A union apprentice painter was injured while working on a project in Queens. On the day of the accident, she was simply doing routine work, cleaning tools and equipment in a room with an exposed ceiling overhead. A metal valve suddenly broke loose from the ceiling above her. It fell somewhere between 12 and 14 feet before striking her directly on the head. There was no warning, and nothing in place to protect her from an overhead hazard that never should have existed on a job site.
The impact left her with serious injuries to her head, neck, and shoulders, injuries that would go on to affect her daily life and her ability to continue working in the trade she had been training for.
As a young apprentice just starting her career, she deserved a safe environment to learn and grow in her profession. Instead, a preventable hazard overhead put her in harm’s way and changed the course of her life. We fought to hold the responsible parties accountable for failing to secure the ceiling area and for putting workers at risk from falling objects. In the end, we secured a settlement of $4,750,000 for our client, a result that reflected the seriousness of her injuries and the negligence that caused them.