Improperly Installed Scaffolding, Four Injured Workers, and a $19.675 Million Essex County Settlement
Won by Ginarte Gonzalez & Winograd, LLP.
When improperly installed scaffolding collapsed at a Bordentown, New Jersey construction site and injured four workers, John Ratkowitz of Ginarte Gonzalez and Winograd secured a $19.675 million multi-party settlement that awarded $15 million to Luis Yanza, who sustained a traumatic brain injury leaving him with permanent, severe cognitive deficits.
What happened
Four construction workers were injured when scaffolding at a Bordentown, New Jersey job site gave way beneath them. The structure had been improperly installed, and the fall left all four men with serious physical injuries. For one of them, Luis Yanza, the consequences went far beyond broken bones.
Yanza suffered a traumatic brain injury in the fall. Medical evaluation documented severe and lasting cognitive deficits that affected his ability to work, reason, and manage basic daily functions. Treating physicians confirmed that Yanza would require long-term care and supervision and that his earning capacity had been eliminated. These findings became the anchor of the damages case.
John Ratkowitz of Ginarte Gonzalez and Winograd represented three of the four injured workers, including Yanza. The liability theory centered on the improperly installed scaffolding and the shared responsibility among multiple parties present at the site. Three companies were named as defendants, each alleged to have contributed to the conditions that caused the fall.
Proving the full scope of Yanza's brain injury required substantial medical and expert work. Cognitive testing quantified the deficits. Life care planners calculated the costs of care he would need for decades to come. The defendants contested both liability and damages. Ratkowitz, speaking after the settlement was reached, described the path to resolution as a difficult one. "The hardest thing about the case would have been to try it, because it was so sad, what happened to Luis," he said.
The three defendant companies agreed to a combined settlement of $19.675 million. Of that total, $15 million went to Yanza, a figure that reflects the severity of his brain injury and the projected lifetime cost of his care. The remaining portion of the settlement addressed the claims of the other two workers Ratkowitz represented. The case resolved in Essex County Superior Court, and the New Jersey Law Journal reported the settlement in February 2026. No reduction has been reported.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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