Poulliard
A Katrina-damaged Orleans Parish public school is the subject of a personal injury lawsuit filed by a general maintenance employee.
According to a suit filed April 3 in Orleans Parish District Court, Troy Magee was trying to replace an ineffective ballast when a "fluorescent light figure dropped down from the ceiling and struck [Magee]" and caused him to fall from the ladder from where he was working.
The suit filed against the Recovery School District alleges that Magee subsequently inspected the light fixture and "came to realize that the said light fixture had been improperly secured" to the ceiling form which it fell. The suit also claims the school had failed to repair or replace the faulty ballast between Aug. 29, 2005 and the date of MaGee's work-related accident.
MaGee is represented by attorney Marcus Poulliard.
At the time of the accident, MaGee was working as an employee of Sodexho Inc., a national food service and facilities management company that services Orleans Parish schools. The suit pleads that, both prior to and since Hurricane Katrina, "the maintenance and/or repair and/or replacement of the said ballast was the sole obligation/responsibility of certain on-site custodians" employed by the Recovery School District.
The incident happened at Banneker Elementary School, one of the 71 Recovery School District schools in Orleans Parish that have been run by the state of Louisiana since Hurricane Katrina. Orleans Parish retains control of fewer than 20 public schools in the city.
Orleans Parish Case 2010-03354