$64 Million Verdict for Ironworker Left Quadriplegic After 15-Foot Fall at Panduit Warehouse

On June 20, 2007, Ronald Bayer, a 41-year-old ironworker and member of Ironworkers Local 393, was working on a warehouse expansion project in DeKalb, Illinois when he fell approximately 15 feet from a steel beam onto a concrete foundation below. The impact fractured his C1, C6, and C7 vertebrae, severing the spinal cord and leaving him a quadriplegic with limited arm mobility and constant pain.

Bayer had been hired through Area Erectors, a subcontractor on the project. Panduit Corp., the Tinley Park-based owner and general contractor overseeing the warehouse expansion, controlled the worksite. At trial, the firm argued that Panduit failed to provide adequate fall-protection infrastructure, including safety cables that could have arrested the fall. Panduit countered that Bayer had not properly secured his safety harness to a nearby elevated basket.

After five years of litigation and a one-month trial, a Cook County jury sided largely with Bayer. It found Panduit 80 percent responsible for the accident and Bayer 20 percent responsible. The gross award was $80 million for future medical expenses, pain and suffering, and related damages. After reducing by the 20 percent comparative-fault share, the final judgment against Panduit came to $64 million.

Clifford Horwitz, Thomas Kelliher, and Jay Luchsinger of Horwitz, Horwitz and Associates tried the case for Bayer. The verdict, returned November 14, 2012, was reported as the largest ever awarded to a quadriplegic in Illinois history.

Panduit appealed, challenging in part the trial court's approval of a good-faith settlement between Bayer and Area Erectors that extinguished Panduit's third-party contribution claim against the subcontractor. The Illinois Appellate Court affirmed the damage award and the good-faith finding in 2015. The Illinois Supreme Court accepted further review and issued its opinion in 2016 (2016 IL 119553), with the $64 million judgment standing.