Personal Injury Litigation: The Broadbent Case

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York

$1.7 million settlement reached for ironworker

Donald Broadbent fell 20 feet when his scissor lift was struck, toppled

Dec. 11, 2006

ALLENTOWN, Pa. – A $1.7 million settlement was reached today in the case of an ironworker who suffered multiple injuries in a 20-foot fall from a scissor lift while working at Orefield Cold Storage, a Lehigh County facility.

The settlement, negotiated by attorney Dominic Guerrini of Kline & Specter, P.C., came one year after Donald Broadbent, 60, of Germansville, an employee of Lehigh Valley Erectors, was injured while reinforcing and welding bar joists to strengthen the roof of the storage facility in Orefield, Pa.

The mishap occurred when an Orefield Cold Storage employee drove a standup forklift into Broadbent’s scissor lift, toppling the lift and causing him to fall to the concrete floor. Broadbent suffered a fractured pelvis, wrist and elbow, eight broken ribs and a collapsed lung.

He sued Orefield Cold Storage, claiming negligence on the part of the company. Broadbent noted that he and a partner had taken a number of safety precautions, including placing three safety cones around the base of their lift and alerting an Orefield supervisor they would be working in the area.

At one point prior to the accident Broadbent had even complained to supervisors that forklift operators were driving too fast.