$1 Million Recovered in Roofing Ladder Accident
$1 Million Recovered in Roofing Ladder Accident
Our client in this case is the owner of an HVAC company. He arrived to the house of a customer to service a reported leak on the client’s roof. The customer’s roofing company was also there, responding to the same issue.
The roofing company arrived first and set up a ladder on the customer’s patio deck. The deck was covered in leaves and wet from rain. After the roofers climbed the ladder, our client began to ascend after them, but the ladder slipped backwards and out from under him, causing our client to fall 15 feet, shattering his right ankle and breaking several of his ribs. Medical examination revealed our client suffered a closed displaced pilon fracture of the right tibia, a closed right ankle fracture, and fractures of the anterior right 7th through 10th ribs. After our client fell, as he was lying on the ground waiting for the ambulance, he was able to see that the ladder was missing the rubber feet at its base that should have been in place.
Our client underwent many surgeries to repair his right leg and ankle and was a candidate for a below-the-knee amputation until he finally showed some improvement 15 months after he was injured. He spent over a year-and-a-half in a cast, a walking boot, rehabbing, taking pain medication, and living a life of reduced function and frustration. In total, his medical bills cost $400,000.
Initially, the roofing company offered our client a settlement of just $5,000—not nearly enough to cover the medical damages and loss of quality of life he experienced as a result of their negligence. Our client knew this was a lowball offer and hired The Champion Firm to handle his case.
Though no one questioned the severity of our client’s injuries, proving the roofing company’s liability in this case required overcoming several challenges.
The roofing company claimed it never asked our client to climb up its ladder and claimed it never knew he would use the ladder until he was already on it. Thus, it argued, it owed our client no duty. Our client also looked at the ladder for over 30 seconds before he climbed up it, so any danger presented by the wet surface and leaves on the deck was open and obvious, the roofing company said. The roofing company made the ladder available for inspection and, it argued, the ladder was in good condition. Finally, the roofing company argued that no negligence on its part had caused the ladder to slip out; instead, the ladder likely slipped because of the way our client had shifted his weight to one side.
Attorney Eric Funt and The Champion Firm team pushed back on all these arguments and convinced the roofing company’s insurer to tender the policy limits. We bolstered our liability arguments with an affidavit from an expert who had served on the ANSI ladder safety committee. The expert was of the opinion that the roofing company violated the standard of ordinary care by failing to set up the ladder properly and safely.
In the end, our client received the policy limits of the roofing company’s insurance: $1 million.
About The Champion Firm, Personal Injury Attorneys, P.C.
If you or someone you know has experienced an injury as a result of someone else’s negligence, contact The Champion Firm today for a free case consultation. Our contingency fee structure means you only pay for our services if and when we win your case. To date, The Champion Firm team has secured over $100 million for our clients.