A Harris County jury has awarded $6.5 million to Mark Miller, a Houston electrician who was struck in the head with a hammer by another worker and then fell down a dimly lit flight of stairs at a construction site, ending nearly nine years of litigation over who was responsible for his injuries. The verdict, secured by Houston-based Arnold & Itkin, found that those overseeing the project failed to properly supervise workers and maintain basic safety conditions at the site.
The incident traces back to August 24, 2017, when Miller was struck by a hammer swung by another worker, according to PR Newswire. The blow caused Miller to lose consciousness, and he then fell down a stairwell that the release describes as dimly lit, suffering serious head, neck and back injuries. The case centered on allegations that project-responsible parties failed to take basic steps necessary to protect people working at the site and did not respond to dangerous conduct occurring around them.
Arnold & Itkin attorneys Trent Shelton and Wes Hook tried the case on Miller's behalf. Shelton, the firm's lead trial attorney, said failures by those responsible for the worksite left Miller with life-changing injuries. “Workplace safety is a responsibility, not a suggestion,” Shelton said, according to the release.
A Dark Stairwell and a Federal Lighting Standard
Federal OSHA regulation 29 CFR 1926.56 requires that temporary lighting in construction corridors, hallways and exit stairways maintain a minimum illumination of at least 5 foot-candles while work is underway, according to Cary Technology. That standard sits at the center of claims that the stairwell where Miller fell was inadequately lit. OSHA proposed rulemaking in July 2025 that could eventually fold this specific illumination rule into its broader General Duty Clause, though 1926.56 remains active regulation while that review continues, per 1000Bulbs.
Under Chapter 95 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, a general contractor or commercial property owner can be held liable for injuries to independent contractors when it retained supervisory control over jobsite safety and had actual knowledge of the dangerous condition, according to BuildSmart. CIVE, Inc. served as the general contractor for the project where Miller was injured. The Houston-based engineering and design-build firm, established in 2003, specializes in commercial and multi-family projects and previously drew national attention for constructing the first multi-story 3D-printed home in the U.S. in Houston in 2022, per CIVE, Inc.
Two Houston Legal Powerhouses Face Off
CIVE's defense was handled by Ahmad, Zavitsanos & Mensing, known as AZA Law, which assigned a team of over a dozen attorneys to the case. The Houston commercial litigation boutique has more than 60 lawyers, tried 16 cases in 2025, and was named among the nation's “Most Feared Law Firms” by BTI Consulting in September 2024, according to AZA Law.
Arnold & Itkin, founded in 2004 by Kurt Arnold and Jason Itkin, has recovered more than $25 billion in verdicts and settlements nationwide. The firm previously secured a $357.7 million workplace accident settlement, the largest in Texas history, and won an $860 million verdict tied to a fatal Dallas crane collapse, per the firm's own case history. The firm represents injured workers and their families nationwide in cases involving offshore injuries, plant and refinery accidents, industrial accidents, wrongful death, and workplace and construction accidents.
Construction Remains a Leading Source of Texas Workplace Harm
Construction accounted for nearly 25% of all Texas workplace fatalities in 2024, with struck-by incidents and falls remaining among the leading causes of severe occupational injuries statewide, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data cited alongside Texas Department of Insurance reports. Nationally, construction and extraction workers suffered 1,032 fatal injuries in 2024, while contact and struck-by incidents caused 733 deaths across all U.S. industries, per the same federal data.
Even so, the Texas Department of Insurance approved an 11.5% average reduction in state workers' compensation insurance rates for 2025, pointing to a long-term decline in overall workplace injury rates that officials attribute to jobsite automation and improved safety technology. Arnold & Itkin's media contact for this case is listed as Aya Garfaoui.
It remains unclear whether CIVE intends to appeal the Harris County verdict, how liability was ultimately allocated between the general contractor and the individual worker who swung the hammer, or whether post-trial motions could alter the final judgment. Those questions were not addressed in the release announcing the verdict.
