$37.5 Million Verdict for Family of Worker Killed in 50-Foot Fall at Fitler Square Townhouse Project

Siarhei Marhunou came to Philadelphia from Belarus and found work in construction. On December 15, 2021, the 38-year-old was installing siding at 2330 Sansom Street, a five-unit luxury townhouse project in the city's Fitler Square neighborhood. He was working from a fifth-floor balcony when a temporary wooden guardrail gave way. He fell nearly 50 feet to his death. He left behind his wife, Hanna, and a son who was three years old.

The failure was preventable at two separate points. The guardrail was makeshift lumber that had not been built or secured to withstand a worker's weight. And Marhunou had no personal fall-arrest system, the basic protection that safety standards require for work at that height. Either one, done properly, could have kept him alive.

His widow, as administrator of his estate, brought wrongful death and survival claims in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas against the companies running the project: OCF Construction LLC, Fitler Construction Group, and 2330 Sansom Street LLC, along with two subcontractors. Jeffrey P. Goodman and Aidan B. Carickhoff of Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky tried the case for the family. The central fight was over responsibility for site safety. OCF denied it had acted as general contractor and argued it owed no duty to the employee of a subcontractor. The plaintiffs answered with the project's own contracts and evidence of how the site actually ran.

After a four-day trial, the jury returned its verdict on June 28, 2024: $68.5 million for Marhunou's estate, his widow, and his son. The jury put 50 percent of the fault on OCF Construction, 20 percent on Fitler Construction Group, 20 percent on 2330 Sansom Street LLC, and the remaining 10 percent on the two subcontractors. The award ranked among the largest Philadelphia jury verdicts of 2024.

OCF took the case up on appeal, renewing its argument that it had no general contractor duties at the site. In February 2026 the Pennsylvania Superior Court rejected that position and affirmed. Writing for a unanimous three-judge panel, Judge Kate Ford Elliott concluded that the trial record supported the jury's finding that OCF acted as general contractor and had taken on responsibility for coordinating the site, including the safety functions needed to protect workers there. The panel relied in part on Section 324A of the Restatement (Second) of Torts, which holds a party accountable when it undertakes services necessary to protect others and fails to perform them with reasonable care.

The February 2026 ruling left the $68.5 million verdict fully intact. Press accounts of the decision reported the affirmed judgment against OCF, the company the jury found most at fault, at $37.5 million, with the balance of the award allocated to the other defendants. Marhunou's son was three when his father died. The verdict came before his sixth birthday, and the appellate decision confirming it arrived before his eighth.