In a case presented by Chicago construction accident attorney James J. Morici, Jr., a Cook County jury returned a verdict for a construction worker totaling $1.5 million for injuries sustained when he slipped and fell from a step ladder on the McCormick Place South expansion project.
The Plaintiff, a 40-year-old drywall-taper from Chicago, was injured when he slipped and fell six feet while working in the basement of the McCormick Place Convention Center expansion project. As a result of the accident, the Plaintiff sustained a torn Anterior Cruciate Ligament in his right knee requiring surgery, preventing him from returning to the drywall profession.
The Plaintiff based his case upon the failure of the Defendant to comply with safety and contractual documentation provided by McCormick Place General Contractors which stated that proper scaffolding and other safety equipment was to be provided to all workers on the site. Plaintiff asserted that the failure to comply with these stated guidelines, as well as the allowance of an accumulation of water and debris on the floor by the Defendants, resulted in the accident and the Plaintiff’s injuries.
The Cook County jury of 12 deliberated for approximately three and one-half hours before returning a verdict against the Defendant totaling $2 million, reduced by 25 % for the Plaintiff’s contributory negligence. The Honorable Judge Susan Fleming presided over the trial at Chicago’s Daley Center.
Morici, a founding partner of the Chicago-based personal injury and worker’s compensation firm of Morici, Longo & Associates, is a long time veteran of Northern Illinois trial courtrooms and is a former First Chair, Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney. At the time it was the fourth seven-figure verdict for Mr. Morici in the past 18 months and his tenth Plaintiff’s verdict in-a-row since founding the firm in September 1998.
