Port Roofer Hurt in Fall Wins $2.7M in Verdict

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

December 7, 2004

White Plains
A jury awarded $2.7 million in damages to a 58-year-old Port Jervis man who was permanently disabled in a construction accident four years ago.

Peter Wallace, a roofer, was working on a salt shed for the highway department Dec. 15, 2000, in the Westchester County town of Mount Pleasant when he fell 15 feet onto blacktop and suffered a fractured ankle.

Since then, Wallace has had four operations, walks with the aid of a cane and can no longer work as a roofer. He may eventually need an operation to fuse his ankle, according to a medical expert’s testimony in state Supreme Court.

The jury deliberated about two hours before returning its verdict to Justice Nicholas Colabella on Friday evening. The town and the contractor on the job, Stonehenge Group, had already been found liable for Wallace’s injuries because conditions on the job site violated state labor law.

Most of the award was for pain and suffering that Wallace has already suffered, as well as future pain and suffering.

Wallace’s lawyer, Elliot Tetenbaum of Newburgh , said he expects a lawyer for the town and Stonehenge Group to seek a reversal of the verdict.

* Reprinted with permission of The Times Herald-Record