A negligence lawsuit is a civil claim filed against a party or an individual who did not use reasonable care and caused harm to a victim while offering services or care. Litigations can be complicated and confusing, and when it comes to construction site negligence, accessing justice is not always guaranteed. This is why it was unexpected when the Law Office of Sean C. Burke and Romanucci & Blandin, LLC, a personal injury law firm, announced a $2.5–million construction lawsuit settlement on September 9, 2016, whose defendant was DJW Ridgeway Building Consultants, Inc. This was done on behalf of Brian delaTorre, a client of the two firms who sustained a serious life-threatening knee injury in 2008 as he was working on a construction site.
As stated above, it is not easy to find justice in a negligence lawsuit because of its complications, but this was the second lawsuit of this nature that the firm successfully prosecuted. DelaTorre, a professional elevator mechanic, was compensated almost eight years later after the trial court initially gave a summary judgment in favor of the defense (Romanucci & Blandin LLC, 2016). It had previously ruled that the project’s contractor could not be held liable for the ground ruts, which led to the injury of delaTorre.
However, with Michael Rathsack, the appellate attorney, the Second District Appellate Court overturned the initial orders of the summary judgment, and the involved parties reached the final settlement even before the trial. DJW Ridgeway Building Consultants, Inc., the general contractor, agreed to pay $2.32 million, while delaTorre’s employer, the third-party defendant, agreed to pay $225,000 (Romanucci & Blandin LLC, 2016). The settlement value came to a total of more than $4 million for construction negligence and the plaintiff’s medical treatment.
DJW Ridgeway Building Consultants, Inc. would have avoided this legal liability by implementing quality control programs and reviewing the terms of the contract and policy coverage for its workers. From this incident, it is clear that a construction negligence lawsuit would need a documented breach of duty to the contractor’s side. One of the best countermeasures of winning a construction negligence lawsuit is to work with the best legal entities. Nevertheless, it is fair that Brian delaTorre was compensated and can afford to pay for medical expenses all his life.
Reference
Romanucci & Blandin LLC. (2016). $2.5 million dollar settlement reached in construction negligence lawsuit. RB Law. Web.