$21 Million Verdict for Roofer Left Quadriplegic After 20-Foot Fall With No Safety Training

On October 18, 2006, Santiago Arias was helping to raise the roof of a warehouse at 5800 Clinton Drive in Houston when he fell approximately 20 feet onto the ground below. The fall fractured his C-3 vertebra in three places and left him paralyzed from the chest down, with only limited use of his right hand. Arias, a married father of three, had already lost his left eye in a separate incident on another job site the prior year.

Arias was working for Gary White, who operated under several business names including Degar Fuel Systems, Inc. and White's Building Service, Inc. The property owner was GSL Investments, Inc. Neither the employer nor the site provided fall-protection gear or any safety instruction to workers, in violation of federal OSHA regulations.

Brant Stogner of Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz and Stogner tried the case against Degar Fuel Systems, the non-subscribing employer. At trial, the firm established that the complete absence of safety equipment and training directly caused the fall and the severity of Arias's injuries. The jury awarded roughly $21 million in damages covering future medical care, pain and suffering, physical impairment, disfigurement, and loss of earnings.

The Texas Tribune reported the award as the largest workplace-negligence verdict in Texas in 2009. GSL Investments had already settled separately in May 2008 for $50,000.

The financial recovery Arias ultimately received fell far short of the jury number. White carried an insurance policy that excluded subcontractors, leaving few attachable assets. After legal fees and costs, Arias's actual recovery amounted to a fraction of one percent of the verdict, less than the estimated annual cost of his ongoing care. The case became a central illustration in a Texas Tribune investigation into the state's optional workers' compensation system and the gap between large verdicts and real-world collections for seriously injured workers.