Boston Accident Injury Lawyer

SOCIAL HOST LIABILITY, PART ONE

This is part One of a two part blogpost, in which Boston Personal Injury Lawyer, Keith L. Miller, analyzes liability issues in the recent drowning death in Andover, Massachusetts.

In the early morning of February 16, 2009, sixteen year old Concord Academy student, Elizabeth Mun, was found by friends face-down in a shallow stream in an upscale residential neighborhood in Andover, Massachusetts. She was pronounced dead as the result of drowning later that day at Children's Hospital in Boston.

It is believed that she had attended an overnight party at the home of a fellow Concord Academy student, whose parents apparently were not present. She had apparently left the house on her own around 5:00 a.m. and her friends became concerned when she had not returned by 6:30. The Essex District Attorney is investigating the incident, although it is presumed that alcohol may have been a factor.

Many are already drawing parallels to the death of Taylor Meyer, a King Philip Regional High School student who drowned last fall in Norfolk, Massachusetts after wandering from an underage drinking party.

If it turns out that alcohol or drugs were involved in this recent incident, the question immediately arises as to the responsibility, and by inference the premises liability, of the parents who owned the Andover home, and who appear to have left their teenage child without supervision at the home, and by implication, permitted the party to take place.

It is well known that criminal responsibility can attach when there is evidence that parents or other adults have procured alcohol for minors. In fact, last fall a 44 year old Gloucester woman was sentenced to a year in jail after pleading guilty to multiple counts of reckless endangerment and illegally supplying alcohol to minors after buying alcohol for her 13 year old daughter and her friends so that they could "party" in her home.

Continue reading "Boston Personal Injury Lawyer Analyzes Drowning Death of Wellesley Teenager: Were Absent Parents liable" »

A worker was entitled to medical and disability payments under the Massachusetts worker's compensation statute for a work related injury even though there was evidence in his own medical record that he had a pre-existing back condition.

The Massachusetts Appeals Court determined that the insurer for the employer had failed to produce evidence to overcome the opinion of the worker's chiropractor that the injuries were primarily related to the new injury, rather than the pre-existing degenerative back condition, as was required under G.L. c. 152, s. 1(7A).

On December 31, 2004, Scott MacDonald was cleaning up a worksite at the end of a work day. While lifting buckets of waterproofing, he felt a tightness in his back, which did not seem sufficiently serious at the time to prevent him from completing his workday. However, the following day the pain became excruciating, and he sought treatment with a chiropractor, which continued for the next four months.

The chiropractor also recommended that he obtain an MRI, which revealed disc herniations and degenerative changes. MacDonald then sought treatment from a group of neurologists, whose reports referenced prior back injuries and treatment, and made a diagnosis of pre-existing degenerative disc disease. The records show that MacDonald's condition was improved in March, 2005 and he was back to work by the beginning of May, 2005.

McDonald sought benefits for a work related injury, which his employer's insurer challenged on the basis that his injury was pre-existing and not work related. An administrative judge heard MacDonald's claim and awarded medical benefits, temporary total incapacity from January 1, 2005, to March 15, 2005, and temporary partial incapacity from March 16, 2005, until April 30, 2005.

Continue reading "Employee's Right to Benefits for Work Related Injury not Defeated by Pre-existing Condition if Employer Fails to Show that Earlier Injury was Predominant Cause of Disability says Massachusetts Appeals Court" »

A serious and deadly construction accident, which took place in downtown Boston on Saturday, February 7, 2009, reminds of the dangers associated with construction related work, and in particular work being performed at high elevations using lift equipment.

In the Saturday incident, a mobile lift toppled and fell into a vacant lot used by the Brattle Book Shop, where there were several patrons present. The falll killed a construction worker who was working on the lift and severly injured a second worker. It is reported that the crane was being used to inspects roofs on a Suffolk University Dormitory, which recently opened on West Street, several blocks from downtown crossing.

According to fire officials the two men involved in the accident were working for Reliable Roofing & Sheet Metal LLC of Framingham, Massachusetts. It appears that Suffolk had hired Tremco Inc. of Beachwood, Ohio, to inspect the roof of the building located at 10 West Street. Tremco then subcontracted with Reliable Roofing to do the work. The lift being used had been rented from Equipment 4 Rent, located in South Boston and West Bridgewater, Massachusetts.

This was the second fatal accident involving lift and staging equipment in downtown Boston in the last year. The prior accident took place at a building a few blocks away on Boylston Street being renovated by Emerson College, which killed another construction worker as well as the operator of a motor vehicle, which was passing on the street below.

In such accidents, a worker is barred from suing his employer by the Worker's Compensation Act in Massachusetts. However, claims can be made against other "third parties" involved in the work, but only if it can be proved that their acts and/or omissions were a contributing the cause of the accident.

Questions inevitably arise after such an accident: did the equipment fail? Were the workers properly instructed in the use and operation of the equipment? Were there adequate safety measures in place to protect the workers? Was someone other than the employer of the injured workers who had these responsibilities? Did anyone interfere with the use and operation of the equipment?

Continue reading "Downtown Boston Construction Accident Leaves One dead and One seriously Injured when Hydraulic Lift Topples to Ground" »