$950,000 Settlement: Construction Foreman Injured When Long Island Floor Collapsed

In early 2011, a 29-year-old construction foreman was overseeing a major renovation of a luxury home on Long Island. The project required new steel framing throughout the house to meet updated building codes adopted after Hurricane Sandy. To install the steel, a structural steel subcontractor cut through the home's existing floor joists, stripping the main floor of its natural support. Temporary screw-jack supports were placed beneath the cut joists, but the installation was badly done: some jacks sat on bare sand, others balanced on wooden blocks, and the connections between jacks and joists were inconsistent.

The foreman photographed the conditions and emailed the images to his supervisor, flagging them as unsafe. He was told to stop raising the issue. On March 14, 2011, several people gathered on the main floor for a progress meeting. The floor gave way beneath them in a V shape. The foreman and others fell 8 to 10 feet, landing alongside heavy equipment that had been on the floor.

Ambulance crews took him to Southampton Hospital, where imaging showed disc herniations across his cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine, a tendon tear in his right elbow, and a tendon tear in his left shoulder. He underwent lumbar decompression and discectomy surgery in June 2012 and right-elbow surgery at the Hospital for Special Surgery in January 2013.

The case involved multiple defendants, each positioned to deflect responsibility. The homeowners claimed a statutory exemption for one- and two-family dwellings. The general contractor's identity was disputed among the parties. The architect, the structural engineer, and the foreman's employer each denied being the GC, leaving liability scattered across the defense. Adam Orlow, Senior Trial Partner at The Orlow Firm, concentrated the claim on the steel subcontractor: their workers had cut the floor joists, their workers had placed the screw jacks, and theirs was the only trade on site during the shoring installation. That focus bypassed the GC dispute entirely.

The foreman's own photographs and emails, sent before the accident, became central to the case. They established that the dangerous conditions had been documented and reported in writing, and that the warning had been dismissed. The Orlow Firm reached a $950,000 settlement at mediation.