How to Get Compensation After a Holder Construction Accident

• September 6, 2024
• Attorney Matt Stoddard
• Construction Accidents

Construction is one of the most dangerous professions in the world, and Holder Construction has a better track record than most of its peers when it comes to keeping workers on its projects safe. In fact, back in 2008, OSHA partnered directly with Holder to provide safety training for the construction industry in the Savannah area, calling Holder “an example to other companies.”

Based on this reputation, one might expect Holder to do a good job of caring for anyone who does suffer an injury on one of its construction sites. Unfortunately, this expectation hasn’t always proven true. If you are one of the unlucky people who have been injured or lost a loved one during a Holder Construction project, you will likely need the help of a good lawyer to collect fair compensation.

Workers on Holder Construction Sites Are Not Immune to Tragedy

A low accident rate is commendable, but low doesn’t mean zero. Senseless accidents can and do happen on Holder projects, leaving workers dead or with life-altering injuries.

In 2007, only a year before the company’s partnership with OSHA, Holder was one of the contractors organizing and executing a construction project at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. During the work, an employee of one subcontractor hit an employee of a different subcontractor with a truck, killing him.

The victim was directing the trucks at the time, and witnesses say the driver ignored his direction to stop, and made obscene hand gestures toward other workers who tried to warn her in the moments before the collision. During the investigation, the driver did not deny breaking multiple safety rules, but did argue that her behavior was consistent with that of others working on the site.

Within the last ten years, there have been a number of other incidents at sites run wholly or partly by Holder Construction. For example:

• In 2015, during the construction of the Falcons Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, a worker was injured, ultimately fatally, while trying to move a shoring tower with a forklift. He remained under hospital care for three years before his eventual death. The manufacturer’s instructions allegedly warned against moving the tower without first disassembling it.
• In 2016-2017, two workers were injured during the construction of the Apple Developer Center in Cupertino, California. One broke an ankle when a loaded drywall cart tipped over, and another lost partial use of his hand after it was hyperextended against a board.
• Also in 2017, a man working on the Campus Center Apartments in Charleston County, South Carolina suffered a head injury when a several hundred pound HVAC system slipped during installation and fell on him.
• Then, in 2019, a worker fell 40 feet down an elevator shaft during construction at Salt Lake City International Airport. Amazingly, he survived, although not without severe injuries.

As long as accidents like these continue to happen, even in the rarest of instances, there will continue to be a need to compensate survivors and families.

Holder Construction Has Tried to Argue That It Isn’t Responsible for Site Safety

Holder may act as an advocate for safe, responsible construction site management now, but that hasn’t always been true.

In preparation for the 1996 Summer Olympics here in Atlanta, Holder-Russell Construction (a joint venture between the Holder and HJ Russell construction companies) was tasked with building the Coca-Cola Olympic City. While the work was in progress, a security guard for the construction site stepped in an unmarked hole and broke his leg.

The injured guard sued, and Holder-Russell argued that it was not responsible for maintaining the worksite in safe condition, because it did not own or occupy it. At first, Holder-Russell even successfully obtained a summary judgment against the victim. The Georgia Court of Appeals later overturned this decision, however, stating that when a general contractor is in control of a property, it is indeed responsible for safety on that property and counts as an “occupier.”

Construction companies have the power to determine what safety precautions are in effect on an active worksite. Legally, that gives these companies a responsibility to make sure those precautions are adequate.

Unfortunately, there are still other ways for construction companies to avoid paying compensation to injured workers.

Holder’s Practice of Creating Joint Ventures Makes Compensation Harder to Come By

One of the biggest obstacles workplace accident victims face when seeking fair compensation is employer immunity.

Even in cases of gross negligence, employees are not legally allowed to sue their employers for personal injury, and their families are not allowed to sue for wrongful death. Instead, employers must carry worker’s comp insurance to cover workplace accidents.

Worker’s comp insurance only pays for approved medical expenses, two-thirds of lost income, and a small funeral allowance if applicable. It does not provide anything for pain or emotional losses. So, even when this system works perfectly, and the employer doesn’t try to argue down the acceptable costs, the final sum will be much smaller than what a court would typically award for the same incident.

The best way to collect full compensation is usually to sue a separate company, other than the employer, that also contributed to the accident.

It’s very common for multiple companies to work on the same construction project at once. So, when someone gets hurt, there’s usually more than one company that was complicit in ignoring safety rules. Whichever company the victim worked for is immune, but the others are fair game for a lawsuit.

When Holder Construction collaborates with other companies, however, it often protects itself by forming a project-specific joint company, like the Holder-Russell example above. Instead of multiple companies that can each be sued by the other’s employees, a Holder worksite might officially have only one merged offshoot company managing it.

Holder successfully avoided liability for the death at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium this way. The official general contractor for the stadium was HHRM Self-Perform, a joint venture of Holder, Hunt, HJ Russell, and CD Moody. Even though the victim worked for a subcontractor, HHRM was able to argue that, because it was providing secondary worker’s comp coverage to its subcontractors, it counted as a statutory employer to all workers on the project.

This essentially made Holder and all of its partners on the project immune to civil liability.

Thankfully, there are still other routes construction accident victims can take to claim full compensation.

Sometimes the Best Defendant for a Construction Accident Isn’t a Construction Company

If you’ve been injured or lost a loved one to an accident at a Holder Construction site, you may be able to collect full compensation, even if you or your loved one worked for Holder or one of its joint ventures.

Depending on the details of the accident, other viable defendants for a lawsuit might include:

• Equipment manufacturers — If the accident involved a mechanical malfunction, a missing safety guard, or a piece of personal protective equipment that underperformed, the manufacturer of that product could be liable for the damages.
• Maintenance or rental companies — Construction companies often hire third-party companies to service their equipment, or rent machines instead of buying them. If a company other than Holder contributed to an equipment failure through improper or inadequate maintenance, that would also be grounds for a lawsuit.
• Safety inspectors and consultants — Third-party companies and organizations that give harmful advice or overlook obvious hazards while claiming to protect the safety of workers may be liable for resulting accidents.

The Stoddard Firm excels at helping victims of construction accidents find a source of compensation that can truly, fairly cover the scope of their losses. If you’d like to hear more about your options and how we can help, please reach out by phone or chat.