A 44 year-old New York carpenter, Luis Barros, will recover $8 million for injuries sustained after falling 15 feet off of a scaffold on a New Rochelle construction job site. A Bronx jury awarded the plaintiff $18,500,000 but the parties had previously agreed to a high/low agreement whereby the plaintiff’s maximum recoverable amount was $8,000,0000.
The theory of the case was that the scaffold was structurally defective. Barros claimed that he sufferd a fracture of an ankle and herniations of three spinal discs. He underwent fusion of a portion of his spine, and he claimed that his injured ankle will require fusion. Liability was decided via summary judgment, but the defense challenged Barros’ spinal injuries, suggesting that they were products of degeneration.
Website Resource:
Verdictsearch; March 4, 2010.
