Worker falls from roof: Failure to provide safe workplace: Multiple fractures: Spine derangement: Structured settlement

Law Reporter, Oct 2002

Worker falls from roof. Failure to provide safe workplace: Multiple fractures: Spine derangement. Structured settlement.

Figolino v. Fieber Realty LLC, N.Y., Bronx County Sup. Ct., No. 5164/98, Jan. 22, 2002.

Frigolino, 50, was making repairs on the roof of a six-story building while using a hoist to bring loads of material up to the roof when he fell 70 feet. Frigolino suffered fractures of the pelvis, left femur, and possible fractures of the L1 and T12 vertebrae. He also suffered lumbar derangement and radioculopathy. He required open reduction due to spinal cord swelling, placement of an external pelvic fixation device, and internal fixation of the left femur. His past medical expenses totaled $220,000.

Frigolino had been a general contractor, earning $24,000 annually. He has not returned to work.

Frigolino sued the building owner, alleging liability under New York Labor Law sec 240 for failure to provide safety devices. Plaintiff claimed defendant had a nondelegable duty to provide safety devices to all workers.

Defendant argued that because plaintiff owned and operated the hoist, he caused his injuries, and, therefore, the case did not warrant state labor law protection. Plaintiff was granted partial summary judgment. Defendant appealed.

The parties settled while the appeal was pending for $3.2 million, including $2.35 million cash and $850,000 structured over 10 years.

Plaintiff's experts included Robert Goldberg, physical medicine and rehabilitation, and Richard Schuster, vocational rehabilitation, both of New York, N.Y.; and Thomas Fitzgerald, economics, White Plains, N.Y.

Defendant's experts were Maurice Carter, orthopedics, Brooklyn, N.Y.; George DiGiascinto, neurology, New York, N.Y.; and Areta Podhorecki, vocational rehabilitation, White Plains, N.Y.

*Ari M. Gross, New York, N.Y.