I was recently involved with a case that was a personal injury (death) on a construction site. I don't usually get involved with personal injury cases but this was for an existing client and involved construction issues at the root of the death, so I was called.
A PEMB iron worker was setting columns on a job that had "dry set" anchor bolts (post-installed epoxy anchors). Temperature at the site at the time of installation of the anchor bolts was quite low for the area (17F during the night....50F at time of installation, but nightly temps below freezing). Epoxy didn't cure before columns set. Column fell over and killed the guy when he attached cable for plumbing the column.
Contractor claimed poor epoxy mixing (which did occur, but was not the proximate cause of the failure). Was able to prove that even if the epoxy had been mixed properly for all anchors, curing did not occur because of low temperatures, thus causing the failure. My calculations covered a variety of scenarios (all anchors fully cured, some anchors cured, some not (for those that had improper mixing)....
Widow won the case with a settlement of 2 million +. Possibility of appeal so all I can say at this point.
A PEMB iron worker was setting columns on a job that had "dry set" anchor bolts (post-installed epoxy anchors). Temperature at the site at the time of installation of the anchor bolts was quite low for the area (17F during the night....50F at time of installation, but nightly temps below freezing). Epoxy didn't cure before columns set. Column fell over and killed the guy when he attached cable for plumbing the column.
Contractor claimed poor epoxy mixing (which did occur, but was not the proximate cause of the failure). Was able to prove that even if the epoxy had been mixed properly for all anchors, curing did not occur because of low temperatures, thus causing the failure. My calculations covered a variety of scenarios (all anchors fully cured, some anchors cured, some not (for those that had improper mixing)....
Widow won the case with a settlement of 2 million +. Possibility of appeal so all I can say at this point.
