Thursday, 4:30 PM
Family of worker files suit in scaffold collapse
By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff
Relatives of Romildo Silva, a 27-year-old laborer who died in an April 3 scaffolding collapse high above downtown Boston, filed a lawsuit today claiming the general contractor should be held responsible for his death.
The lawsuit alleges Macomber Builders was negligent in "causing or allowing a dangerous and hazardous condition to exist" at the work site on Boylston Street, and "in failing to give adequate warnings and proper instruction" to Silva.
The Superior Court suit seeks "fair monetary value" to compensate for Silva’s death, including at least $500,000 in lost wages and punitive damages. A Brazilian immigrant who dreamed of returning to his homeland and opening a hair salon, Silva lived in Somerville with his wife, son, and three cousins.
He had been standing on the construction platform, applying limestone panels to a partially finished 14-story Emerson College dormitory, when a worker pulled out a metal tie that was securing the platform to the building, according to Macomber officials.
The 3-ton platform should have been tied to a crane, but was instead left to balance atop a mast, more than 100 feet above the street, Macomber said in a report released by city officials this week. It toppled to the ground, killing Silva, Robert Beane, 41, a foreman who was also on the platform, and Michael Ty, 28, a doctor who was driving in his Honda on Boylston Street and was crushed.
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the accident, but might not issue findings for as long as six months.
"We anticipate that a number of lawsuits will be filed against a number of parties as a result of this tragedy," John D. Macomber, chairman and chief executive of South Boston-based Macomber, said in a statement today. "We can't comment further on the particulars of those actions."
