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Philly jury awards $2.5 million for union carpenter who broke his tailbone after scaffold collapse

Michael Sullivan, 40, broke his tailbone and seriously injured his back when a pin slipped from a scaffold.

A union carpenter fell from a scaffold while working at a school in Levittown. A Philadelphia jury awarded him a $2.5 million verdict.
A union carpenter fell from a scaffold while working at a school in Levittown. A Philadelphia jury awarded him a $2.5 million verdict.Read moreiStock

A union carpenter from Bucks County was awarded a $2.5 million verdict by a Philadelphia jury after suffering serious injuries in a fall from a work scaffold.

Michael Sullivan, 40, was working on a raised platform in June 2015 at the Albert Schweitzer Elementary School in Levittown when a deck pin dislodged. The rolling steel structure collapsed.

The 40-year-old carpenter dropped six feet through the platform, breaking his tailbone. The accident also left him with two protruding spinal discs, according to his attorney Jeff Laffey of the Philadelphia-based firm Laffey, Bucci & Kent.

Sullivan — who had alleged a defective scaffold design and a lack of proper warnings — has not been able to return to work as a carpenter since the mishap.

Werner, which made the scaffold, denied it was defective. An attorney for the company, which is based in Greenville, Pa., was not available for comment. The verdict was rendered last week in Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.