First Lawsuit Filed in Hancock Scaffolding Catastrophe
Press Release, 03/13/2002Two of the nation’s powerhouse personal injury and wrongful death trial law firms filed today the first lawsuit on behalf of the families of two women who were killed while sitting in their car when falling scaffolding debris from the John Hancock building crushed their car Saturday.
The lawsuits were filed on behalf of the parents of Melissa Cook, 29, of Chicago, the driver of a Honda, and the husband of her cousin, Jill Nelson, 27, who was a passenger in the car which was standing on Chestnut Street just south of the Hancock.
The lawsuit was filed jointly by Corboy & Demetrio and Clifford Law Offices of Chicago. Robert A. Clifford and Thomas A. Demetrio, two of the nation’s leading trial lawyers and former partners, will act as lead counsel on behalf of the two families in the lawsuit which was filed against Shorenstein Management, Inc., of California, owner and manager of the John Hancock Center; AMS Architectural Technologies, Inc. of Illinois, of Chicago, architect and coordinator of the scaffolding project; Beeche Systems Corp., of New York, owners of the scaffold; and Prime Staging, Inc., of Wheaton, who assembled the scaffold.
Both Demetrio and Clifford stated the necessity for filing a lawsuit at this time was to secure an immediate court order to protect and examine the debris and records of the defendants as well as acquire the subpoena powers of the court to obtain pertinent information so that the families will be a part of the investigation.
Clifford and Demetrio appeared before Cook County Circuit Court Judge William Maddux, Chief Judge of the Law Division, Wednesday morning requesting a protective order in the case so that the relevant evidence involved would be preserved, protected and not altered.
Clifford and Demetrio stated they intend to add Linda Demo and Betty Semplinski, respectively the mothers of Melissa Cook and Jill Nelson, to the lawsuit. Both mothers were passengers in the rear seat of the Honda when the scaffolding fell 42 floors crashing into the front seat. They witnessed their daughters’ deaths as well as suffered serious injuries themselves.
According to Demetrio and Clifford, the families requested that the two prominent law firms jointly represent them in order to determine the cause of this incident and to prevent this avoidable tragedy from occurring to other innocent families.
