August, 2022 – Ana Rita Ferreira, Henry Cistrelli, and Amos Gern, were able recover a $500,000 policy-limit settlement for a 62-year old roofer who was hired by a roofing general contractor, for traumatic injuries sustained when he fell 10 feet from a residential property and landed on concrete steps and a railing below. He lost his balance when he stepped into an area of rotting wood below shingles that were being replaced. He was not equipped with an OSHA mandated fall protection lanyard or related equipment by the defendant contractor. He suffered an acute comminuted fracture of the tibia with displacement of the main distal fracture fragment and an acute fracture in the fibular shaft. Within a few months following surgical repair, and PT, he was found to have lumbar spinal MRI changes at L4-5 and L5-S1 disk endplates, advanced disk collapse, moderate stenosis at L4-5, an acute-on-chronic disk herniation causing severe foraminal stenosis inferiorly on the right side at these levels. These findings and continued disability and pain led to surgical decompression for a L4-L5 herniated disc, lumbar stenosis, and lumbar radiculopathy. In the workers compensation claim and the third party suit, we asserted our client’s 100% disability as a working unit. The compensation carrier, AmTrust, asserted a lien of over $261,000 for medical expenses and wage disability payments, which was reduced to $175,576 under the applicable law.
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