In this case, plaintiff was a laborer for a demolition company. The company was hired to demolish the interior of a three-story building in lower Manhattan. The company failed to provide adequate training, instruction and supervision. In short, the company had no plan to complete the work. Instead, one of plaintiff’s co-workers told plaintiff to use a crowbar to remove a ceiling. As he did this, the ceiling tumbled down, partially landing on his knee, necessitating two separate anthropic surgeries. In suing, we argued that New York’s Industrial Code requires the employer to develop a plan for safely demolishing buildings. Such a plan, if put together, would have shown that the proper way to remove the ceiling was either by employing a scaffold or by removing the ceiling from above so that the worker would not risk having debris fall on him or her. At mediation, prior to conducting depositions of the defendants, the case settled for $500,000.
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