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A 40-year-old Hartford laborer who suffered injuries to his left knee after he fell through a floor at work has settled his premises liability lawsuit for $150,000.

Attorney Matthew Paradisi said his client, Rosmel Chirinos, was on one of the top floors of a New Haven renovation project in December 2014 where he was working to cut a hole in the floor. But Chirinos got injured from a fall through gaps in a floor that had been covered with wood, according to Paradisi, a litigator with Hartford-based Cicchiello & Cicchiello.

“Plywood was placed over the floor and it was insufficient to support the weight of Mr. Chirinos, who fell through,” Paradisi said Tuesday. “He got caught in the hole as he was falling and severely injured his left knee.” Chirinos, Paradisi said, got stuck and did not fall all the way to the floor below. He filed a lawsuit in Hartford Superior Court in October 2016.

The complaint cites three defendants: site contractor Advanced Scaffold Services and sister companies Metro Star Properties and Metro 280. Metro Star Properties co-owned the property with Metro 280, which also oversaw the construction project at the time of the incident.

Paradisi said the three companies were accountable for Chirinos' injuries.

“They should have more properly secured a stronger floor covering,” the attorney said. “They also had the option to install railings around the hole, and they did not do that.”

Paradisi said one of his challenges in the case was “that, basically, all of the defendants were pointing fingers at one another through deposition and written discovery. We believe we firmly established liability against each of the defendants.”

In the end, each paid a portion of the $150,000 settlement, expected to be disbursed to Chirinos this month, his attorney said.

Meanwhile, Chirinos still has pain in his left knee, more than four years after the incident, Paradisi said. Clinicians gave him a 20 percent disability rating to his left knee, on which he underwent surgery, and recommended he get a total knee replacement, Paradisi said.

“The doctor opined that he could not return to work full function as a demolition construction worker,” Paradisi said.

Negotiations between attorneys for both sides took the better part of a year, Paradisi said.

Initially, the plaintiff demanded $475,000 to settle the case, while the defendants, Paradisi said, “made nuisance offers for not a lot of money.”

The parties reached a settlement Jan. 28, soon after mediation in Hartford with Judge Constance Epstein.

Chirinos had previously received $157,174 in workers' compensation. At the time of the fall, he had been an employee of New England Yankee Construction, which was not named in the litigation.

Paradisi called the settlement “a fair result.”

“I think it adequately takes into consideration the risks of trial,” he said.

Peter Barrett of Windsor-based Markey Barrett, represented Metro Star Properties and Metro 280. Barrett declined to comment Tuesday.

Richard Lord of Simsbury-based Litchfield Cavo represented Advanced Scaffold Services. Lord did not respond to a request for comment.

In court papers, the defendants maintained they had insufficient knowledge or information to concede the companies were responsible for Chirinos' injuries, and left the burden of proof to the plaintiffs.

Assisting Paradisi on the case were his Cicchiello & Cicchiello colleagues: Angelo Cicchiello, Manny Cicchiello, Michael Reilly and Alex Sarris.

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