SIOUX CITY -- The City of Sibley, Iowa, has agreed to pay $2.6 million to a construction worker who was injured after coming into contact with a city-owned power line and falling from a building nearly five years ago.
As a result, a negligence lawsuit filed by Victor Maldonado against the city in federal court has been dismissed.
The settlement is not an admission of the city's liability, according to its terms, and the city denies it did anything improper or illegal. The settlement was paid by the Iowa Communities Assurance Pool, of with the city is a member.
Maldonado was injured in September 2018 while working on a rain gutter renovation on a building at 839 Third Ave. in Sibley. As he was handling an aluminum downspout, a city-owned and operated electrical distribution line sent a high-voltage current through the downspout and his body, causing him to fall 20 feet off the roof to an alley below.
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Maldonado, of Worthington, Minnesota, suffered electrical burns, facial and cranial fractures, a brain injury, loss of function in limbs and blindness in one eye. He sued the city in U.S. District Court in Sioux City in May 2020, saying the power line was too close to the building and did not comply with safety codes.
In August 2021, a federal judge dismissed the case after granting the city's motion for summary judgment, ruling the line in question was grandfathered in under regulations in place at the time of its installation, prohibiting Maldonado from suing the city under Iowa's public duty doctrine.
The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in January overturned that ruling, and the lawsuit proceeded until its settlement and dismissal late last month.