Widow Wins Wrongful-Death Judgment Over Scaffolding Truss That Fell Eight Floors at Joliet Power Plant

On December 23, 1999, Michael Ready was working as a maintenance mechanic at the Midwest Generation power plant in Joliet, Illinois. A pipe-refitting project was under way, and scaffolding material had to be hoisted from the ground to the eighth floor. The general contractor, BMW Constructors, had hired United/Goedecke Services to handle the scaffolding work, including the lifting.

A United employee supervised the lift while another rigged wooden trusses to a single sling. Ready stood beneath the rigging so he could give hand signals to the operator of the tugger, an in-plant hoist owned by Midwest. Eight trusses went up without trouble. The ninth slipped out of the sling and fell eight floors, striking and killing Ready. He was survived by his wife, Terry, and two children.

Terry Ready, as special administrator of her husband's estate, sued United and BMW in the Circuit Court of Cook County, and later added Midwest as a defendant. She settled with BMW and Midwest, and the trial court found those settlements were made in good faith. The case went to a jury against United alone.

At trial, United's own people supplied much of the proof. Its job supervisor testified that he was responsible for supplying a safe working environment and for making sure everyone helping with the scaffolding followed United's safety rules. He also said he decided where the trusses would be tied to the hoist and that he could have ordered the work done in a safer way. The original plan had been to use an outside crane, which was not on site.

The jury found United negligent and, in 2003, returned damages of $14.23 million. It also assigned Michael Ready 35 percent of the fault. The trial court reduced the award for that share and credited the amounts the other defendants had paid, then entered judgment against United for $8.137 million.

United appealed, and the case reached the Illinois Supreme Court twice. In 2008 the court held that Illinois law did not allow a jury to assign fault to defendants who had already settled, rejecting United's main argument for a new trial. It sent the case back so the appellate court could decide whether the jury should have been told that someone other than United might have been the sole cause of the accident. The appellate court ordered a new trial on that point.

In October 2010 the Supreme Court reversed that order. It agreed the trial court had been wrong to keep out evidence about BMW and Midwest, but found the error harmless because the record contained significant evidence that United's conduct was a proximate cause of the fall. The court affirmed the judgment on the verdict. Joseph A. Power, Jr., and Devon C. Bruce of Power Rogers & Smith represented Terry Ready through both appeals.