Jury Awards $32M to Paralyzed Construction Worker

A jury in Waterbury, Conn., awarded a paralyzed construction worker $32 million in a precedent-setting case that only went forward after the state Supreme Court allowed him to file a negligence lawsuit against the contractor. Norman Pelletier's spine was shattered when a steel beam broke loose and struck him in the summer of 1994, according to the Hartford Courant. The accident paralyzed him from the chest down. Pelletier -- who worked for a subcontractor -- won the right to sue the contractor, Sordoni Skanska Construction of New Jersey, in a case decided two years ago by the state Supreme ...