((HT: MyFoxDFW/Kalthoff))Two Cowboys employees seriously hurt in the collapse of the team's practice facility last spring filed lawsuits against the companies involved in the structure's construction.
Rich Behm, a scouting aide who is permanently paralyzed and now confined to a wheelchair, and Joe DeCamillis, a special teams coach who broke his neck but recovered, both filed lawsuits in Dallas County court Tuesday.
The separate lawsuits, filed by the same law firm, allege that the builders and installers were negligent, and at least two of the defendants knew the structure was unsafe.
The suits are the first to be filed in connection with the May 2 collapse. Neither suit names the Cowboys organization.
Here's the Behm lawsuit and here's the DeCamillis lawsuit...Brooks Egerton's piece from the Dallas Morning News has the two plaintiffs calling for a conspiracy charge. They claim that Summit Structures knew two years before the collapse that the facility was unsafe.
From Egerton...
The conspiracy allegations target:
The steel-framed facility's designer and manufacturer, Canada-based Cover-All Building Systems.
Its U.S. sales and construction affiliate, Summit Structures.
The Las Vegas consulting firm JCI. As previously reported in The Dallas Morning News, JCI helped Cover-All and Summit design reinforcements for the tent after a building-collapse expert discovered engineering problems.
The facility underwent repairs in summer 2007 that the Cowboys believed were "a temporary fix," the lawsuits say. They allege that Cover-All, Summit and JCI "were to design and install a permanent fix after the 2007 football season was over" but did not.
Instead, they "agreed to hide and conceal the practice facility's shortcomings," the suits say.
KTVT/CBS-11's John Knicely was standing in front of Valley Ranch and interviewed Coach De's and Behm's attorney...Those of us here at the HQ think any and all of the defendants need to learn one word: "settle"
