An insurance adjusting company agreed to a $5 million settlement involving a construction worker who was injured in a stairwell collapse.
The incident occurred in an apartment complex that was fire damaged, according to media reports.
“It’s not very common that a plaintiff would sue an insurance adjuster,” said Universal City attorney Sydney Chase. “Generally, you sue the building con contractors but here they did something. They partook in the structural work.”
The plaintiff, represented by O’Leary, Shelton, Corrigan, Peterson, Dalton & Quillin law, suffered a traumatic brain injury after a screw got stuck in his cranium, which was subsequently removed with surgery.
“He had severe damage and it's going to affect this man for a large working lifetime,” Chase told the St. Louis Record. “For many metropolitan areas, this is a normal settlement. The fact that there was a settlement means the insurance company felt it was proper.”
The insurance adjusting company is accused of hiring a structural engineer who was allegedly not qualified except to find reparable and irreparable areas of the apartment building.
“They didn't just act as an insurance company that found out about an accident and now represent somebody,” said Chase who practices law in Missouri and New York. “They did things. I would've named them, too.”