Botanical Garden, construction and engineering firms hit with another lawsuit over canopy walk collapse

Lawsuit filed in Fulton County State Court seeks unspecified damages

It’s at least the fifth lawsuit related to the Dec. 19, 2008 collapse that killed one worker and left 18 others with injuries. From the AJC:

Worker Jonathan Scott’s suit accuses the Atlanta Botanical Gardens and nine engineering and construction companies of negligence and failure to protect workers building the elevated walkway. The suit says shoring towers were too far apart and some “had heights exceeding four times the minimum base width.” The suit says the towers were not properly anchored.

“The elevated walkway was inherently dangerous,” the suit said.

The workers, according to the suit, “were not aware of the inherent and dangerous conditions of the elevated walkway.”

The Canopy Walk, which allows garden visitors to view trees nearly 40 feet above the ground, opened in May. Garden officials later placed a plaque near the site to honor the workers.

“As a rule we don’t comment on litigation, but we do want answers as to what happened like everyone else,” an ABG spokesman tells CL. He noted that the Dec. 2008 accident occurred on a construction site and involved the temporary shoring for the structure — “not the permanent structure which ultimately built and which everyone loves and enjoys so much today.”