A negligence lawsuit claims that the most basic of background checks could have saved the life of a Canadian retiree who died a grisly death when a forklift driven by an undocumented and unlicensed construction worker tore into his convertible and killed him.
James Zakos’ head injuries likely were not survivable, family lawyers said, but the crash definitely was preventable.
On the hook in the lawsuit are the contractor and three subcontractors involved in Fort Lauderdale’s multimillion-dollar Las Olas Beach improvement project, as well as Ulises Mondragon, 30, who drove the forklift.
“There’s going to be a lot of finger-pointing among all of the defendants,” said Blake Dolman, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer representing Zakos’ sister, Margaret, and adult children, Alexandra, 30, and Thomas, 28.
The Zakos family is seeking $25 million in damages in the civil lawsuit filed this week in Broward Circuit Court. The suit demands a jury trial.
“This was not just an accident, this was grossly and egregiously negligent,” Dolman said. “This was so preventable.”
The 70-year-old snowbird was driving his Mercedes-Benz with the top down along Fort Lauderdale beach on Nov. 17 when the forklift pulled out too far into an intersection, police said.
The lift’s elevated forks jutted into traffic, ripped into Zakos’ car and pierced a portion of his brain. He was taken to a hospital and put on life support but was later pronounced dead, Dolman said.
At the scene, Mondragon, of West Palm Beach, told police he did not have a driver license, nor a permit to operate heavy machinery like the forklift.
“It is deeply disturbing that the multibillion-dollar companies involved in this tragedy did not make any effort to look out for the safety of the drivers sharing the road with that forklift,” said Dolman. “He did not have a driver license and it is our understanding that he had no formal forklift training.”
“A simple pre-employment background check,” Dolman said, would have shown that Mondragon had been fined three times since 2011 for driving without a license in Palm Beach County.
“We don’t know if he’s ever had a driver license,” Dolman said. “That’s the most egregious thing.”
Mondragon, originally from El Salvador, does not speak English nor does he have documentation to be in the United States.
Authorities have placed an immigration hold on him while he is jailed for failing to get a driver license, along with a felony count of leaving the scene of a fatal accident.
Mondragon’s status as an undocumented immigrant is not the most concerning issue, Dolman said, it’s that subcontractors hired someone with such “a horrific driving record.”
“Just being an illegal worker doesn’t mean you’re a danger to society,” he said. “We’re equally, if not more disturbed, that they hired someone with no driver license and no experience driving a forklift.”
Skanska USA Building, Inc., a large Swedish construction firm, signed a $49 million contract with the city of Fort Lauderdale in 2017, making it construction manager for the beach project.
Skanska hired Brightview Landscape Development, Inc. as a subcontractor to handle building and landscaping a beachfront park.
Brightview, a California company, in turn, subcontracted with Cast-One Creations, Inc. for stone and concrete benches and fountains.
Cast-One in Doral hired Mondragon. His arrest report said he had worked for the company for two days.
“On behalf of my client, we are not commenting on any pending litigation at this time,” Cast-One’s lawyer, Teri Guttman Valdes, said via email Thursday.
A Skanska spokeswoman previously told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that the company was “deeply saddened by this tragic incident” and that it would conduct an internal investigation to ensure safety.
On Friday, the company issued a statement saying, “It is Skanska’s policy to not comment on matters of litigation.”
Brightview or HERC Rentals, Inc., the company that leased out the forklift, did not return requests for comment on the lawsuit.
The city of Fort Lauderdale, Dolman said, appears to bear no blame.
It signed a contract with Skanska that required the company to take responsibility for the safety and supervision, not only of their own workers, but also of any subcontractors, Dolman said.
“Our thought right now is that the city of Fort Lauderdale did everything right,” Dolman said. “They had a great contract with Skanska that really put safety first and foremost. Unfortunately, Skanska and the various subcontractors chose to disregard it.
“A lot of different entities dropped the ball here.”
