HOUSTON – A District Court Judge in Houston ruled Monday that a company will not be able to immediately reuse pieces of a collapsed scaffold.
Attorneys for Triple S Masonry had argued that 60 percent of the pile of collapsed metal from the Oct. 16 calamity in downtown Houston could be pressed into service without delay.
"But say there's some structural deficiency that isn't plain to the eye or plain to your superintendent, how do you know this wont happen again?" Channel 2 Investigator, Joel Eisenbaum asked attorney Joe L. Hernandez, outside the courtroom.
Hernandez is part of the team that represents Triple S Masonry, of Austin, in a lawsuit brought by an injured worker.
"That's why the judge ruled to leave it there," Hernandez said.
The metal may be moved to another location soon, but the plans for the move are not yet in place.
For now the massive pile of scaffolding remains hidden from view, in an interior courtyard, of the massive luxury apartment complex on the 500 block of Crawford Street, across from Minute Maid Park.
Also Monday, another worker injured inthe collapse, Jose Cervantes, joined the lawsuit against Triple S Masonry and the Finger Companies.
The original suit was filed on behalf of injured worker, Victor Rubinclava.
Triple S Masonry owns and erected the scaffolding. The Finger Companies serve as their own General Contractor on the project, still under construction.