$550,000 Verdict for Widow of Window Washer Who Fell 30 Feet When a 28-Year-Old Safety Strap Broke
After trial: The Eighth District Court of Appeals affirmed the verdict on April 24, 1995 (No. 67467), and the Supreme Court of Ohio did not allow a discretionary appeal.
Won by Spangenberg Shibley & Liber and Spangenberg, Shibley, Traci, Lancione & Liber.
A window washer for Euclid Cleaning Contractors fell thirty feet to his death while cleaning windows at a Cleveland-area high school when a cotton safety strap made in 1962 broke. His widow sued the employer for an intentional tort, and a Cuyahoga County jury returned a $550,000 verdict in 1994. The Eighth District affirmed in 1995.
What happened
William Reese worked as a window washer for Euclid Cleaning Contractors, Inc., a Cleveland-area cleaning company. Sent to clean windows at Regina High School, he used a safety belt the company supplied for a third-story window. The belt and its long strap were both woven cotton, and the strap ran through metal loops on the belt and clipped to anchors on either side of the window.
While he worked, the strap broke. It slipped through the loops, and Reese fell thirty feet to the concrete below. He died of his injuries.
His widow, Linda Reese, sued as administrator of his estate in Cuyahoga County. Because Ohio generally shields employers from negligence suits by their workers, she pleaded an employer intentional tort: that the company knew the belt was dangerous and sent her husband up anyway. Attorneys Peter J. Brodhead and Cathleen M. Bolek of Spangenberg, Shibley, Traci, Lancione & Liber represented her.
The case went to trial on May 31, 1994. The evidence showed the belt had been manufactured in 1962, twenty-eight years before the fall. An engineer, Dr. David Colling, testified that the strap snapped from old age. The plaintiff also called an economist, Dr. John Burke, on damages. The company's president and sole shareholder, Martin Presser, denied knowing the belt was defective and said employees were not ordered to use belts and could decline a belt job. The jury heard the evidence and returned a verdict of $550,000 for Linda Reese.
The company appealed to the Eighth District Court of Appeals. It argued that the trial court should have ended the case after opening statement, that the economist should have been barred for lack of a full written report, that the jury instructions on intent were wrong, and that it was entitled to a directed verdict. The court rejected each point on April 24, 1995. It found that the company knew the belt was twenty-eight years old and would eventually break, had no program to inspect, test, maintain or replace its belts, and kept sending employees on jobs that required them. The court also noted that nothing at trial showed the high school job could have been done without a belt, and that the economist's testimony matched the preliminary report the company had already received.
The Supreme Court of Ohio declined to take a discretionary appeal, leaving the judgment in place.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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