Jeffrey Gerasi appealed an order granting summary judgment to the defendant, Gilbane Building Company Inc. The issue on appeal was whether there was a material fact existing as to whether Gilbane retained control over the work of its subcontractor, Geary Electric. Gilbane could have been directly liable under section 414…
Edgar Gonzalez was a construction worker employed by a commercial contractor. While working at a project commissioned by the city of Los Angeles, he was erecting a wall-forming system used to support poured concrete. Gonzalez, 30, climbed to the top of a 30-foot form panel; the panel gave way. He…
A jury found that the mesothelioma contracted by James Lester Phillips was caused in part by exposure to asbestos contained in Bendix brakes. In an appeal, Honeywell challenged the $5.8 million awarded to Phillips’s wife and surviving children. In the published portion of the appellate opinion, the court rejected Honeywell’s…
Cameron Hansen, 48, was a cement mason working at a construction site at Loretto Hospital at 645 Central Ave. in Chicago. The defendant in this case was Stone Mountain Access Systems Inc., which was the company that provided the scaffolding at the job site. Stone Mountain was responsible for designing…
Ignacio Maravilla was working as a laborer during a River North construction project at Wabash Avenue and Superior Street for Holy Name Cathedral on March 27, 2012. He was employed by Benchmark Construction Co. As a 72-inch precast concrete flat-top slab was being hoisted, one of its imbedded steel lifting…
Christopher Ramirez, 22, was painting an interior wall of a building where he worked as a handyman. He was standing on the 9th rung of a 14-foot ladder. The ladder shook, slid and then collapsed causing him to fall. He suffered a fracture to his left elbow and bimalleolar fractures…
The Illinois Supreme Court has ruled that the Union Pacific Railroad Co. did not maintain control over a bridge demolition project after selling the bridge to a scrap contractor. During work on the demolition, a bridge wall severed Patrick Joseph Carney’s legs below the knee. The accident occurred more than…
Richard Black worked for a hospital’s housekeeping staff. He went to the loading dock to throw away trash into a dumpster. Richard Cea, an employee of Royal Carting Service Co., had just delivered the dumpster. It was still attached to the back of his truck. As Black was throwing trash…
Lee Newsome sustained a serious injury to his right foot when a rail hanging from a crane fell on him. He was working for the Wisconsin Central Railroad. Newsome sued the railroad under the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA) claiming that his injuries caused him a “loss of future earning…
Robert Howard was a 55-year-old truck driver when he arrived at a Nucor-Yamato Steel Co. facility to transport steel machine equipment. His flatbed tractor trailer was directed to a loading area where a Nucor employee was operating the crane to be used for loading the equipment onto Howard’s flatbed truck.…