January 20, 1992
A Danville, Illinois, jury awarded $2.4 million to two ironworkers who suffered serious work injuries during the construction of a downstate Illinois department store. On June 4, 1986, as the ironworkers were installing part of the superstructure for the new Hills Department Store in Danville, the bar joists on which they were standing rolled, causing each to fall twenty feet to the ground, resulting in multiple fractures and back injuries. At trial, the plaintiff trial team, lead by attorney David E. Rapoport, demonstrated that the general contractor failed to ensure that the bar joists were welded into position. This act was both negligent and in violation of the Illinois Structural Work Act.
When asked about the construction worker’s personal injury cases, Mr. Rapoport concluded, “The time has come for general contractors to stop cutting corners and start delivering the safe workplaces that laborers deserve. The contractor in this case tried to limit the recovery because the ironworkers returned to work — one six months after the fall, the second 18 months after the fall. However, we demonstrated to the jury that because of the injuries these men sustained, their ability to work as ironworkers has been limited over time. The jury agreed and awarded these men almost ten times the offer made by the contractor to settle the case.”
Rapoport Weisberg Sims & VanOverloop, PC. is a personal injury law firm based in Chicago, Illinois. The personal injury attorneys at Rapoport Weisberg Sims & VanOverloop, PC. have achieved multimillion-dollar verdicts and settlements for individuals with lawsuits arising from medical malpractice, product liability, semitruck and motor vehicle accidents, workplace injuries and construction accidents in Illinois and Wisconsin. Rapoport Weisberg Sims & VanOverloop, PC.’s premier aviation negligence lawyers represent victims of commercial and general aviation disasters nationwide.
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