Yonkers Construction Worker Wins $8.67 Million After Electrical Discharge on Unsecured Ladder

On August 22, 2015, Daniel Rivera was working at a construction site in Yonkers, New York when an unsecured metal ladder he was climbing shifted and struck a live electrical wire. The current discharged through his body instantly.

Rivera, who was 37 years old at the time, was transported by ambulance to Saint Joseph's Medical Center and was hospitalized for three days. His injuries proved permanent: he lost function in his left arm entirely, sustained vision loss, and suffered ongoing severe pain along the left side of his body. In the months and years that followed, he underwent a series of surgeries, including knee surgery, a discectomy, a left L5-S1 foraminotomy, and multiple epidural steroid injections.

Rivera worked for Bryan's Home Improvement Corp., a subcontractor hired by Home Depot U.S.A., Inc. to perform work at the location. He filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Case No. 1:16-cv-07552, alleging that the failure to secure the ladder and the absence of required electrical hazard protections directly caused his injuries.

Attorneys from Ginarte Gonzalez and Winograd, LLP, including Joseph Carfora and Michael Edelman, represented Rivera. The case turned on whether Bryan's Home Improvement Corp. met its legal obligation to protect workers from live electrical circuits. Federal safety regulations require employers to either de-energize and ground any circuit near a worker or guard it with effective insulation. Bryan's posted no warnings about the energized line, took no steps to guard it, and left the metal ladder unsecured in close proximity to it.

Before trial, the court granted summary judgment on Rivera's economic damages, establishing a floor of at least $6.59 million based on his projected lifetime care costs. Following a jury trial, the court entered judgment in Rivera's favor on April 11, 2018, for a total of $8.67 million.

Home Depot, which cross-claimed against Bryan's for contractual indemnification, pursued an appeal. In 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed that Bryan's owed Home Depot full contractual indemnification, Rivera v. Home Depot U.S.A., Inc., 776 Fed. Appx. 4 (2d Cir. 2019), leaving the underlying jury verdict undisturbed. The insurance dispute over which carrier was required to fund that indemnification obligation continued through New York state courts into 2025, confirming that the $8.67 million judgment remained the operative award throughout.