Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani New York Partner Joseph Salvo and Senior Counsel Thomas Fanizzi recently secured pre-action commencement withdrawal of a claim made against GRSM’s educational institution client.
The claimant filed a notice of claim against GRSM’s educational institution client alleging violations of the New York State Labor Law sections 240(1), 241(6), and 200, predicated on a fall from a ladder while performing plumbing work. The claimant alleged severe physical injuries, including the need for cervical fusion surgery.
At a pre-action hearing taken pursuant to the New York Education Law, Fanizzi presented the claimant with medical records demonstrating that the claimant had provided various conflicting mechanisms of injury to his medical providers. For example, the claimant told an emergency medical facility that heavy pipes fell on his head while he was welding, stated to his treating physician that he fell from a 12-foot ladder, and reported in his Workers’ Compensation claim that he fell from stairs. Furthermore, prior to the pre-action deposition, the GRSM team interviewed the claimant’s employer, who stated that their company had never worked at the educational institution and does not generally perform plumbing work. The GRSM team highlighted these contradictory facts, raising questions about the claimant’s credibility.
Based on the testimony elicited regarding the various ways the plaintiff claimed to have been injured and the claimant’s employer’s denials regarding the plumbing work that the claimant had been allegedly performing, the claimant’s attorneys withdrew as counsel and discontinued the action that had been commenced against other entities allegedly involved in the claimant’s plumbing work. This favorable result highlights the importance of due diligence and pre-suit investigation that, in this case, obviated unnecessary litigation.
Learn more about GRSM’s Labor practice.