This case involves a contractor who fell through a ceiling. The injured party is an HVAC contractor who performed work on an air conditioner for a storage room at the defendant’s facility. The contractor was working alone on an 11-foot high mezzanine. While working on the unit, the contractor reached to remove the side cover when he tripped and fell through the ceiling grid onto the concrete floor below. He suffered a broken right collar bone, broken ribs on the left side, torn bladder and head trauma, and was kept in the ICU for a period of time. Contributing factors for the accident include a space that was not brightly lit, the junction box for the unit was located on an unguarded edge of the open sided floor and not back near the rear or side of the air handler, and the guardrail chain and post system was not installed and chain and uprights were laying on the floor near the leading edge becoming a trip hazard. The plaintiff was not equipped with any safety equipment at the time of the incident.
