Articles Posted in Construction Injuries

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James Miglore, age 58, was an electrician working at the construction site of a new Hoffman Estates park district ice arena.  The construction area was located at 1685 W. Higgins Road in Hoffman Estates, Ill.  The defendant, Harbour Contractors, was the construction manager for the project. Midwest Masonry was the masonry subcontractor.  Miglore was employed by the third-party defendant, American Electric, the electrical subcontractor.

In August 2004, Midwest Masonry built the scaffolding at the site to assist its masons in building a 10-foot interior wall.

Miglore alleged in his lawsuit that he was using Midwest’s scaffolding when he fell from it; he was working about 8 feet above ground. At the trial, Miglore testified that he had set his A-frame ladder next to the scaffolding, climbed onto the scaffolding without a problem and then took 3 to 4 steps when a board on the scaffold “flipped up” and caused his fall. 

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Atlantic Casualty Insurance Co. insured Paszko Masonry as it worked on the construction of an apartment building in Downers Grove, Ill., along with three other companies, Prince Contractors Inc., Chicago Masonry Construction and 4929 Forest LLC..

Robert Rybaltowski was an employee of the waterproofing company, Raincoat Solutions, which had submitted a bid to the general contractor, Prince Contractors, to perform caulking work on the building. 

On the condition that Raincoat bring its employee to the jobsite to show that Raincoat’s employee was competent, the general contractor would approve the submitted bid for the caulking work. 

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Deirdre Hastings was an ironworker employed by Area Erectors Inc.On March 5, 2007, Hastings was unloading steel beams from the bed of a flatbed truck. The steel beams were hooked to a 90-ton hydraulic crane, which would move the steel onto the building that was being constructed. 

The crane was rented from the defendant Jefco Equipment Co. The crane was being operated by Greg Windbiel, who performed the work for Jefco, although he was  employed by Area. 

As the beam was being guided by Hastings, the beam struck her on the chest, knocking her to the ground with the beam falling on her right leg, breaking it.

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Humberto Menendez was working for Steine Cold Storage, Inc., which was a subcontractor for the installation of thermo units at a Wal-Mart store under construction in Indiana. Steine rented a boom lift from NES Rentals. 

NES Rentals delivered the lift to the construction site on Aug. 23, 2006. The Steine foreman on site signed a 1-page, double-sided, rental agreement that was given to him by NES Rentals.

A paragraph including an indemnification clause was posted on the backside of the rental agreement. The indemnification clause stated that Steine indemnified NES against any claims arising out of negligence as to the use of the rented boom lift. 

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Thomas Miles, age 54, commuted to work regularly by bicycle. He was riding his bike northbound on California Avenue in Chicago on July 14, 2008 in the marked bike lane when he came upon a patch of wet cement in the street. The defendant Tai Plumbing had dug a 3-foot-wide trench across the northbound lanes to connect water and sewer lines for a building being developed by Forte Construction. On the day of this incident, the Tai Plumbing workers had filled the trench in the street with cement and moved operations to the sidewalk area without covering the wet concrete.

The front wheel of his bike sank into the wet concrete and caused his bike to stop suddenly and flip Miles over the handlebars. He landed head-first on the pavement. Miles suffered spinal subluxation fractures of the neck at C2-3. The injury required a fusion operation. For two and a half months, Miles was unable to swallow, requiring a feeding tube. In addition, Miles suffered from an incomplete spinal cord injury, constant paresthesia in both arms from elbows to fingertips, spasticity in both hands and balance problems. Miles had more than $358,000 in medical bills related to these injuries. 

At trial, Miles argued that Tai Plumbing chose not to comply with the pubic way construction permit by failing to employ flagmen at the work site. In addition, it was alleged that in failing to supply clear and positive tracking control, Tai Plumbing was also negligent. There were no warning signs posted.

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                                                  A $2.24 million verdict was entered in favor of a 36-year-old electrician working as a groundman for an aerial lift truck at a booth at the International Machine Tool Show at Chicago’s McCormick Place in August 2006. The plaintiff, William Purnell, came upon a steel beam that was blocking the path of the aerial truck.

The steel beam was 22 feet long, 3 feet high and weighed 1,800-2,000 pounds. The beam was located in an area that was prohibited as a “no-freight” aisle. The beam had been left there by riggers working for the defendant GES Exposition. 

When Purnell attempted to move the beam out of the way, the beam toppled over and landed on his left foot. He suffered severe crush injuries to the foot causing compartment syndrome, which led to a surgery and foot fusion. 

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In September 2002, John Defries, an ironworker, was employed by II in One Contractors, Inc. and was working at its Wacker Drive reconstruction project in Chicago. Walsh Construction was the general contractor for the project and was named the defendant in this case.

Defries alleged that he slipped and fell on wet rebar that was being set near the intersection of Wacker and Franklin streets.  Because the rebar had been sprayed by Walsh employees who cleaned the area while he was on break, it was alleged that the area where Defries fell was slippery.

Defries, 50, claimed that he sustained a torn rotator cuff along with a meniscus and ACL tears in his knee. Surgery was required for each injury. Defries claimed medical bills of $121,000 and more than a million dollars for lost time from his job.

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Christopher Sojka was working as a carpenter on Chicago’s Trump Tower as it was under construction in 2008. While standing on the upper floors of the construction project, Sojka attempted to fix a steel cable when the wind knocked him back and a piece of metal struck him in the eye causing serious injuries. Although Sojka was wearing safety glasses, they did not fit his face correctly. A small gap was left at the top of his eyes, allowing the debris to penetrate.

Sojka brought a lawsuit against Bovis Lend Lease in the Circuit Court of Cook County for recovery of his injuries. The case was removed to the federal district court in Chicago because the parties had complete diversity of citizenship in that Sojka was domiciled in Illinois and Bovis was a Florida corporation with its principal place of business in New York. The amount in controversy to make the jurisdictional level exceeded $75,000.

The complaint that Sojka filed contained one count for construction negligence, a cause of action recognized in Illinois law. It was also alleged in the complaint that Bovis had a duty to provide a safe workplace; Sojka listed seven theories about how Bovis had violated that duty. One of the first theories was that Bovis knew or should have known that the weather conditions at the site were unsafe at the time of Sojka’s injury.

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