Family of Man Killed at Construction Site Files Suit
The wife and two children of an iron worker killed in a Dec. 18 accident at a high-rise office building under construction in downtown Los Angeles filed a wrongful-death suit Tuesday, charging builders with allowing unsafe and unfit conditions for workers.
The Los Angeles Superior Court suit contends that the builders negligently and carelessly allowed the building structure to be overloaded, causing steel beams to fall, killing Michael James Golden, 29, of Upland.
Two other iron workers--Golden’s younger brother, Patrick Duane Golden, 28, and Edward Leon Winchester, 47--also died when a stack of steel girders plunged through 11 stories of the office tower at 1000 Wilshire Blvd.
Filed on behalf of Kimberly Ann Golden and her children, Jeremy Michael, 4, and Joshua James, 2, the suit is believed to be the first in the aftermath of the accident that also injured six workers.
According to the suit, the defendants had a “non-delegable duty to take specific precautions to see that the work area was in a reasonably safe condition and the work performed in a reasonably safe manner.”
It alleges that inadequate and defective conditions were allowed to exist at the construction site and that the construction practices and methods “presented a peculiar risk” to Golden and other workers on the building.
Named as defendants in the suit are Swinerton & Walberg Construction Co. Inc.; Reliance Development Group Inc., and 50 John Does, or unnamed defendants.
The suit also alleges that before Dec. 18, certain of the defendants marketed, sold, consigned or distributed to Swinerton and Reliance the steel beams, girders and component parts of the structure “knowing that such products would be used without inspection for defects by the user.”
Swinerton’s and Reliance’s Los Angeles offices had closed Tuesday afternoon for the New Year holiday, after the suit was filed, and could not be reached for comment.
The suit, filed by attorneys John Scott Matthew and Rex W. Jacobs, asks for general and special damages in an unspecified amount plus costs of the suit and any other relief the court deems proper.
