A New Jersey construction worker who suffered severe injuries from a 30-foot fall at a worksite has reached a $4 million settlement (all figures U.S.) with the developers of the American Dream Mall in East Rutherford, according to his legal team.
The injured worker, Robert Smith, was 61 when he fell in 2018 from a temporary guard rail at the mall construction site. The fall resulted in multiple fractures and severe injuries to his pelvis, sacrum, clavicle, and humerus, requiring several surgeries and eventually leading to a hip replacement, according to Greenberg Minasian, LLC, the law firm representing him.
“This settlement is a just outcome for our client, who sustained life-altering injuries due to negligence on the site,” said Mitchell Goldstein, Senior Counsel at Greenberg Minasian. Goldstein said he argued in court that the temporary guardrails at the site were improperly constructed and not sufficiently elevated, failing to meet Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards.
The settlement was reached just two days before the case was scheduled for trial. Lawyers for the defense reportedly argued that Smith’s actions contributed to the fall, but Goldstein contended that the guardrail’s construction flaws directly caused the accident.
Based in West Orange, Greenberg Minasian represents clients throughout New Jersey in personal injury and workplace injury cases.