact us today with any questions or if you have been injured in an accident.
