Articles Posted in Roofing Workers

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Beau Gordon, a professional roofer, fell 35 feet through a “camouflaged hole” in a warehouse roof that he was inspecting. Gordon suffered a head injury and, as a result, brought suit against the building’s owner, ARC Manufacturing Inc., and Joseph Meyers.

On appeal, the primary issue was whether the trial court correctly refused to instruct the jury on primary assumption of risk where, as in this case, the defendants did not hire or engage Gordon.

The Court of Appeals concluded that primary assumption of risk did not apply, rejected the defendants’ other contentions and affirmed the judgment in favor of Gordon.

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Zeng Guang Lin, a 20-year-old construction worker, was on a scaffold and installing metal siding on a building when he was asked to go to the roof to assist with a different job. Lin went to the roof wearing his safety harness but was unable to find a place to tie off. While Lin was on the roof he fell about 20 feet to the ground.

He suffered multiple, severe injuries including a closed-head injury, spinal fractures at L1-5, fractures to his scapula and several ribs, internal injuries, including a renal hematoma, a lung contusion and a lacerated spleen. He also suffered cervical and lumbar disk herniations.

Because of the closed-head injury, Lin developed encephalomalacia, which is the degeneration of the brain tissue resulting in memory loss, motor problems and impaired thought-processing and other cognitive functions. He is permanently disabled.

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In a case dealing with an accident at a construction work site, Samuel Escareno sought damages against Terra Cotta Commons Condominium Association and Kass Management Services for injuries he suffered. Terra Cotta Condominium was the owner of a condominium building that was managed by Kass Management. Kass hired Sherwin Painters Inc. to do both the painting and the labor to paint portions of the building.

One of the painters hired by Sherwin was Samuel Escareno. He was injured when he fell off a ladder while trying to replace a window screen.

In January 2010, Escareno filed suit against Kass and Terra Cotta. Kass third-partied and sued Sherwin for contribution, but Sherwin moved to dismiss, citing that it had waived its lien on Escareno’s recovery.

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The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has found five safety violations that carried a proposed penalty of $158,015 against an Illinois roofing company.  The company, Affordable Roofing and Exteriors, Inc. of Trenton, Ill., was cited after inspections at three job sites where workers were improperly using fall protection during the installation of shingles on residential roofs. Since 2009, Affordable Roofing has been cited in five inspections for similar violations by OSHA.

The inspections were carried out in 2013 in Granite City and Belleville, Ill.

At each job site inspection, OSHA found that there were willful violations for failing to ensure that workers used fall protection while doing their work on residential roofs. 

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