This is from a Seminar by The New York State Bar Association on New York Construction Accident Law which was held in 2008. The Seminar was developed by Howard S. Hershenhorn who was the over -all planning chair. The seminar has been held State wide since 2007. It will once again be presented by The New York State Bar Association on December 2, 2011 in Syracuse and Long Island, and December 9, 2011 in Albany and New York City. Further details will be posted.
At our firm we have always believed that the “plaintiff’s attorney” fills many roles. Not only as an attorney but as an advisor and friend. Obviously the first priority is to advocate with all one’s skills the client’s cause. The client is most often an individual who under normal circumstances could never afford the high quality of legal representation provided by the skilled personal injury attorney. The client is also usually experiencing the most traumatic event of their life. It has always been our philosophy that our attorneys must be both friend and advisor, for we are constantly called on to comfort the client as well as the client’s family. The attorney must see to it that the client receives all available insurance benefits and the best medical and rehabilitation services available.
Our partner, Howard Hershenhorn recently settled, at mediation, an extremely difficult personal injury case with regard to the liability of the defendant. The plaintiff was severely injured. Despite the many obstacles, we decided we would handle the case. Howard worked diligently on the case for years and was constantly there for his client. As a result of his efforts, a case we believed would proceed to trial with a good chance of an adverse verdict, was settled. Following the settlement, the client sent the following note to Howard:
“Hi Howard. I don’t know how to thank you for your commitment and determination. How fortunate for us to have found you…and that you believed in this case and agreed to take it. There’s no doubt on my mind that you did the best for us and the proof is on the outcome of last week’s meeting. You are a fantastic lawyer, as well as kind and compassionate. This is such a difficult journey. I appreciate how you and your team worked so diligently and at the same time protected us from enduring additional pain. Thank you on behalf of the boys too!”
On Wednesday, September 14, 2011 Ben Rubinowitz, a partner at Gair Gair Conason Steigman Mackauf Bloom and Rubinowitz, will chair the prestigious Masters Program for the New York State Trial Lawyers Association. This is a Free Program open to all NYSTLA members. Come see five of the very best trial lawyers in New York State deliver Opening and Closing arguments in cases in which they have attained 8 figure verdicts. Learn the answers to these questions: Why did the jury return such a large award? How did the lawyer ask for money damages? How did the lawyer work with favorable and unfavorable Trial evidence? See how these lawyers dealt with recurring problems and how they hurdled these problems to secure Justice for their clients. Actual Trial demonstrations will be conducted by Ben Rubinowitz, David Dean, Judy Livingston, Henry Miller and Evan Torgan. The Program will be held at the Hudson Valley Bank, 21 Scarsdale Road, Yonkers, New York. 6:00pm – 9:00pm.
To register click here.
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A supervisor at a state-run psychiatric center has been indicted for the criminally negligent homicide of an autistic 27-year-old patient.
The supervisor, Erik Stanley, said he used appropriate procedures in attempting to subdue Jawara Henry, 27, who died Dec. 4 at a Staten Island psychiatric center. But authorities said medical evidence showed he used a chokehold while Henry was on his stomach, although he didn’t intend to harm him, reports the New York Daily News.
Stanley, who was also charged with endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person in today’s indictment, turned himself in and was released on his own recognizance.
The investigation included a review of medical and forensic evidence, in addition to interviews with eyewitnesses to the incident.
$2.1 Million Settlement Reached in Kentucky Military Malpractice Claim, Insurance Journal
Texas Town Agrees to Settle in Wrongful Death Suit, Colony Leader
Errant Vehicle Kills 3 Women Outside Albany, New York Times
A Mobile jury awarded a $40 million wrongful death judgment to the parents of a Mobile County teenager who was killed in a 2004 car accident. The judgment was against Kia Motors and the makers of a seatbelt buckle. Tiffany Stabler was ejected from the vehicle after she struck a sign and the car overturned. Witnesses said that she was wearing her seatbelt, while Kia maintained that she was not.
Stabler was driving a 1999 Kia Sephia that her father had bought for her 16th birthday. Kia officials knew that seatbelts in the 1999 model vehicles were faulty, according to plaintiff testimony, but did not include them in a recall of 1995-1998 vehicles.
Read More: Mobile County jury slaps Kia with $40 million wrongful death verdict
New York State police confirmed that a 46-year-old Vermont construction worker died of injuries caused sustained in a heavy machinery construction accident.
Michael Loyer of South Burlington was working for Trenchless Technologies of New England at a railroad site in Port Kent, New York. The accident occurred while he was installing a 3-foot-diameter pipe using an auger. The auger became bound in the pipe causing him to be thrown to the ground and pinned under the auger.
One of Loyer’s co-workers used a backhoe to lift the auger and free his body. An ambulance arrived to take Loyer to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The construction accident remains under investigation.
Partners Ben Rubinowitz, Chris Sallay and Anthony Gair working together settled this personal injury case at mediation with the case on the Trial Calendar for $5,000,000.00.
The plaintiff, 47 at the time of the accident, had climbed a fire escape to the third floor of a building when the landing upon which he was standing collapsed causing him to fall approximately 30 feet to the ground. As a result he suffered an intra-articular radial fracture of the right wrist and comminuted fracture of the left wrist. He required surgery of both wrists. He also suffered facial fractures requiring surgery. He further required an exploratory laparotomy a for abdominal injuries. It was also claimed that he suffered a traumatic brain injury. The defendant alleged the plaintiff was negligent for using the fire escape to gain access to a third floor apartment and that plaintiff recovered from his injuries to the extent he was able to return to work.
The New York Personal Injury Lawyers at Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf have years of experience representing people who have suffered injury in all types of accidents in New York.
Our Partner, Jeffrey Bloom, recently settled a medical malpractice case in New York Supreme Court, Nassau County for $3,375,000 for the wrongful death of a 46 year old husband and father of two young children in which the patient died on the operating table during the performance of back surgery.
This complex case involved surgical error by the vascular and orthopedic surgeons and anesthesia malpractice. It was alleged that major blood vessels were lacerated during the surgery resulting in acute blood loss, a fact confirmed by the Medical Examiner, that no timely repair was performed by the surgeons and that the anesthesiologist failed to recognize the emergency, perform resuscitation and treat the patient’s acute hemorrhage by administering adequate blood and blood replacement products.
The defendants asserted that the patient, who was unemployed and on disability, had serious cardiac conditions which significantly decreased his life expectancy.
In THOME v. BENCHMARK MAIN TRANSIT ASSOCIATES, LLC, 4th Dept. July 8, 2011, 2011 N.Y. Slip 5884, The Court denied the plaintiff construction worker’s motion for summary judgment. Plaintiff was standing on a scissor lift and, when he repositioned the scissor lift to perform his work, one of its wheels entered a hole in the floor and the scissor lift tipped over, causing plaintiff to fall and sustain injury. In denying the motion the Court held;
“We agree, however, with the further contention of defendants that they raised a triable issue of fact whether plaintiff’s actions were the sole proximate cause of his injuries. In opposition to the motion, defendants submitted evidence that plaintiff was aware that holes had been cut into the concrete floor of the building in which he was working and that, on the morning of his accident, plaintiff had been specifically directed not to operate the scissor lift in the area where the holes had been cut. Further, defendants submitted evidence that plaintiff drove the raised lift into that area while looking at the ceiling rather than where the lift was going. Consequently, “[u]nlike those situations in which a safety device fails for no apparent reason, thereby raising the presumption that the device did not provide proper protection within the meaning of Labor Law § 240 (1), here there is a question of fact [concerning] whether the injured plaintiff’s fall [resulted from] his own misuse of the safety device and whether such conduct was the sole proximate cause of his injuries” (Bahrman v Holtsville Fire Dist., 270 AD2d 438, 439).”
In a dissent Justice Peradotto voted to affirm the lower court’s granting of summary judgment stating;
New York Personal Injury Attorneys Blog