Thread: Injured illegal immigrant can sue

Injured illegal immigrant can sue

BY JOSE MARTINEZ
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Wednesday, August 22nd 2007, 4:00 AM

FIRMS RUNNING a Queens construction site were happy to put Jose Gomez to work at a salary well below union scale - even though he was an illegal alien.

Yet, when Gomez filed suit seeking lost wages over a 2005 work accident that left him paralyzed, his immigration status became a big deal. The construction firms said he was not entitled to collect because he was in the country illegally.

Now, a Manhattan judge has ruled otherwise, saying the bosses can't have it both ways.

"Gomez's alien status is irrelevant," state Supreme Court Justice Rolando Acosta decreed in a recent ruling, noting such tactics could "unnecessarily intimidate" an immigrant from "pursuing a legitimate claim."

The plight of workers like Gomez is a common one, said Joel Magellan, executive director of Asociacion Tepeyac, an advocacy group for immigrants.

"When things get complicated, that's when these companies run away," Magellan said.

Gomez, a Central American immigrant, was left a paraplegic after a concrete slab on the third floor where he was jackhammering gave way, sending him crashing down inside the Flushing building that was being demolished.

"The entire work site collapsed: the slab, the plank, the tools," Gomez testified at a deposition.

Gomez and another co-worker who was injured worked for Prestige Carting, which had been brought in on a demolition job as a subcontractor. The site owner was F&T International and general contractor Top 8 Construction.

Besides trying to get away with stiffing the workers, the judge also found the companies' safety practices were subpar.

Acosta said it was wrong for the firms to hold deportation over the heads of immigrant workers injured on the job

jmartinez@edit.nydailynews.com

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/08 ... n_sue.html

That is what happens when you hire unskilled and stupid people!

Wooooooooooo Hooooooooo ........... I hope this ILLEGAL SUES THIS COMPANY INTO BANKRUPCY

We can then deport him and he can take his new company south of the border with I hope millions and millions of dollars

All you corrupt companys trying to work on the skinny and screw American workers better wake up.

Wait till they are able to sue you for the prevailing wages and benifits you should have been paying the American Workers

You screwed these people over the years and your corrupt companies will have to back pay all of the Illegals you swindled