Law & Moran's Peter Law, left, and Gray Rust St. Amand Moffett Brieske’s Matthew Moffett deliver opening statements at trial over a fall that paralyzed a Georgia man. Watch the trial here.
Marietta, GA— Attorneys Tuesday debated responsibility for the fall that paralyzed a Georgia man, as trial opened against the contractor who performed work on the man’s home. Morder, et al. v. Porter, et al., 22-A-1262.
Thomas Morder fell 15 feet through a railing on an elevated deck at his home in May 2021. The fall left Morder, then 67, with a traumatic brain injury and a thoracic spinal injury that paralyzed him. Morder and his wife, Pamela, contend Michael Porter, a contractor doing business as McTay Improvement, which had been doing work on the Morders’ home at the time, is responsible.
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On Tuesday, the Morders’ attorney, Law & Moran’s Peter Law, walked jurors through the home improvement project and the fall. He said evidence would show the contractor removed the railing to create a pass-through for equipment to be brought up while building a screened porch in another part of the home. Law added that, when the project appeared largely completed, the contractor replaced the railing without properly securing it, barricading it, or otherwise posting an appropriate warning.
It created the perfect illusion of safety, a booby trap for the unsuspecting person who approached it,” Law said Tuesday, opening the trial’s first phase, focused on liability. “[The Morders] never once received any warning about this rail, never once.
But Porter’s attorney, Gray Rust St. Amand Moffett and Brieske’s Matthew Moffett, pushed back on that contention. He told jurors Porter had given multiple warnings about dangers surrounding the deck and its railing throughout the project, and Morder had repeatedly disregarded them. On Tuesday, Moffett said evidence would show Porter warned the Morders to stay off the deck until the work was complete, and that he used a trash can and grill as barriers to warn of the railing opening. Moffett added that before the fall, Porter had specifically warned Pamela Morder that the work was not yet complete, that the rail was not secure, and that she had relayed that warning to her husband.
“[Morder] knew the railing behind the grill was laid in place and not attached. He knew that,” Moffett told jurors, contending Morder assumed the risk of the area. “He chose to go on the deck after being asked and instructed not to go on the deck during the project, which had not yet completed.”
If necessary, the damages-focused second phase of trial will begin soon after the jury’s verdict on liability, with the full trial expected to conclude this week.
Email Arlin Crisco at acrisco@cvn.com.
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