$725,000 Settlement – Scaffold Fall at Queens Construction Site
Construction workers are not supposed to gamble with their safety every time they step onto a scaffold. When the people responsible for assembling and inspecting that scaffold don’t do their jobs, someone gets hurt. In 2024, our client paid that price at a residential construction project in Queens. Linden Law recovered $725,000 on his behalf.
The Case
Our client was working on a residential construction project in Queens when the scaffold he was working from gave way beneath him. The scaffold had been improperly assembled – it was missing required cross-bracing that provides lateral stability – and no fall protection had been provided to the workers on it. He fell, landing in a way that fractured a vertebra in his thoracic spine and tore the rotator cuff in his shoulder. He required surgery on the shoulder, and the spinal injury imposed its own set of limitations that treatment alone could not fully resolve.
The Injury
A vertebral fracture and a rotator cuff tear are two separate injuries that interact with each other in the worst way during recovery. The shoulder surgery – which involved reattaching torn tendons to the bone – requires immobilization followed by carefully graduated physical therapy. But immobilization of the shoulder also interferes with the kinds of movements and positioning that help manage spinal pain. The two injuries complicated each other’s recovery in ways that extended the overall timeline and increased our client’s pain and frustration considerably.
Even after completing the surgical recovery and physical therapy, our client retained permanent limitations in the range of motion of his shoulder. Overhead reaching – which had been a routine part of his job as a construction worker – became difficult and sometimes painful. The long-term vocational impact of those limitations was a significant component of our damages claim.
How We Established Liability
Labor Law § 240(1) was the anchor of this case. The statute imposes absolute liability on property owners and general contractors when workers are injured in elevation-related falls caused by inadequate safety equipment or improperly constructed scaffolding. Missing cross-bracing is not a gray area – it is a clear structural deficiency that violates both the statute and the governing industrial code regulations.
We retained a licensed professional engineer with specific expertise in scaffold design and construction to inspect and document the scaffold’s deficiencies. His report identified the missing cross-bracing, noted that the scaffold’s components were inconsistently installed, and concluded that the structure as assembled was not capable of safely supporting workers under normal use conditions. We also documented, through site inspection photos and witness statements, that no fall arrest system had been made available to workers on the scaffold.
The property owner tried to point the finger at the general contractor; the general contractor pointed back. Under Labor Law 240, it didn’t matter – both are jointly and severally liable.
Challenges We Overcame
The defense made noise early about whether our client had contributed to the collapse by misusing the scaffold or exceeding its rated capacity. They deposed every coworker they could identify and spent considerable time looking for someone who would say our client had been doing something wrong.
They didn’t find it, because it wasn’t there. Under Labor Law 240, comparative negligence is not a defense – but that doesn’t stop insurers from raising it as a pressure tactic in settlement negotiations, hoping to suppress the number. We refused to accept a reduced value based on speculation, and we were direct about our intention to litigate through trial if they maintained that posture.
The insurer’s first offer was well below six figures. After we completed expert discovery and filed our note of issue, the case value became considerably more difficult to dispute, and the parties reached a resolution.
The Outcome
The settlement of $725,000 covered the cost of our client’s surgeries, his physical therapy, his lost income during recovery, and compensation for the permanent shoulder limitations he will carry going forward. For a man who built his livelihood with his hands, those limitations are not abstract. The settlement recognized that concretely.
If you were injured on a construction site in Queens, you have rights under New York’s Labor Laws. Learn more at our construction accident practice area page or our Queens personal injury page.
Injured in a similar accident? Call (212) 804-8440 for a free consultation. No fee unless we win.