$750,000 Settlement – Scaffold Fall in Brooklyn (Labor Law 240)
| Settlement Amount | $750,000 |
| Injury Type | Bilateral calcaneus fractures, multiple surgeries, permanent ankle limitation |
| Location | Brooklyn commercial building renovation |
| Year | 2022 |
| Practice Area | Construction Accidents / Labor Law 240 |
What Happened
Our client was a union ironworker with years of experience on commercial construction jobs. He knew his trade. He understood the risks of working at height. What he could not account for was a scaffold that had been improperly erected – planks that were not tied down, a platform that shifted under his weight, and a twelve-foot fall that ended when he struck the ground below.
He landed on both feet. Both heels absorbed the full force of the fall. He kept working for two more weeks – not because he thought he was fine, but because he was a construction worker and that is what construction workers do. He pushed through the pain, assuming it would resolve. It did not.
When he finally sought medical care, imaging confirmed what the pain had been signaling all along: both calcaneus bones – the heel bones – were fractured. The injuries required multiple surgeries. He was out of work in construction for eighteen months. Even after his recovery, he never regained full ankle mobility, a permanent limitation that directly affected his ability to perform the kind of skilled ironwork that had been his livelihood.
The Injuries
Bilateral calcaneus fractures are among the most serious orthopedic injuries a fall can produce. The calcaneus is the foundation of the foot – it bears body weight, absorbs impact, and allows the foot to function as it must during walking, climbing, and sustained physical work. When both heels fracture simultaneously, the result is a patient who cannot bear weight on either foot, cannot ambulate independently, and faces a recovery measured in months, not weeks.
Our client required multiple surgical procedures on both feet, including the placement of external fixators – metal frames secured to the bones with pins that hold fractured fragments in alignment while they heal. The surgeries were followed by extended non-weight-bearing periods, extensive physical therapy, and a gradual and incomplete return of function.
Eighteen months passed before he was cleared to return to construction work. When he did, he returned to a body that moved differently than before – with reduced ankle range of motion that limited his ability to work on ladders, scaffolds, and uneven surfaces in the way the job requires.
How Liability Was Established
New York Labor Law § 240(1) imposes absolute liability on general contractors and building owners for elevation-related falls when the required safety devices are inadequate or absent. A scaffold with untied planking that shifts under a worker’s weight is exactly the kind of inadequate device the statute addresses.
Jason’s investigation documented the specific scaffold failure: the planking was not secured to the scaffold frame. When our client’s weight shifted on the plank, it moved – and he went over the edge. OSHA conducted its own investigation following the accident and cited the general contractor for multiple safety violations, including inadequate scaffolding. The OSHA citation records were obtained in discovery and provided independent, government-generated documentation of the safety failures on the site.
The site safety supervisor – the individual responsible for scaffold erection oversight – had never received licensed scaffold training, a fact uncovered through deposition. This provided an additional layer of culpability for the general contractor, whose supervisory failures went beyond the specific scaffold at issue.
Challenges in the Case
The defense’s primary weapon was our client’s two-week delay in seeking medical care. This is a common tactic in construction accident cases involving workers who pushed through pain before finally seeing a doctor. The defense argued that if the injuries had been truly serious, our client would have sought immediate care. They used the delay to suggest the injuries were either minor at the time of the accident or unrelated to it entirely.
Jason addressed this through credible medical testimony. He retained an orthopedic surgeon familiar with how construction workers – particularly union trades workers – respond to injury. The expert explained the occupational culture in specific, credible terms: workers in physical trades routinely delay care because seeking medical attention means leaving the job, losing wages, and potentially being labeled unable to work. This is not a character flaw or an indicator that the injury was minor. It is a predictable response to economic pressure that treating physicians see regularly.
More importantly, the injuries themselves told the story. The imaging was objective. The bilateral calcaneus fractures were visible and documented. The surgical records were incontrovertible. No delay in presentation could change what the MRI and X-rays showed – bones that had been fractured with a force consistent with a twelve-foot fall onto hard ground.
The Outcome
The case settled for $750,000, reflecting the severity of our client’s bilateral surgical injuries, his eighteen months of lost construction wages, his permanent reduction in ankle mobility, and the recognition that a union worker who spent his career building this city deserved the full protection that Labor Law 240 provides.
Were you injured on a Brooklyn construction site, or anywhere else in New York City? Labor Law 240 provides some of the strongest worker protections in the country – but accessing them requires an attorney who knows how to build and present these cases. Call today.
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Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Every case is unique. The facts, injuries, and legal theories in your case will determine its value. This summary has been anonymized to protect client privacy.