PHILADELPHIA – A plaintiff is hoping to overturn a recent summary judgment ruling in a case over a construction site accident.
Michael Luongo filed that motion for summary judgment on behalf of defendant KMK Enterprises on Oct. 5. The motion argued KMK Enterprises base is in New Jersey, as opposed to Pennsylvania, leaving Pennsylvania courts with no jurisdiction over those defendants.
Judge Frederica A. Massiah-Jackson granted the summary judgment motion on Dec. 2, which also dismissed plaintiff Timothy Dooley’s complaint against another defendant, Jacobs Engineering Group.
On Dec. 10, plaintiff counsel John T. Dooley filed a motion for reconsideration, seeking to vacate Massiah-Jackson’s order before the expiration of the appeal period on Jan. 2.
Dooley’s motion explained Jacobs Engineering Group has a corporate base in Philadelphia, and that it had never filed a motion for summary judgment. Further, Dooley said his client had not been given the standard 30-day window under the law to respond to the arguments presented by Jacobs Engineering Group.
A hearing in this matter was set for earlier this month in Court chambers, at Philadelphia City Hall.
On Aug. 7, 2012, Timothy Dooley was working as a pile driver affiliated with Local Union 454 at a job site on the Garden State Parkway, at mile marker 39.3 in Galloway Township, N.J. At that site, a 50 foot-long steel pipe that weighed approximately 4,000 pounds allegedly rolled off a tractor-trailer and crushed him.
Dooley alleges the negligence of the defendants in not properly inspecting the quality of the equipment used at the site led to his accident, and filed suit for that charge and for strict product liability.
The plaintiff is seeking a sum, jointly and severally, in excess of $50,000 in compensatory damages, plus delay damages, interest and allowable costs of suit in this case.
The plaintiff is represented by Dooley and Sean McMonagle in Pennsauken.
The defendants are represented by Sean T. Stadelman and Luongo of Goldberg Segalla in Philadelphia; Samuel D. Hodge Jr. of Huntington & Franklin in Southampton; David Sideman of Gluck Walrath in Trenton, N.J.; and Robert M. Hanlon Jr. in Princeton, N.J.
Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas case 131102651
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nickpennrecord@gmail.com