Valdez v. Hajoca: A Record $101 Million Verdict for a Hendersonville Wall Collapse
After trial: The case settled for a confidential sum while the jury was still deliberating punitive damages, so the $101 million figure reflects the compensatory verdict reached before that settlement, not a final collected judgment.
Won by Ricci Law Firm Injury Lawyers.
A Henderson County jury awarded $101 million to two masonry workers and one worker's wife after a 12-foot retaining wall, rebuilt under Hajoca's direction without an engineer or a permit, collapsed onto their crew.
What happened
On the morning of January 13, 2021, a 12-foot concrete block retaining wall gave way at a Hajoca Corporation plumbing supply property on Spartanburg Highway in Hendersonville, North Carolina. At about 9:28 a.m., the new section of the wall snapped away from the old footing and fell in one piece onto a masonry crew working below. The men had no warning.
The wall had been poured only days earlier. Hajoca and its store manager, Andrew Weymouth, were told more than once that the structure needed to be designed by an engineer and permitted, yet the Henderson County Inspections Department never received a permit application for the job, and no licensed engineer was hired. Concrete that needed roughly ten days to cure had set for only a few before crews backfilled the wall with 210 tons of dirt ordered from a grading company, far heavier than the gravel normally used behind a structure like this.
The crew worked for Robert Crawford Masonry. Marcelino Rendon Hernandez, 37, was killed. Magno Alberto Valdez Sanchez, 39, and Adan Rendon Hernandez, 34, survived with catastrophic injuries: crush wounds, facial and pelvic fractures, a comminuted femur, a brain bleed, acute kidney injury, and lasting post-traumatic stress. Valdez Sanchez's wife brought a claim for the loss of her husband's companionship and support.
The injured workers and the spouse were represented by a trial team that included Meredith Hinton of Ricci Law Firm Injury Lawyers in Greenville, along with John McCabe of Cary, Brian and Beth Davis of Asheville, and Alicia Campbell. Two other defendants, W.D. Building Rentals and Pinnacle Grading, resolved their parts of the case separately, which left Hajoca and Weymouth to answer to the jury. The plaintiffs argued that the company chose speed over safety, standing the wall back up quickly instead of building it correctly. "They cared more about getting that wall up right now rather than getting it up right," McCabe told jurors.
On May 19, 2026, the Henderson County Superior Court jury, with Judge Steve Warren presiding, returned $101 million in compensatory damages: $45 million to each of the two injured workers and $11 million to Valdez Sanchez's wife. Lawyers on both sides described it as the largest personal injury verdict in North Carolina history.
As the jury prepared to weigh punitive damages, the parties settled for a confidential amount. Because the case resolved at that point, the $101 million figure was never reduced or remitted on appeal.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.North Carolina Lawyers Weekly: Jury returns record award in retaining wall failure case (Valdez v. Hajoca)·Archived copy
- 2.Insurance Journal: NC jury award for workers injured in wall collapse may be largest in state history·Archived copy
- 3.WLOS: $101M awarded to victims of Hendersonville wall collapse, making history in NC·Archived copy
- 4.Hendersonville Lightning: Verdict in wall collapse suit likely made state history·Archived copy
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