$3.375 Million Settlement: Painting Foreman Falls 12 Feet from Defective Ladder at Manhattan High-Rise

A 42-year-old union taper and painting foreman with two decades in his local was working on a new 56-story residential building in Manhattan. On a Friday, a general contractor supervisor brought him to the penthouse level and directed him to finish a ceiling 17 to 18 feet above the floor. He was given a mechanical lift for the work that day. That afternoon the lift was taken back. That evening the carpentry subcontractor called and told him to return at 7:00 a.m. Saturday to finish.

When he arrived Saturday morning, the lift was gone. The supervisor showed him two options: an eight-foot A-frame, too short for a 17-foot ceiling, and the top half of an extension ladder with no base section, no proper footing, and no place to tie it off. The bottom half was missing. No other ladders, lifts, or scaffolds were on the floor. He was told the work had to be done immediately. He climbed the broken ladder. About five minutes in, it slid out from under him.

The firm pursued the building owner and general contractor under New York's scaffold law. The defense argued the worker had brought the broken ladder from elsewhere himself and pointed to other equipment in the area as available alternatives. The firm countered with the client's testimony that the supervisor had pointed him directly to those ladders and that the other equipment was being cleared out and required contractor permission to use, which had never been granted. No evidence surfaced that the client had brought the ladder from another location. The court granted summary judgment on liability, leaving damages as the only remaining question.

The fall sent the client to Bellevue Hospital by ambulance. Doctors found a compression fracture in his lower back, a radial head fracture in his left elbow, and a scaphoid fracture in his left wrist. Follow-up imaging revealed herniations at multiple cervical and lumbar levels and a partial rotator cuff tear in his left shoulder. Conservative treatment failed. He underwent cervical surgery in April 2018 and a multi-level lumbar fusion in October 2018. The firm recovered $3.375 million in the damages-only proceeding.