Alumna receives $350k for 2001 chapel accident

An alumna who fell from the University Chapel's bell tower five years ago reached a $350,000 settlement last week with the two contractors who were renovating the tower at the time.

Though the University had originally been named a defendant in the lawsuit, the judge presiding over the case granted Princeton's motion to have itself dismissed from the case, citing charitable immunity laws, University officials said.

Alexandra Shaw '03 was climbing a spiral staircase and ladder inside the chapel's north turret the night of Dec. 13, 2001, when she fell approximately 20 feet, a witness and friend of Shaw told The Daily Princetonian the night of the incident.

Shaw broke her ankle and suffered a concussion, among other injuries, her lawyer Gerald Stockman told The Times of Trenton last week.

She was brought down from an outside landing halfway up the chapel turret by two firemen in the bucket of a Princeton Fire hook-and-ladder vehicle.

Despite the incident, the University continues to work with one of the contractors, Masonry Preservation Group, Inc. The company has recently been working on campus at 200 Elm Drive, Holder Hall and Firestone Library.

"We don't have any concerns over their [Masonry] attentiveness to safety," University spokeswoman Cass Cliatt '96 said in an interview. "Regardless of what happened, the University and Masonry have had the opportunity to learn from the incident in 2001."

The University has not worked with the other contractor, Femenella & Associates, Inc., since the incident for "incidental" reasons regarding a bidding process, Cliatt said.

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Since the trial judge ruled that the University was immune and thus not liable, any blame for the incident held by the contractors was to be determined by the trial, Cliatt said.

"But the trial didn't proceed to a final conclusion to determine liability," Cliatt said. "We have no serious concerns over the safety of Masonry, which is one of the reasons we continue to work with them."

Neither of the contractors' lawyers could be reached for further comment.

Shaw said she is glad to see the trial over, and that she is thankful to the University for its support since the incident.

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"I went into the process of this lawsuit with great reluctance, and am very glad to see it pass," Shaw said in an email, adding that she has "a great deal of respect and thanks for the University as an institution, as well as a collection of particularly devoted individuals."

Stockman said in an interview that it was never Shaw's intention to sue the University but she agreed to do so because he suggested that it might help her case.

"There was at least the possibility that it could have been advantageous in terms of discovery," Stockman said, adding that he told his client to "let the law play it out. I wouldn't like to proceed without at least trying to do that."

"She very reluctantly agreed, and when they were dismissed from the case, she sort of preferred it," he added. "The University was very good to her, in terms of how they treated her from the moment of the fall."

The original complaint was filed against the University and the two contractors in January 2004. The University then sought to be removed as a defendant in October 2005, and the judge granted its request in December.

After one day of trial, which included opening statements and two witness testimonies, both by Princeton officials, the suit was settled March 20.

Michael O'Mara, an attorney for Masonry Prevention, said he believed the settlement was fair.

"The young lady fell and she was rather seriously injured," O'Mara told the Times. The area where the accident occurred, however, was not open to the public, he said. "A person of common sense would not have entered. It looked like the bowels of the earth."

— Undergraduate falls climbing in chapel north turret, injures leg (Dec. 14, 2001)