$1.575 Million Settlement for Electrician Who Fell From Luxury Yacht Ladder in Fort Lauderdale

On April 8, 2014, Martin Card, an electrician employed by Florida Bow Thrusters, arrived at River Bend Marina in Fort Lauderdale to perform work on an 83-foot yacht owned by Jorge Mufarech. Card, who was not experienced with boats, needed to board the vessel. The only means of access the marina provided was an extension ladder that was not secured to the yacht and was resting on a wet, sandy gravel surface.

Card climbed the ladder. It gave way. He fell eight feet and landed with enough force to injure his left sacroiliac joint, the connection between his spine and his hips. The injury required invasive fusion surgery to correct, and his medical bills alone reached $115,000. After the accident, River Bend Marina quietly replaced the defective ladder with a stable rolling ladder.

Attorneys Thomas Scolaro and Justin Shapiro, then of Leesfield Scolaro in Miami, took on the case. They pursued two separate lines of liability. Against the marina, they argued that providing an unstable, unsecured ladder as the sole boarding method was straightforward negligence, a position reinforced by the facility's own post-incident switch to proper equipment. Against the vessel owner and his captain, they argued that the captain, acting on Mufarech's behalf at the time of the accident, shared responsibility for what happened at the point of boarding even though Mufarech himself was not present.

Both sides of that theory held up. River Bend Marina agreed to pay $750,000. Mufarech and Captain Manuel Hernandez together paid an additional $825,000. The combined settlement reached $1.575 million, which the Daily Business Review reported in August 2018 as 'nearly $1.6 million.'

Card's total medical expenses of $115,000 reflected the direct cost of the fusion surgery, separate from the broader damages addressed by the settlement.