A New London jury last month awarded $3.6 million to 50-year-old Nathaniel Sutera, who was paralyzed from the waist down after falling about 26 feet from scaffolding at a rental property owned by his brother and sister-in-law.

Sutera, a union carpenter who was in between jobs, was helping his brother, Timothy Sutera, and sister-in-law, Deborah Natiello, repair a three-family rental house at 36 Hempstead St. in New London on Sept. 24, 2012.

Sutera is confined to a wheelchair and lives in a special needs apartment in Montville, according to attorney Christopher J. Murray of the Haymond law firm in Hartford, who represented Sutera at trial along with a colleague, attorney Vanessa Cardoso. 

The jury awarded a total of $7.2 million in damages, but found that Sutera was 50 percent at fault for the accident, according to court documents.

According to Murray, landlord Natiello and her husband, Timothy Sutera, were preparing the top floor of the three-family home for a new tenant. Nathaniel Sutera was doing his brother a favor and helping him repair the trim area below the roof line, called a soffit. Timothy Sutera owned the scaffolding and failed to tie it to the house when setting it up, according to Murray. Nathaniel Sutera went onto the top of the five-level scaffolding to take a measurement when it collapsed, causing him to fall at least 26 feet to the ground, Murray said.

Sutera was paralyzed from the waist down and suffered multiple complications. He spends all his time in a wheelchair or in bed, Murray said. At the trial, the defense argued that Nathaniel Sutera had put a ladder on top of the scaffolding, causing it to be unstable, but both brothers testified there was no ladder, Murray said. Timothy Sutera was not at the home when the accident occurred, but admitted when he left the property the day before, there was no ladder, Murray said.

Sutera has incurred $608,534 in medical bills that have been paid for by Medicaid, but the state has placed a lien against any money recovered in the lawsuit, according to a court document. Murray said Sutera would like to buy a handicapped van that would enable him to be more mobile and "make his life worth living."

Sutera rejected an offer to settle the case for $400,000 prior to the trial, Murray said, adding that he had expressed willingness to accept less than the $1 million maximum payable under Natiello and Sutera's policy with Vermont Mutual Insurance.

"You have to look at it this way," Murray said of the lawsuit involving family members. "The sister-in-law and brother were business people. They were landlords, and the work was being done so they could rent the top floor to a HUD (Department of Housing and Urban Development) tenant. Nathaniel Sutera was doing his brother a favor when this happened."

Attorney David S. Williams of the Brown Jacobson law firm, who represented the defendants, declined to comment on the verdict, noting he has filed motions to set the verdict aside. The motion, pending before the trial judge, Timothy D. Bates, claims the verdict is "contrary to the law, against the evidence, is excessive, and because the verdict and damages awarded evidence that the jury improperly allowed partiality, prejudice, sympathy or mistake to influence its verdict."

The defendants also claim that Bates did not properly instruct the jury prior to deliberations.

k.florin@theday.com