Balcony collapse at Granite City apartment leads to suit

A man claims he sustained multiple injuries after the wood railing of a second-floor balcony collapsed under his weight, causing him to fall.

Shaun Ward filed a lawsuit Oct. 5 in Madison County Circuit Court against William Madden, First Illinois Real Estate, Katherine Work and KV Enterprises doing business as Gateway Select Properties.

Ward claims he lived in a second-floor apartment at 2215 Grand Ave. in Granite City on Sept. 4, 2011, when he leaned against the apartment’s balcony railing, and it collapsed. Ward fell from the balcony to the ground below, according to the complaint.

Ward blames the condition of the railing for contributing to his fall.

“The stair case, balcony and railing were all constructed of wooden beams,” the suit states. “The wooden beams were flaking, chipped, rotten or otherwise in a state of poor repair.”

Because of his fall, Ward suffered serious injuries to his brain, skull, face, head, neck, back, spine, arm, leg, knee and chest, the suit states. He also suffered physical pain and mental anguish and incurred medical costs, the complaint says.

Ward blames Madden and First Illinois Real Estate, who owned the property, and Work and Gateway Select Properties, who managed the property, for causing his injuries, saying they negligently failed to maintain the property’s structures, failed to keep the property safe and failed to warn of the danger of the property.

In his eight-count complaint, Ward seeks a judgment of more than $400,000, plus costs and other relief the court deems just.

Ely Hadowsky and Michael Warner of Brown and Brown in St. Louis will be representing him.

Madison County Circuit Court case number: 12-L-1607.