Builder, Firm Fined $50,000 in Labor Death

A Buena Park contracting company and its owner, convicted in July of willfully violating the state labor code and causing the death of a construction worker who was crushed under a huge concrete slab, were given probation and fined $25,000 each by an Orange County Municipal Court judge Thursday.

Donald W. Frank and his firm, Donlan Corp., had been convicted on four misdemeanor counts of violating the California administrative and labor code. The case--unusual in that it led to a conviction--stemmed from the death of a carpenter who was killed in an accident at a Santa Ana hotel construction site.

‘Definitely Not a Bad Person’

During the two-hour sentencing hearing, Judge Richard W. Stanford delivered a lecture on how the law is changing to hold heads of corporations increasingly responsible for the welfare of their workers and the public.

But he also said Frank “was definitely not a bad person,” had “lived an exemplary life” and did not deserve to go to jail. Although the jury recommended leniency, the district attorney’s office, the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the carpenter’s widow had all recommended that Frank go to jail--at least for 60 days.

Frank, however, called the fines “excessive” and said the publicity the case has generated “has been very damaging to me and my company--not to mention my family.” In fact, he said, he will be out of the construction business at the end of the month.

“A misdemeanor (fine) is usually $1,000,” the 58-year-old Orange County man said after the hearing. “This is $50,000. And I do feel, I will always feel, that we are not guilty of these charges. Hopefully, in appeal it will be brought out.”

Under terms of the probation, Frank and his company must permit Cal-OSHA officials to search and inspect, without probable cause, any construction sites that either party is involved with in any way. And they must notify the nearest Cal-OSHA office two weeks before starting work on any job site, Stanford said. Violation of the terms of probation could bring up to six months in jail.

Fatal Accident

The fatal accident occurred during construction of the 10-story Granada Royal Hometel on Dyer Road, which now does business as the Embassy Suites Hotel.

It was 6:30 a.m. on July 24, 1984, when two huge concrete slabs that were to be used as the fifth and sixth floors of the building were lowered into place by a crane. Suddenly, both floors collapsed.

Joseph Santangelo, 26, of Pomona was fatally crushed when the 40-foot-long slab fell three stories. Carpenter foreman Greg Hostbjor was hospitalized after the accident with hand injuries and a cut knee.

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.

Inspectors’ Report

The day of the accident, inspectors from Cal-OSHA reported 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. Less than a month later, the agency issued seven citations and fined Frank’s Donlan Corp. $13,400 for negligence in the incident.

One of the seven citations alleged “willful, repeat (and) serious” violations in that the company failed to install required wall panels. Another was a “serious” citation charging that the company failed to provide support for the panel that fell and killed Santangelo.

A Cal-OSHA spokesman said at the time that serious violations are issued for hazardous conditions where “serious injury or illness” could occur.

Instead of the maximum penalty of up to six months in jail that each of the four misdemeanor counts carried, Frank and his corporation received the maximum fine on three of the charges. Judge Stanford stayed the sentence on the fourth charge. “No engineer could tell me what the hell happened to kill Mr. Santangelo,” Stanford said. “But that doesn’t mean God made it happen. It means no one could figure it out.

‘Attitudes Have Changed’

“Five years ago, I don’t think the jury would have found Mr. Frank individually responsible,” he continued. “Attitudes have changed. The president (of a corporation) is responsible for people involved (in work) even when the president has minimal direct responsibility to control the work site. But have we changed enough to incarcerate Mr. Frank here to make an example? . . . I can’t go this far in this particular case.”

At the time of Frank’s conviction, Ray Rooth, acting district manager of Cal-OSHA, had said the case should make contractors “sit up and take notice. We don’t get the contractor into court too often, so it’s kind of an important decision.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Creighton B. Laz told the court that a San Diego contractor was sentenced to 90 days in jail in 1984 and that a Riverside contractor was given 30 days of jail time last month for construction accidents.

One Cal-OSHA investigator who refused to give his name said Frank’s case was a first for Orange County. Usually, the investigator said, contractors plead no contest to violation charges and pay the fine instead of going to trial.

“I was hoping for jail,” Laz said, “but I think the fines were appropriate. Individual responsibility was the main issue. It is significant that the president of the company was also convicted.”