Scaffolding collapses and other accidents involving scaffolding are common causes of injury on job sites. When these accidents happen, you may be able to get Workers’ Compensation regardless of fault, but determining who is liable is important if you want to file a lawsuit for the rest of your damages.
When we talk about scaffolding “defects,” that often signals a manufacturer defect. These come in a few different types, but usually the actual manufacturer of the product is responsible. However, many scaffolding setups involve defects in the setup or usage, pointing to multiple other parties who could be responsible.
Call the Law Office of John J. Sheehan’s Massachusetts construction accident lawyers for a free case review today at (617) 925-6407.
Manufacturer Liability for Scaffolding Defects
Some of the parts of scaffolding are custom-built for the job at hand, but many of the base materials come from product manufacturers. These manufacturers are often responsible for dangers and defects in three ways:
Design Defects
OSHA writes safety rules that apply to job sites all over the country. Manufacturers must take these into account when designing scaffolding parts, or else no construction site would be able to use their scaffolding.
They also must consider how the scaffolding will be used, how their pieces fit into the overall assembly, etc. For example, any slots or fittings must be deep enough so boards or poles do not slip out, and materials must be light enough to meet weight limits and weight-bearing standards.
If the scaffolding’s design is dangerous or impossible to use safely, the manufacturer could be liable. Because there are so many standards to follow for scaffolding, these issues are likely to be weeded out in the design process.
Manufacturing Defects
The more likely issue is that there was an error or substitution in the manufacturing process that made the scaffolding unsafe. For example, if a slot or hole was made too big, it might allow the scaffolding to wobble or come loose. If cheaper materials were substituted, thickness of metal pieces was reduced, or screws and bolts were simply missing, then the scaffolding could easily become unsafe.
Manufacturing defects are often responsible for catastrophic failures and collapses where the workers did everything right, but the scaffolding simply broke.
Insufficient Warnings
In many product injury cases, there are issues with the warnings that come with the product being insufficient to keep users safe. This is a bit complicated with scaffolding cases because scaffolding users are supposed to be trained in setup and usage under OSHA rules.
When the users are expected to be educated on proper usage, there is a reduced burden on the manufacturer to put warnings on the product, so a claim based on improper warnings might be harder to bring.
Other Manufacturer Liability
The parts used on a job site to build a scaffolding setup to OSHA specifications often require other parts. The scaffolding manufacturer might make tubes, baseplates, ledgers, transoms, and rails, but many of the other parts come from other manufacturers.
Fall protection systems, netting, and boards are often made by other companies and manufacturers, and their products must be up to standards for use in these ways, too. If those manufacturers were responsible for design, manufacturing, or warning defects, we can potentially sue them.
This is especially true if the product was rated or advertised as OSHA compliant or specifically for scaffolding use, but actually fell below standards.
Can Your Employer Be Held Liable for Scaffolding Defects?
While manufacturing problems might be the cause of injury, it is more likely that scaffolding defects came in during the assembly, storage, or use of the scaffolding. This likely puts the burden of making sure everything is done correctly on your employer, which makes it harder to hold them liable.
Workers’ Compensation laws in Massachusetts prevent lawsuits against your employer. While they might be responsible for the accident, they cannot be held liable in court through a lawsuit.
However, that doesn’t actually matter when it comes to filing a Workers’ Compensation claim. You can file a claim against your employer, whether they were responsible, a third party was responsible, or you were responsible. Fault actually isn’t taken into account in a Workers’ Compensation claim.
However, it does mean you cannot sue them in court, and you cannot recover pain and suffering in a lawsuit against them.
Other Third-Party Defendants for Scaffolding Defects
When it comes to collapses or other accidents involving scaffolding, you can potentially sue a lot of different parties. For example, if a driver came along and crashed into your scaffolding, they could be liable for the collapse.
When it comes to defects, third-party defendants are rarer, but you may still be able to sue these outside parties:
- A rental company or supplier of broken or defective scaffolding
- A property owner who set up the scaffolding
- A contractor or third party who set up the scaffolding wrong.
Why is Liability Important for a Defective Scaffolding Case?
As mentioned, you cannot sue your employer for a work accident, but they are required to cover work-related accidents and scaffolding collapses through Workers’ Compensation. This ultimately means that liability and fault are not actually important if you were only filing for Workers’ Compensation.
The reason liability is important is that Workers’ Compensation will not fully compensate you. This program covers medical bills in full, but it only covers a portion of lost wages. It also leaves off damages for pain and suffering.
To get the rest of your damages paid, our Framingham, MA construction accident lawyers would have to take a third-party defendant to court. Since you cannot sue your employer, you cannot get their share of damages, whether they were fully responsible or only shared a portion of the blame.
Because of this, it is important to parse out which parties were responsible, what percentage of the blame they shared, and how we can sue them separately from your Workers’ Compensation case.
Call Our Construction Accident Attorneys in Massachusetts Today
Call (617) 925-6407 for a free case review with the Boston construction accident lawyers at the Law Office of John J. Sheehan.