-
WORKER TO GET $2.6 MILLION FOR INJURIES IN FALL
Canton Repository
Friday, July 23, 2004CANTON ... The fall from a 20-foot-high scaffolding landed Matthew Spuhler on his head.
For nearly a month he would stay in a coma as his swollen brain healed. But even as the Canton man lay in a hospital bed fighting for his life, his attorneys say, Spuhler's bosses were cooking up bogus safety documents and forging his signature to them, all in an attempt to shield the company from blame.
Spuhler's story, laid out in a lawsuit and in interviews with his attorneys, would have gone before a Stark County jury earlier this week. But before the trial, his former employer, WACO Equipment Co. in Jackson Township, agreed to pay $2.6 million, according to Stark County Probate Court records.
Spuhler, now 31, had been working for WACO for two years when he fell in July 2002 while erecting scaffolding in the auditorium of East Palestine School.
The company, with branches in nine states, was building the platform for a firm removing asbestos from the school's ceiling.
Even though Spuhler was laying planks two stories in the air, he wasn't wearing a safety harness, a breach of federal safety guidelines but a common practice for WACO, said his attorney, Brian Zimmerman.
"In reality, WACO never used fall-protection (devices) unless the general contractor required them to," Zimmerman said. "They were playing with dynamite."
Just days after the accident, Spuhler's supervisors tried to cover up serious lapses in safety protocol. WACO bosses produced a back-dated safety study stating there was nowhere to attach safety lines in the auditorium, Zimmerman said. Then they forged Spuhler's name to a form saying he agreed to work on the job, knowing that there would be no safety equipment.
"I think they did this not thinking he would survive," Zimmerman said.
State inspectors later determined that Spuhler could have hooked a safety line to a column in the auditorium and demanded that the other workers do so before allowing the project to continue, Zimmerman said. But inspectors didn't further penalize WACO because they relied on the forged documents, he said.
WACO's attempt at a coverup wasn't discovered until Spuhler sued WACO for not providing safety equipment.
When confronted about the documents during depositions, Spuhler's supervisors "pleaded the Fifth," Zimmerman said.
"It's outrageous that a company would stoop to the level of forging an employee's signature while he was fighting for his life, so that they could save their image and assets, instead of looking at how they could prevent an accident from happening again," Zimmerman said.
Zimmerman said he is willing to work with any state investigation into the accident.
WACO's attorney, Victoria Barto, declined to comment on the settlement, saying her client needed more time before making a statement.
Spuhler went back to work for WACO, but couldn't keep up with the pace and had to quit, Zimmerman said.
Two years after the accident, Spuhler still can't taste or smell. A deep scar peeks out from beneath his hairline. He's blind in one eye and has problems with his speech and memory.
The money from the settlement, minus up to a million dollars for attorney fees, will be placed in a trust for Spuhler and his daughter.
Co-counsel Allen Schulman Jr. said the settlement sends a message about worker safety.
"Companies are not going to profit by not keeping workers safe," Schulman said. "You will be punished for it."
-
