Case Histories

CONSTRUCTION WORKER ACCEPTS $4.3 MILLION SETTLEMENT

An Allegany County construction worker left permanently disabled with a severe head injury when an overly fatigued truck driver rear-ended his vehicle at a Southern Tier Expressway bridge resurfacing site has accepted a $4.3 million insurance settlement during trial.

The trucker, who had illegally been at the wheel of his westbound tractor-trailer for 21 hours, rear-ended the construction worker's pickup truck, ejecting the victim from his vehicle and causing him to be thrown 140 feet down an embankment and knocked unconscious. The victim remained in a coma for 3.5 weeks.

Letro said doctors have told the victim that he can nevere hold another job because of balance problems stemming from the head injury.

Letro forced the settlement of the negligence case by obtaining the trucker's toll and fuel receipts and bills of lading, which proved he had been on the road for 21 hours and was "acutely and cumulatively fatigued" court officials said.

CARPENTER HURT IN FALL TO GET $1.6 MILLION

A Hinsdale carpenter accepted a $1.6 million cash settlement from insurance carriers for a construction company and a bankrupt Buffalo masonry firm for the severe head injury he suffered at a St. Bonaventure University construction site in Olean.

The settlement from the masonry and construction firm's carriers followed four days of testimony before a jury. Francis M. Letro, the carpenter's attorney, said his client, who will never be able to work again and will likely have to take anti-seizure medication for the rest of his life, will get a full cash settlement. Letro said his client was with a crew installing the brick exterior of the Regina A. Quick Fine Arts Center on the St. Bonaventure campus when he fell 16 feet from scaffolding and suffered a head injury and broke his right wrist. The judge ruled before the trial that the state's safe workplace laws had been violated by the failure of the two contracting firms to have safety devices around the scaffolding.

INJURED WORKER RECEIVES $1.4 MILLION SETTLEMENT IN AN ON-THE-JOB INJURY CAUSED BY AN UNSAFE CONSTRUCTION SITE

DISABLED CARPENTER GETS $1.4 MILLION SETTLEMENT

An Amherst carpenter whose right hand was disabled during a building construction accident accepted a $1.4 million insurance settlement as a Buffalo jury was being selected for his trial, his attorney, Francis M. Letro said.

The carpenter, who hasn't worked since the incident, will receive his full cash payment from insurance carriers. The settlement came as a jury was being selected. Earlier, the court ruled the construction companies were liable for the softening of the earth around the construction site. Mr. Letro said that because the stucco application being installed on the outer wall of the building had to be applied at temperatures well above freezing, the wall had been covered by plastic sheeting and propane heaters were left on from December 23 to December 26, when construction resumed. As the carpenter was climbing down the scaffolding that morning, it shifted because of the propane-softened earth. The carpenter fell five feet to the ground and suffered what initially seemed to be a broken right wrist, Letro said. The fall caused a circulation problem in his right hand that forced surgeons to eventually remove bones that left him with limited use of that hand.