Jeff Rickard settled a case on behalf of the family of a man who was killed and another man who was seriously injured when the scaffold upon which they were working collapsed. The incident occurred in DeKalb County, Alabama, during the construction of a new elementary school. The deceased block mason and the injured laborer were working at a height of about 30 feet when the scaffold collapsed. The scaffolding was of a type commonly referred to as a “crank up” or “mast climber,” and it was owned and erected by their employer. Immediately prior to the scaffold’s collapse, it was struck by a piece of mobile lifting equipment operating by their boss. Jeff argued and proved that a properly erected scaffold would have withstood the equipment’s impact. Suit was brought against the job site general contractor who, pursuant to its contract with the property owners, had significant responsibility for job site safety.
Alabama’s Unique Rule for Defective Products
A Product Liability Framework Unique to Alabama Alabama takes a genuinely different approach to defective product claims than most other states, one built around a doctrine found nowhere else in the country. Understanding how this framework actually works matters...