EDWARDSVILLE - A homeowner is claiming she was injured after a contractor allegedly improperly constructed exterior steps at her residence in East Alton.
Lynda Hadley filed suit May 8 in Madison County Circuit Court against Gregory Kuehnel and Hard to Beat Handyman, alleging breach of contract, breach of warranty, and negligence.
According to the complaint, Hadley claims she was residing at a home on West Woodland Drive in East Alton when she entered into a written contract with the defendants to have her home’s exterior steps and landing replaced and reconstructed. The defendants quoted the project at $4,000, and Hadley allegedly paid in full.
Hadley claims the work was completed on Dec. 13, 2017.
On May 3, 2018, she entered into another written contract with the defendants to have her interior exposed basement windows replaced and installed. The window was supposed to have three panes, but the defendants allegedly ordered a two-pane window. The project was quoted at $1,115. Hadley allegedly paid the defendants $650. She alleges the defendants have never completed the basement window project.
“Defendants deficient and incomplete work was performed without obtaining required regulatory permits,” the suit states.
Then on May 9, 2018, Hadley claims she was seriously injured when she fell down the stairs “due to a design and/or construction defect in the exterior stairwell where the stairwell met the exterior doorway, designed and built by defendants.”
As a result, Hadley alleges she suffered injuries to her “wrist, knees, and all of the bones, joints, muscles, tendons, ligaments, nerves, skin, vessels, and intervertebral discs connected thereto were caused to be severely bruised, contused, lacerated, sprained, strained, herniated, dislocated, and rendered swollen and inflamed.”
She claims the defendants had finished the construction just days before she fell, after working on the project for several months.
The plaintiff is also claiming the contractor did not obtain the required regulatory permits for the work.
Hadley, who is seeking more than $50,000, is represented by Linda Hadley of Sivia Law in Edwardsville.
Madison County Circuit Court case number 2020-L-0658