Construction company sues third party regarding worker’s claims
Posted on Friday, April 27, 2007
After being sued by a worker injured in a fall in January, a construction company has filed suit against a subcontractor.
Dixie Construction, a limited liability company, has been sued by German and Evalena Carbonel over the Jan. 28 fall. The plaintiffs claimed negligence. Dixie is now suing Miller Commercial Flooring Inc. in a thirdparty complaint.
Duane Miller, owner of the flooring company, had no comment on the suit when contacted Thursday afternoon.
German Carbonel was working at a construction site on Joyce Boulevard in Fayetteville at the time of the fall. One of his duties was to move boxes of carpet squares to the third floor of the commercial office building under construction, according to Carbonel’s suit against Dixie Construction.
Carbonel went to the third floor of the building to unload the debris box, according to the suit, and was pitched over the side of the box, which was lifted by the use of a Terex SkyTrak. He fell about 40 feet to the ground and sustained serious injuries, the suit stated.
The suit states Dixie owed a duty to Carbonel to use ordinary care to maintain the premises in a “ reasonably safe condition” and to warn him of hazardous conditions existing at the job site. The suit claims several negligent acts and that Dixie failed to maintain the site in a reasonably safe condition.
Carbonel sustained two broken legs, a broken ankle, a dislocated knee, a dislocated hip, a fractured neck, contusions, abrasions and scarring. Damages to Carbonel named in the suit include medical bills, loss of earning capacity and earnings, pain and suffering, mental anguish, disfigurement, and visible results of injury and caretaking expenses, according to his suit against Dixie.
In its third-party complaint against Miller Flooring Inc., Dixie claims that Miller did not list or identify Carbonel as its sub-subcontractor at the time the subcontract agreement was executed and failed to advise Dixie Construction of Carbonel’s status as a subcontractor at any time prior to the accident. The suit also claims the flooring company failed to obtain written consent from Dixie Construction to assign a portion of the work required under the subcontract agreement.
According to Dixie’s suit against Miller, if Carbonel was injured and damaged as described in his suit, then the injuries were caused by the flooring company’s failure to adequately provide safety training and education to its non-authorized sub-subcontractors, namely Carbonel, for recognition of hazards on the construction job site.
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