Miles, Sears & Eanni attorney Richard C. Watters reached a $3,000,000 settlement in the unwitnessed accident case of Scott L. Waldie v. Platinum Coast, Inc., and Mark F. Barrett.
Mark Barrett was leasing a home through property manager Platinum Coast to a tenant who requested pest control services. Platinum hired Good Cents Pest Control, Inc., to go into the basement and set traps. Plaintiff Scott Waldie, an employee of Good Cents, entered an access door through the bedroom floor and climbed down a small wooden ladder to the basement floor. A brief time later, he was found semi-conscious and bleeding from the head on the hard floor of the basement.
Multiple engineers inspected the premises on behalf of all parties. Plaintiff contended that the wooden ladder nailed to the base of the access door tore loose from its top left rung, causing Mr. Waldie to fall backwards and strike his head on the basement floor.
Plaintiffs contended that the defense knew that a worker would have to go down and up the wooden ladder secured to the trap door opening by only nails into the wood. A proper inspection would have disclosed this defective condition and, in fact, approximately three inspections had occurred on behalf of both defendants between January 16, 2012, and October 12, 2012, without any disclosure of the dangerous ladder.
The parties settled the case in its entirety on May 30, 2013.
