A Warehouse Visit, Falling Marble Slabs, and a $12 Million Wrongful-Death Settlement

On September 20, 2019, Behzad "Al" Abedi and his wife, Angela, drove to a Stone Basyx warehouse in southwest Charlotte to pick out stone. The couple built houses together as a hobby, and they were choosing slabs for a home then under construction. As they stood near the storage racks, a stack of heavy marble gave way. Ten slabs, each weighing roughly 1,000 pounds, came down on Abedi. He was pronounced dead about 15 minutes later, with Angela beside him.

Abedi was 63. He had spent his career in manufacturing and worked as a vice president at a company in Gastonia, North Carolina. He and Angela were raising children together, and the home they were building was meant for the family. Angela did not just lose her husband that day. She watched him die.

The family hired Michael A. DeMayo and Adrienne Blocker of DeMayo Law Offices, LLP, in Charlotte. Angela filed a wrongful-death suit in Mecklenburg County and built it on two separate theories of fault. The first was premises liability against Stone Basyx, the warehouse operator, over how the thousand-pound slabs were stacked and stored. The second was products liability against CNS Fabrication, the Canadian company that manufactured the rack system holding the stone.

The firm argued that the storage method and the rack together let the slabs topple, and that the danger was foreseeable to both the warehouse and the rack maker. The complaint also carried a claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress on Angela's behalf, grounded in the fact that she was standing next to her husband when the slabs fell.

The parties went to mediation with Thomas Duncan. On October 11, 2022, they reached a $12 million settlement that resolved all of Angela's claims, including the emotional-distress count. The identities of the defendants in the signed agreement and the defense attorneys were kept confidential.

"Although no amount of money will ever bring Al back to his loving family," Blocker said, "Angela and the children are now able to obtain some level of closure regarding the legal aspects of this tragic occurrence." Because the case ended in a negotiated settlement rather than a jury verdict, the $12 million was not subject to appeal, remittitur, or reduction.