$1.75 Million Settlement for Carpenter Forced to Carry 60-Pound Studs Up Stairs Without Freight Elevator

On an October evening in 2018, a carpenter working a renovation project inside a Manhattan commercial building was told by the general contractor's superintendent to carry a bundle of 60 to 70 pound metal studs up to the sixth floor. The building's freight elevator was the normal means of moving materials that size. It required 48 hours' notice for an elevator mechanic to open the ceiling hatch and accommodate oversized loads. No one had given that notice. The studs arrived with no elevator reserved, and the superintendent told the carpenter to carry them up the stairs instead. Climbing between the fourth and fifth floors, he lost control of the load. The bundle pulled him backward, and he fell roughly six stairs.

The carpenter did not seek treatment immediately. Over the following ten days, pain drove him to his doctor, who ordered imaging and physical therapy. MRIs documented a Bankart tear, SLAP tear, and partial rotator cuff tear in his right shoulder, along with cervical disc bulges, lumbar disc herniations at L4-5 and L5-S1, and lumbar radiculopathy. He subsequently underwent three surgeries: right-shoulder surgery, then a hemi-laminectomy and foraminotomy at NYU Langone, and finally a transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion at the same spinal levels.

The firm pursued the general contractor under New York Labor Law. The defense centered its position on the GC superintendent's testimony: he claimed it was not his responsibility to arrange the freight elevator. If that held up, liability shifted away from the GC. Adam Moses Orlow, the firm's Senior Trial Partner, built the case around every other witness on record. The carpenter testified the superintendent had directed him to the stairs. His direct supervisor said the same. The employer stated that arranging the freight elevator was the GC's responsibility under the building's rules and that they would not have allowed their worker to manually carry oversized materials up stairs that did not belong to their company had they known the request was being made. The building's manager testified the GC was the party responsible for scheduling the elevator.

Four witnesses placed responsibility on the GC. The superintendent's account stood alone. The firm presented their testimony, and the case resolved for $1.75 million.