LOS ANGELES – A woman whose car was struck by a Palmdale man who committed suicide by jumping from a downtown highrise under construction has filed a lawsuit against the company building the project where the decedent was working.
Donna Crockett and her husband, Jamie Crockett, filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against Turner Construction Co. The suit’s allegations include negligence, strict liability for an ultrahazardous activity and loss of consortium.
The suit seeks unspecified damages. A representative for Turner Construction could not be immediately reached.
Joseph Sabbatino, 36, of Palmdale died at the scene of the fall, which occurred at about 12:35 p.m. March 17 in the 600 block of South Figueroa Street.
Sabbatino, an electrician, fell about 50 stories and landed on a vehicle. The building project’s general contractor said the man had no reason to be above the structure’s third floor.
The complaint alleges Turner Construction should have been aware of Sabbatino’s unfitness for the job and that the company was negligent in hiring him.
The lawsuit states that after Sabbatino’s body hit Donna Crockett’s car, she got out and saw “brain and other internal bodily matter splattered across her vehicle and the surrounding scene.”
The woman had never before seen a dead body, the suit states, and the experience left her “shocked, overwhelmed, panicked, distressed and completely distraught.”
She was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital and remained there for 10 hours receiving treatment, including help from a crisis management team, the suit states. She continues to get therapy, according to her complaint.
She has been unable to return to her job at the Macy’s store near where the incident occurred because of her emotional distress, the suit states.
Jamie Crockett has suffered from a loss of the affections he once had with his wife as well as the income she no longer is able to bring home, the suit states.
The 73-story Wilshire Grand is being developed by Korean Air, which is owned by Hanjin International Corp., at a cost of more than $1 billion. The high-rise will be 1,100 feet tall when completed in 2017, surpassing the height of the U.S. Bank Tower, the tallest building in Los Angeles at 1,018 feet.
Previous related story: Construction worker killed in fall ID’d as Palmdale resident
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Tom says
After she settles with the construction company there probably going after the family of the jumper, in a civil lawsuit,then shell file a suit against the manufacturer of her car, for no jumper warning safety system some people,times are changing. I hope a judge throws this case out, or awards her one dollar from the construction company. Get a job lady like the rest of half of Americans today. Im tired of busting my butt day after day and seeing people take advantage of the system.
William says
Jackie Kennedy had a worse day in 1963 and somehow managed to put her life together after that.
So, it is possible. This couple thinks they won the lotto.
Maybe she can get rex parris to sue the City of Palmdale too.
A Boy Named Sue says
Too late. rex parris has been suing the City of Palmdale for years and years and years. It is some kind of twisted jealousy that he has for a city that quite frankly has passed his city by.
Shane Falco says
Toss this lawsuit out. She and her husband are just conspiring for an early retirement payday once they googled Turner.
Sjgranai says
I’ve always love the “I don’t get any nookie” lawsuit….
With a broad that bourgeois…you know you were not getting any to start with.
CAP'N LANCASTER says
Unlike yer Bias Blog, this here Blog is about Free Speech. With that there Freedom, I says Frivolous lawsuits are a plague on society. We gots someone in the Valley who looks like Kenny Rogers but likes to Sues people more than a Hound Dog in Heat wants to scratch that Itch. He daggum Sued Two Local City’s over voting districts he won’t bring to his own city. He’s suin two VFW Posts over a baseball game injury. He done sued Starwood back to Kansas. Then Mr. Smarty Pants led a civil suit that set the Stage fot that there criminal Trial that put Raymond Jennings in jail. Now Jennings is free and we can only hope he turns the tables and Sue the King of Suin for millions
Seriously? says
My jaw dropped, SERIOUSLY!?
“Turner Construction should have been aware of Sabbatino’s unfitness”
Hmm, maybe I should sue movie directors for the suicide of Robin Williams…
Oh, wait, Mr and Mrs Crockett may already be doing that. SMH
Donna Crockett “can’t” work, well heck- I NEED A JOB!