Carbon Monoxide

In 1987, Leesfield & Partners opened their offices in Key West on the heels of a wrongful death case tried to verdict by Ira Leesfield. For the past four decades, the firm’s involvement in Monroe County has continued to grow both in the courts and in the community through educational programs, scholarships and contributions to numerous food banks. Every year the firm is a proud sponsor to the Marques Butler Memorial Softball annual tournament that is held in honor and memory of Marques Butler, a former client. The firm also looks forward to organizing, sponsoring and participating in the Monroe County Bar Association’s Annual Continuing Legal Education luncheon customarily held at Leesfield & Partners’s Key West Offices on Whitehead Street.

It is through its personal injury practice that the firm makes the biggest difference in the community. Most recently, Partner Thomas Scolaro has obtained an 8-figure settlement stemming from a house fire in Ramrod Key. This is the second time Mr. Scolaro secures such a result for clients. A few years ago he tried E.E. vs. XYZ Resort Hotel & Marina and MARK JASON HOLMES to verdict and won $40,580,000 for his client. To this day, this remains the highest personal injury verdict in the history of Monroe County.

Ira Leesfield and Thomas Scolaro also reached a seven-figure settlement on behalf of an Iowa family that was injured following carbon monoxide exposure at a Key West Hotel. In addition to proving that the hotel’s negligent repair to the boiler roof vent caused carbon monoxide to be forced back down into the boiler room of the hotel and into the adjoining guest rooms where our clients slept, the firm successfully fought for passage of Senate Bill 1822. It was the first law at the time that required public lodging establishments to install one or more carbon monoxide detectors that we all take for granted today.

This morning three workers became trapped when they investigated the reason for the newly-paved Long Key Road was settling. Their investigation took them inside a drainage manhole, from which none of them came out alive. The three victims were working on a road project for Douglas N. Higgins, General Contractor.

When first responders arrived on scene, a volunteer firefighter with Ley Largo Volunteer Fire Department and two deputies with Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, they had to go inside the manhole themselves in an attempt to rescue the three workers. Two of the workers who had collapsed, probably due to some toxic fumes, were pronounced dead at the scene. Later in the day, the body of the third worker was recovered hours later, deeper inside the manhole.

Once the rescue was over, the volunteer firefighter also collapsed and was emergently transported to Mariners Hospital. Soon after, the two deputies part of the rescue were also sent to the Hospital. However, due to the firefighter’s condition qualified as critical, he was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami at Ryder Trauma Center.

Articles Tagged with Carbon Monoxide

Leesfield & Partners Celebrates 35 Years of Excellence Representing Injured Victims in Key West

Fumes-related Key Largo Fatal Incident, First Responders to be Praised