$1,043,660.52 settlement
Frank DiGesu (electrical contractor):
On 7/20/91, I was employed by an electrical contractor as a journeyman electrician working in a New York City subway as part of a New York City Transit Authority project. At the time of my injury, I slipped while moving a ladder to remove conduit pipe from the ceiling over the southbound Lexington Avenue local line. I was using a ladder because the general contractor, Perini-Tutor-Saliba Buckley, had deemed the job too small to justify bringing in a flat bed work train that I could have stood upon to access the conduit. When I slipped, my foot got caught in the track roadbed and I seriously injured my right knee, requiring multiple operations.
Ira Maurer represented me in a lawsuit that was brought against: the New York City Transit Authority; the Metropolitan Transit Authority; and, Perini-Tutor-Saliba Buckley. During the pre-trial procedures, Ira was able to prove that a work train could have been brought into the work area that would have allowed me to stand on a flat surface while working overhead, giving me a safer place to work. However, the work train would have required shutting the subway line down and would have cost the general contractor approximately $40,000.00. In addition, Ira Maurer proved that the subway track roadbed had accumulated water due to insufficient drainage. In spite of many road blocks during the litigation, Ira Maurer was able to win me a settlement of $1,043,660.52 for my knee injury.
