In 2009, a scaffolding accident occurred at a construction site on the University of Texas' West Campus that took the lives of three and injured another. Last Friday, the trial for the resulting personal injury lawsuit came to a close and ended with an emotional address from the judge presiding over the case.

The accident occurred when scaffolding equipment the workers were standing on collapsed and sent the crew falling 11 stories. Family members of the three men who were killed brought a wrongful death lawsuit against the company that designed the scaffolding, American Mast Climber, for $29 million in damages, and an injured worker sought $1.2 million in personal injury damages.

The families of the men killed and the injured worker argued that the founder and president of American Mast Climber had designed the scaffolding without any approval from a safety engineer, which they said led to poorly built and ill maintained equipment. This ultimately caused a rusty bolt to give out and resulted in the collapse, they argued.

American Mast Climber passed the blame to the general contractor on the project, Greater Metroplex Interiors, saying it had misused the scaffolding and was 100 percent responsible for the accident. American Mast Climber's founder and president argued that the accident had nothing to do with the design and occurred when the scaffolding bumped into the building, causing the equipment to fail instantaneously.

However, American Mast Climber was not able to provide any physical evidence to back up its theory when asked to do so by the judge.

Admitting some guilt in the accident, Greater Metroplex Interiors and another contractor on the project, Andres Construction, agreed to pay $2.8 million as part of a settlement out of court with the families and injured worker.

After hearing both sides' closing arguments, the judge gave a moving statement directed to the families of the construction workers who were killed about love and loss. Family members included one worker's wife and children, who live in Mexico, and another worker's mother, who came from Honduras.

The judge said that he was familiar with losing a loved one as his son passed away three years ago and said that the only way to fulfill the loss is with more love. However, the judge made clear that he would not make a decision based on his personal experience.

Source: YNN Austin, "Judge ends construction death trial with tearful account," Heidi Zhou-Castro, 4/8/2011.