Act of God or Folly of Man?
the case
A newly expanded warehouse in Western New York suffered a catastrophic roof collapse after the first snowfall snowfall of the season. The file arrived after the subrogation case had stalled with another law firm. The consensus opinion was that the only target was a structural engineer whose contract appeared to cap liability at $50,000 — effectively “ending” the case before it began.
The Challenge
The loss was significant, with multi million-dollar reserves. The case narrative had hardened: the contractual limitation language was being treated as a hard ceiling — not a starting point for deeper investigation.
What We Did Differently
We took a closer look:
- Re-examined everything — contracts, plans, emails, engineering notes, and the timeline and developed a new theory and a different entity not protected by the $50,000 limitation.
- Moved decisively into litigation filing lawsuits in New York and Pennsylvania.
- Dug into the engineering — because in structural failures, the truth lives in the calculations, assumptions, and real‑world load formulas.
Relentless Creativity
We don’t just follow the obvious path—we blaze new trails.
Strategic Thinking
We uncover recovery opportunities that others miss.
Results
We earn the trust of clients, experts, and even competitors by delivering results.
The Breakthrough
Our working theory was simple: a properly designed structure should not fail the first time it snows.
The turning point came when we identified a critical error in the snow-load analysis — specifically, an improperly applied coefficient. The roof configuration and drifting/unbalanced accumulation created far greater real‑world loads than the building was designed to support.
The Result
That single technical truth changed everything: the collapse was no longer an Act of God. It was a human‑caused design failure
By pairing technical investigation with multi‑state litigation strategy, we repositioned the case from a presumed $50,000 cap to a recovery path far beyond what was thought possible — because we discovered facts and pursued theories others failed to recognize.
A stalled and possibly closed file became a large seven-figure recovery and one of our client’s largest recoveries that year.
Get in Touch
Reach out to our team members today to get our process started!