|
June 14, 2007
For more information contact:
Allysn Hurley
Director of Marketing and Business Development
Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC
ahurley@eckertseamans.com
Legal Media Verdict Advisory
Eckert Seamans was able to help obtain a major verdict on behalf of the PECO
Energy Company, which was in the amount of $2,208,259. This was part of
continuing litigation that started with a 1992 construction site accident at a
PECO plant in Montgomery County.
The verdict involved the indemnification and contribution claim stemming from
construction site negligence. The incident involved a trip and fall over
an embankment on a construction site by one of the workers. The worker
claimed injuries that included lower back herniations and nerve damage.
A crane operator on the site at the time said that he tripped and fell over a
concrete slab which was placed in a dangerous spot on the site at the Montgomery
County nuclear power plant. While PECO Energy Company owned the facility,
the general contractor was Lamb Design. The mechanical contractor on site
was a firm by the name D.N.B.. An excavating subcontractor was Sutch
Construction, which has filed for bankruptcy since the incident.
The defendant said that the accident was caused by the plaintiff’s own
negligence. It was not clear who was responsible for pouring the concrete
slab at issue. After a trial in July 1998, a jury found PECO 48%
negligent; Lamb Design 42% negligent; D.N.B. 9% negligent; and Sutch 1%
negligent. The plaintiff was awarded $2,256,000 in damages. In May
2005, PECO paid the plaintiff $4,203,919 which covered the verdict, delay
damages and post-judgment interest.
PECO then pursued litigation that sought reimbursement from Lamb for
indemnification, which was rooted in an indemnification clause that was in its
contract with Lamb. While the court found that the indemnification clause
in the contract was ambiguous and that PECO could not recover for
indemnification, it did award PECO recovery under contribution against Lamb and
D.N.B. in accord with the percentages of fault as apportioned by the jury in
1998.
About Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott
Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC (www.eckertseamans.com), a national law firm with nine offices throughout the eastern United States, provides a full range of legal services nationwide to businesses of all sizes, institutions, municipalities, colleges and universities, government agencies and individuals. Its practice areas encompass litigation, including mass tort and products liability litigation, corporate and business law, intellectual property law, labor and employment relations, aviation & aerospace law, bankruptcy and creditors’ rights, employee benefits, environmental law, construction law, municipal finance, real estate, and tax and estate law. Eckert Seamans has offices in Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, and Southpointe, Pennsylvania; Wilmington, Delaware; Morgantown, West Virginia; Boston, Massachusetts, Washington, D.C. and White Plains, New York.
|
|
