Michael Agabiti had been a carpenter all his life. He loved what he did for a living and loved how it helped him support his family.
Mike’s workday on February 12, 2018, which he spent working on a construction project at the Rutgers University Health Athletic Center, began like any other.
It ended as the last day he would ever work as a carpenter.
While working that day, Mike suffered severe life-altering injuries when a cast-in-place concrete formwork panel collapsed while he was strapped to it. Mike fell nearly 15 feet. When the heavy panel landed on Mike, it drove a T-bolt into his foot and caused permanent orthopedic injuries that required six surgeries.
Mike’s injuries could have been prevented. Federal regulations require contractors to provide workers with adequate fall protection equipment for all tasks involving work six feet or more above the ground. Contractors were also required to inspect the construction site to ensure concrete formwork panels were properly braced and secured to prevent the forms from collapsing. However, the lack of fall protection at the job site was such a concern that Mike’s union president and service manager drove to the construction site to personally reinforce how dangerous the lack of fall protection was. Only after Mike was injured did the contractor revise its policies to ensure concrete formwork panels were fully secured and braced.
The injuries Mike suffered have not only prevented him from ever going back to work as a carpenter, they caused him significant physical, mental, and emotional pain and suffering, including guilt and sadness that he cannot be the husband, father to his two kids, and provider that he wants to be.
Recently, six years after Mike suffered the injuries that would end his career as a carpenter, Stark & Stark Shareholder David Schmid and his team obtained justice for Mike and his family by securing a $2,700,000 settlement in a lawsuit he filed against the contractor for his life-altering injuries and losses. This resolution comes on top of the work that Stark & Stark Shareholder James Creegan and his team have done representing Mike in his separate workers’ compensation matter regarding his injuries.
Construction cases are among the most difficult cases plaintiffs’ attorneys will litigate because the lawyers representing the defendants in these kinds of cases are often aggressive, and frequently attempt to rely on defenses that could sway a judge or jury that the defendants should not be liable for the plaintiffs’ injuries. This case was no different.
“This was a case of a corporation breaking its promises to keep workers safe and then blaming the worker when a preventable injury occurred,” said David. “We always believed this contractor paid lip service to safety and failed to follow its own safety manual and federal safety regulations, and in the end we had the evidence to back it up.”
This lawsuit was as complex as it was contentious, involving thousands of pages of construction contracts, safety manuals, and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations. Nearly 20 depositions were taken, and the parties retained more than a dozen experts between them.
“Unfortunately, this settlement cannot eliminate the constant physical and mental pain Mike feels or his immense frustration that he will never be the carpenter, father, or husband he was before his injury,” said David. “But this case and the settlement can help compensate Mike and his family for their many losses and give them hope that fellow carpenters and union workers will not suffer the same needless harm and broken promises in the future.”
