Manchester Little League and the Township of Manchester agreed to pay $1.25M to settle a lawsuit filed by a Manchester, NJ man who was seriously injured while attending a mandatory “Coaches Cleanup” Day at the Manchester Little League Complex, Manchester Township, New Jersey. Hon. Rochelle Gizinski of Toms River, New Jersey was the settling judge.
Nicholas DiMaria, of Manchester, New Jersey, then 38 years old, and was attending a mandatory “Coaches Cleanup” Day at the Manchester Little League Complex, New Jersey when the accident occurred. Mr. DiMaria was assigned, along with 2 other volunteer coaches, to install insulation on or over a pipe in an attic space in the new Announcer’s Booth/Restrooms building, which was under construction. Mr. Di Maria stepped through the attic access opening to assist with insulation when he fell through the rafters and landed in a bathroom eight to ten feet below.
Mr. DiMaria suffered catastrophic life-altering injuries which necessitated multiple surgeries and over $1.2 million in medical expenses. Additionally, Plaintiffs’ experts opine that he will require future medical treatment with a cost in excess of $250,000. Mr. DiMaria will never walk the same again and this has materially affected all aspects of his life.
The DiMarias were represented by John E. Keefe, Jr. of Keefe Law Firm. “Mr. DiMaria will never be the same after this horrific injury. Volunteers like Mr. DiMaria should never have been put in this position of an unsupervised construction worker without any regard for the safety of the fathers who participated in what was supposed to be a field clean-up day. We are grateful nonetheless that the Manchester Little League tendered its policy to help ease the financial burdens on Mr. DiMaria and his family.” stated John Keefe.
Stephen T. Sullivan, Jr. of Keefe Law Firm was instrumental in assisting Mr. Keefe on the case. Manchester Little League was represented by James C. Orr, Esq. and coverage counsel was Michael B. Oropollo, Esq. and Peter E. Mueller, Esq. of Harwood Lloyd. Guy P. Ryan, Esq. appeared for the Municipality.
Keefe Law Firm headquarters is located at 170 Monmouth Street, Red Bank, NJ 07701 with additional offices located at 57 Paterson Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901 and 56 Ferry Street, Newark, NJ 07105.
