Buffalo, New York | $3,050,000 | Construction Site
This case settled two days after the trial began for $3,050,000 plus a waiver of the Workers' Compensation Lien of $226,000. Here, a 35-year-old laborer working for Laborers Union Local 210 fell from a scaffold suspended from Interstate 90 and fell approximately 40 feet. As a result of his fall, Ballow utilized New York State Labor Law §240 (1) and requested the Court to grant absolute liability against Dick Enterprises, Inc. The Court did so and the case began with a trial on damages only.
Mr. Cipolla suffered a depressed frontal skull fracture, along with hemorrhage in the brain. He underwent open reduction and internal fixation with metal plates and screws for his fractured arm, along with common problems associated with brain injury such as memory loss and cognitive losses in executive functioning in the frontal lobes. Mr. Cipolla underwent three laparotomies and had a colostomy for approximately three months. Ballow argued that, because Cipolla hung by his hands from the scaffold for approximately two minutes before he actually fell, he was also eligible for monetary damages for pre-impact terror.
