Contractor Convicted of Willful Code Violation in Fatal Hotel Accident

A Municipal Court jury in Santa Ana on Tuesday convicted a Buena Park contractor and his firm of willfully violating the state labor code when a construction worker was crushed to death on one of their projects.

Ray Booth, acting district manager of the state Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal-OSHA), which investigated the 1984 accident, called the verdict precedent-setting.

The decision should make local contractors “sit up and take notice,” he said. “We don’t get the contractor into court too often, so it’s kind of an important decision.”

Unusual Verdict

The prosecutor in the case, Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Creighton B. Laz, also said Tuesday’s verdict was unusual because contractors are rarely prosecuted.

Laz said it was particularly unusual that after a two-week trial and one day of deliberations, the jury found the firm’s president guilty of code violations--not just his corporation.

The contractor, Donald W. Frank, and his firm, Donlan Corp. of Buena Park, were convicted of four misdemeanor counts for violating the California administrative and labor code stemming from the death of Pomona carpenter Joseph Santangelo, who was crushed under a 40-foot concrete panel, Laz said.

The violations included findings that Frank and his firm willfully failed to follow the codes, failed to provide bracing plans at the construction site and failed to provide vertical shoring for the sixth floor of the hotel under construction, which collapsed onto Santangelo, Laz said.

Each count carries a penalty of up to six months in jail, although Laz said it is unlikely that Frank will serve such a sentence. Sentencing is set for Sept. 3. Neither Frank nor his attorney could be reached for comment late Tuesday.

According to Laz, on July 24, 1984, Santangelo, 26, was working on the fifth floor of a hotel that was once known as the Granada Royale Hometel project, a 10-story, 320-room edifice in Santa Ana. The hotel has since become a plush pink structure known as the Embassy Suites Hotel. Donlan Corp. was a subcontractor on the Granada Royale project.

Floors Collapsed

Two huge concrete slabs that were to be used for the fifth and sixth floors had just been lowered by crane into place at about 6:30 a.m. when the accident occurred. Suddenly, both floors collapsed, crushing Santangelo and injuring another worker, carpenter foreman Greg Hostbjor.

A third workman, Bob Nix, 22, was standing on top of the sixth floor panel when it fell but managed to scramble to safety and rescue Hostbjor from the jumble of broken concrete.

Cal-OSHA inspectors reported on the day of the accident that six of eight anchor pins designed to support the sixth-floor concrete panel had been sheared off as workers tried to place the panel in position.