New York City Construction Worker Lands Important Legal Victory After Being Hit by a Falling Board

Imagine you are a New York construction worker. You’re working hard, just like you do every day. Then, in a moment, you’re injured and everything changes. You may have many concerns, such as ones that relate to providing for yourself and your family financially. For too many New York City construction workers, they don’t have to imagine this situation – it is all too real. Fortunately, the law does provide a way for many injured construction workers to obtain much needed compensation in court. To find what you can do if you’ve been injured, talk to a New York City construction attorney.

Many of these accidents that take place involve falling materials. At the time of his workplace accident, B.M. did work that involved pointing, caulking and cleaning masonry. While working at a project in Greenwich Village, B.M. was assigned to repair some pointing on the building’s eighth floor. B.M. took the hoist elevator up to floor eight and, as he exited the elevator, was unexpectedly hit by “a heavy nine-or-ten foot-long, nine-inch wide, two-inch thick board” that was being used as a scaffold plank. A worker on the ninth floor had lost control of the plank, allowing it to crash into B.M.’s head.

B.M. was wearing his hard hat at the time, but nevertheless suffered substantial injuries. He sued under a New York law that allows construction workers to obtain compensation when hurt as a result of a fall or a falling object. When an injured worker pursues recovery based upon a “falling object” injury, the law requires him to demonstrate several things to the court. The law requires a worker like B.M. to show that the object that struck him was “in the process of being hoisted or secured at the time of the accident.” Alternately, an injured worker can still win his case if he can show that the item that hit him “was a load that required securing for the purposes of the undertaking at the time it fell.”

If you are a worker pursuing such a case, one of the best possible outcomes is summary judgment. That means that there is enough proof to hold those whom you’ve sued liable, and to do so without even requiring a trial on the issue of liability. This can help you get the damages award you need even more quickly. B.M. won a summary judgment in his case because he had enough evidence to establish that the board in question was a load that needed securing in order to ensure that it did not do harm like falling on workers below as a resulted of being mishandled, and that the plank was not sufficiently secured.

Another thing that the injured man showed was that he received insufficient protection. (The law requires that all workers receive proper protection from injuries resulting from falls or falling objects.) The scaffold frame used on this project was inadequate in terms of its construction and did not protect workers like B.M. from the foreseeable possibility that another worker might drop the board onto those below.

B.M. had the evidence, arguments and representation he needed for a successful result. To get the compensation you need for your injury case, consult the New York City construction injury attorneys at Arcia & Associates. Our team has many years of experience providing thoughtful advice and helping injured workers and their families.

More Blog Posts:

Construction Debris Leads to a Successful Outcome For a New York Carpenter Pursuing a Construction Injury Case, Blog de Abogado en la Ciudad de Nueva York, 15 de Agosto de 2018

Proof of a Lack of Fall Protection Allows an Injured Demolition Man to Win His New York Construction Injury Case, Blog de Abogado en la Ciudad de Nueva York, 9 de Julio de 2018