Block O'Toole & Murphy Secures $10,100,000 Settlement After Tenuous 7-Year Legal Battle

NEW YORK, March 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Block O'Toole & Murphy (BOM) obtained a $10,100,000 settlement after a long and complex legal fight for a construction laborer who suffered an above-the-knee amputation in 2017. The ensuing seven-year legal battle involved a series of challenges from the property owner, general contractor, and insurance company.

"This case was like a law school fact pattern; it had so many moving parts," said Partner Scott Occhiogrosso, one of the lead attorneys on the case. "It was a blessing to have the quality of lawyers that we have here, who know these different areas so well."

The accident occurred on a Friday, while the plaintiff was flagging traffic for a nearby construction site. While our client paused to let cars pass, one vehicle suddenly sped down the street, striking Plaintiff and pinning him to a parked car. He was rushed to the hospital, but his right leg had been crushed by the impact, and doctors were forced to amputate it.  

Despite never flagging before, Plaintiff was thrown into the task with minimal explanation – take an orange flag, the general contractor said, and control traffic at the busy street corner. The New York Industrial Code, however, establishes that property owners and general contractors must instruct employees on the proper safety procedures for flagging traffic. This regulation – meant to protect employees in dangerous lines of work – became the basis for Occhiogrosso's argument.

"[Our client] didn't know where to stand, when he was supposed to flag, when he was supposed to stop, or where he was supposed to stand when he's not flagging," Occhiogrosso explained.

Together with BOM Partner Daniel O'Toole, Occhiogrosso filed a claim against the property owner under New York Labor Law 241(6). Under this law, property owners and general contractors can be held responsible for any accidents that occur due to violations of the New York Industrial Code.

The property owner named the general contractor, Plaintiff's employer, as a third-party defendant in the case, and both filed a motion to dismiss. This was the first major hurdle for the attorneys: defeating the motion and keeping the case alive long enough to settle or go to trial.

"We needed [the court] to understand how dangerous the work was, and the fact that [Plaintiff] had absolutely no training and no instruction for it," O'Toole said. "That's what we were hoping would get us past a motion to dismiss, and ultimately, it did." 

But the fight didn't end there. The general contractor's insurance company, which should have covered Plaintiff, attempted to disclaim coverage under the assertion that the contractor had violated the terms of their contract. Now, to even have a chance to recover money for their client, the attorneys had to win a declaratory judgment action.

A declaratory judgment is an official ruling from a court that decides how a written agreement should be interpreted. In this case, a judge would look at the language of the insurance company's contract with the general contractor and decide if it had truly been breached.

The insurance company's argument was based on the claim that the general contractor misrepresented the type of work it performed. According to the insurance company, the contractor originally said it only hired other subcontractors, rather than doing any on-site work itself. If the insurance company had known about the on-site work, it said, it would have never written the policy.

To counter these claims, our attorneys managed to find a report from the insurance company's investigator, who had looked into the general contractor before any contract was signed. The investigator's report directly stated that the general contractor was likely doing more hands-on work than it claimed.

"When we found the investigator's report, we were able to say, wait a minute, you knew about [the additional work] before you ever wrote the policy," said O'Toole. "Your own investigator said, 'I think they're doing work on site.' And yet you didn't do any further investigation."

This crucial discovery ultimately helped resolve the case. A mere 48 hours before the trial was set to begin, the insurance company agreed to extend coverage to the plaintiff, and the defendants offered to settle.

Through these challenges, the attorneys agreed that their driving force remained the same – their client. After their client survived such a traumatic accident, our attorneys knew they would fight tirelessly to get him the compensation he deserved.

"[Our client] through it all just stayed so strong," said Occhiogrosso. "He continued to believe that ultimately things would break his way, and justice was going to be served."

About Block O'Toole & Murphy:

Block O'Toole & Murphy is a top personal injury law firm serving victims who have been hurt because of another party's negligence. The firm has recovered over $2 billion in verdicts and settlements for clients hurt in car crashes, construction accidents, and other personal injury cases. For a free consultation, call 212-736-5300 or visit https://www.blockotoole.com/

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SOURCE Block O'Toole & Murphy