A laborer who fell through a hole in the roof while helping demolish the former Cineplex Odeon Theatre in Chicago has agreed to accept $4.8 million to end his lawsuit against the property owner and the two contractors that hired him.
On June 13, attorneys with the Chicago personal injury law firm of Salvi Schostok & Pritchard announced the settlement, reached on behalf of their client, Jose Gonzales.
Gonzales had filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court in 2020. The lawsuit named as defendants property owner Banner Northwest Storage; general contractor G.A. Johnson & Son, which had been hired by Banner; and Nickelson Industrial Service, which had been hired as a sub-contractor by G.A. Johnson.
According to court documents, the contractors had been hired by Banner to demolish the defunct theater building in the 6300 block of N. McCormick Road, in Chicago’s West Rogers Park neighborhood.
Gonzales, 42, worked for Nickelson, and was assisting in the removal of HVAC units from the roof of the theater building on June 12, 2018.
Gonzales allegedly was moving a stack of plywood sheets on the building’s roof. The plywood sheets were being used to cover up holes in the roof. When he picked up the last sheet, he allegedly stepped forward and fell through a hole that had been covered by the plywood stack.
According to the complaint, there was no warning provided that the stack of plywood was covering a hole in the roof.
According to the complaint, Gonzales fell 12 feet down to the floor below. He allegedly broke both of his wrists, tore a rotator cuff and suffered a fusion in his lower back. According to his attorneys, Gonzales has incurred hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills to treat his injuries in the years since.
Gonzales’ attorney, Brian L. Salvi, said Gonzales has been unable to return to work full-time since the incident.
In a prepared statement within a release announcing the settlement, Salvi said the companies involved failed to provide a safe workplace, and Gonzales “was left out to dry by those around him.”
After fighting the case for two years, the defendants agreed to settle during a June 9, 2022, mediation session, the Salvi attorneys said.
The Salvi firm declined to indicate how much Gonzales would receive after attorney fees and other litigation costs are paid from the $4.8 million settlement fund.