A Clark Law Firm client was working as a mason on the construction of a Hampton Inn and Suites Hotel at 1277 Route 22 West, Bridgewater, New Jersey. As he was working about six feet up, the scaffolding became unstable and the worker had to jump off.

He landed on a pile of excavation material and suffered a fractured calcaneus. He needed surgery to fix it including a plate with screws to hold the bone back together. There was a wage loss claim of $48,000.

The worker had built the scaffolding he fell from. It was alleged the ground he landed on was not safe because it had a lot of excavation material like dirt, clay, and rocks that had not been graded out. This caused him to land in an awkward way injuring his foot.

It was alleged that several safety standards required the work area to be smoothed out so this kind of thing did not happen.

This is the construction job site where the mason injured himself.

Claims were brought against the project owner, the general contractor, and the excavation subcontractor. The owner of the project was FSG Bridgewater Hotels, LLC, XXS LLC, and Hilton Franchise Holdings LLC (hereinafter referred to as Defendant ‘FSG’). Defendant FSG hired Defendant Pro Con, Incorporated, and Pro Con, Incorporated of NH (“Pro Con”) as the general contractor/construction manager. Pro Con, in turn, hired Defendant Con Serv Construction, Inc. (“Conserv”) as a Sub-Contractor to perform the excavation and concrete work. The injured worker was a mason for P&L Maintenance and Restoration which did brickwork on the project.

The case was filed in Essex County Superior Court in Newark, New Jersey entitled Alfredo Sousa v. Hampton Inn & Suites, et al., Docket No.: ESX-L-5526-18. It was litigated for four years by attorneys Gerald Clark and Lazaro Berenguer of the Clark Law Firm. It was settled in April 2023 at a conference before the Honorable Jeffrey Beachum, J.S.C. Selective Insurance for the general contractor paid $200,000 and Travelers Insurance paid $200,000 for the Conserv defendants toward the settlement. The plaintiff had to pay $59,000 back to the workers’ compensation insurance company from the settlement.

Gerald H. Clark, the principal of the Clark Law Firm P.C. commented, “This was a hard-fought case that was dragged out by the insurance companies for too long. We are however pleased that in the end, we were able to achieve some measure of justice for our deserving client and hopefully deter the same thing from happening to others in the future.”

If you have questions regarding this case or need legal assistance, contact Clark Law Firm, P.C. today at 1-877-841-8855.