Brooklyn Carpenter Left Quadriplegic After Staircase Collapse Wins $48 Million Verdict

Dariusz Hrychorczuk had been working as a carpenter on a three-story construction and renovation project in Brooklyn for about two weeks when, one morning, the temporary wooden staircase leading to an elevated platform gave way beneath him. The general contractor's owner had directed him to use that staircase to access an eight-foot platform. When Hrychorczuk reached the top, the staircase had been moved from its original position. As he stepped onto it, it collapsed. He fell and fractured his lumbar spine. The injury left him a quadriplegic.

Hrychorczuk and his attorneys filed suit against 1677 43rd St. LLC, the building owner, and BBM Construction Corp., the general contractor. The case centered on New York Labor Law Section 240, the so-called Scaffold Law, which places non-delegable liability on owners and general contractors for elevation-related injuries at construction sites. Masonry subcontractor Gilmar Design Corp. was also named as a third-party defendant.

Slawomir Platta and Michael Taub of The Platta Law Firm represented Hrychorczuk at trial. The firm presented evidence that the general contractor had control over the temporary staircase and had specifically directed Hrychorczuk to use it. The defense did not dispute the severity of the injury. The case turned on who bore responsibility for the condition of the staircase.

On November 29, 2022, the Kings County jury returned a verdict of roughly $48 million. The award broke down into past pain and suffering ($15 million), past medical expenses ($1.5 million), and past lost earnings ($212,000), along with future components: $20 million for pain and suffering over 21.5 years, $11 million for future medical expenses, and $250,000 for future lost earnings. Construction Dive reported the result in December 2022.

The defendants challenged the size of the award. On March 8, 2024, Justice Wayne Saitta granted the building owner's motion to set aside the $35 million pain and suffering portion as excessive, conditioned on the plaintiff's consent to reduce past pain and suffering from $15 million to about $8.36 million and future pain and suffering from $20 million to about $11.14 million. That conditional reduction, made to bring the award in line with comparable New York quadriplegia cases, left the economic damages intact.