Ankle Fractures Bring $4.6 Million Settlement to Union Bricklayer

Three construction companies have agreed to pay $4.6 million to a 51 year old bricklayer to settle a lawsuit stemming from injuries he sustained in a scaffolding accident at 520 North Michigan Avenue on February 19, 2000. The plaintiff, John Coyne, is represented by Shawn S. Kasserman of Corboy & Demetrio.

Coyne, who was employed by W. R. Weis Company, sustained injuries to both ankles during the remodeling of the Nordstrom’s building on Michigan Avenue. Coyne and a co-worker were setting 2,000-3,000 pound slabs of limestone while working on a swing stage scaffold suspended by several cables to the building. At the same time, while installing corregated steel decking on the floor above Coyne and his co-worker, an apprentice ironworker, employed by Cordeck Sales, Inc., inadvertently cut one of the support cables holding the scaffold causing it to drop approximately fifteen feet before catching on the safety tiebacks. Neither Coyne, nor his co-worker, fell from the scaffold, but both were injured by the jolt of the scaffold as it was stopped by the safety tiebacks. The general contractor in charge of safety at the job site was AMEC Construction Management, Inc., f/k/a Morse Diesel.

Coyne’s impact with the scaffold resulted in fractures of his left heel bone and right ankle requiring multiple surgeries and extensive physical therapy. Coyne could not return to his trade as a union bricklayer.

According to Shawn Kasserman of Corboy & Demetrio, “The lack of safety and coordination on the job site cost John Coyne a career that he loved and left him to deal with a lifetime of pain. The size of the settlement reflects the terrible loss this caused him.”

This case was scheduled for trial on January 29, 2004.