Stark & Stark Shareholders Bruce H. Stern and Michael G. Donahue, III, both members of the Accident & Personal Injury Group, co-authored the article, The Dangers of Working in the Construction Industry, which was published by NJ.com on September 10, 2015.
The article warns of the many pitfalls that construction workers can face, particularly if contractors fail to maintain safe worksites. In 1979, the New Jersey Supreme Court determined that a worker’s negligence could not be used to reduce the responsibility of the designer and manufacturer of the defective product, even if the worker fails to recognize and/or continues to work with the defective product. This was established in Suter v. San Angelo Foundry & Mach. Co., 81 N.J. 150, (1979).
They also discuss the more recent case, Fernandez v. DAR (2015), in which the New Jersey Supreme Court “was recently asked to declare that the rule it enunciated in Suter applies to preclude the injured employee’s ‘negligence’ in a workplace construction injury case.”
Mr. Stern and Mr. Donahue both served as amicus curiae for the case, on behalf of the New Jersey Association for Justice (NJAJ). The NJAJ argued that construction workers have no meaningful choice to deny perceived dangers in the workforce, and that “comparative negligence must not be available to those [contractors] who violate safety standards and expose workers to harm.”
You can read the full article by clicking here.
