$1.2 Million Scaffolding Fall Verdict, With the Plaintiff Found 75 Percent at Fault
After trial: Reduced by comparative fault, then affirmed: the jury's $1,200,000 noneconomic award was multiplied by Kisling's 25 percent share of fault, giving $300,000, and the Alaska Supreme Court affirmed on March 14, 2025 (565 P.3d 226). The $400,000 cap was never reached.
Won by Barber & Associates, LLC.
Paul Grosz was standing on homemade scaffolding, helping his friend Gregory Kisling hang a crucifix above a staircase in Kisling's home, when the wire holding the crucifix broke. He fell and suffered broken ribs, a spinal fracture and a traumatic brain injury. A jury put his noneconomic damages at $1,200,000, twice what he asked for, but found him 75 percent at fault. The fight that followed was over arithmetic: apply Alaska's $400,000 cap first, or the fault split first. In March 2025 the Alaska Supreme Court held fault comes first, which left a $300,000 judgment.
What happened
Paul Grosz was helping his friend Gregory Kisling hang a crucifix on the wall above a staircase in Kisling's home. He was standing on scaffolding Kisling had built himself. The wire supporting the crucifix broke, and Grosz fell. He broke ribs, fractured his spine and suffered a traumatic brain injury.
He sued Kisling in Alaska Superior Court. The jury found Kisling negligent but put most of the responsibility on Grosz himself: 25 percent of the fault to Kisling, 75 percent to Grosz. It set his past and future noneconomic damages at $1,200,000, twice the figure he had asked for.
What followed was a dispute about the order of two subtractions. AS 09.17.010(b) caps noneconomic damages in an ordinary injury case at the greater of $400,000 or the plaintiff's life expectancy times $8,000. Kisling argued the cap should be applied first, taking $1,200,000 down to $400,000, and then the 75 percent comparative fault, leaving $100,000. Grosz argued fault first: 25 percent of $1,200,000 is $300,000, which is under the cap, so the cap never bites. The superior court entered judgment for $300,000. Kisling appealed and Grosz cross-appealed.
On March 14, 2025 the Alaska Supreme Court, in consolidated Nos. S-18699 and S-18709, held that comparative fault percentages are applied before any statutory damages cap. Twenty-five percent of $1,200,000 is $300,000, below the $400,000 ceiling, so no further reduction applied. Judgment of $300,000 affirmed.
Jeffrey J. Barber of Barber & Associates in Anchorage represented Grosz. Alfred Clayton Jr. of Clayton & Diemer represented Kisling.
The case is published here for the gap between its headline and its outcome. Verdict reporters carry it as a $1,200,000 Alaska negligence verdict. The plaintiff's judgment is a quarter of that, and the reason is the jury's own finding about who was mostly to blame.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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