Ind. couple awarded $3.7 million for ladder fall

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- A jury has awarded a northern Indiana man and his wife $3.7 million for a brain injury the man suffered when he fell from a ladder at a shopping mall.

The St. Joseph Superior Court jury ruled in favor of the Porter County couple and against mall owner Simon Property Management and its maintenance company, Varsity Contractors.

Forty-six-year-old Richard Proctor and 42-year-old Sonia Proctor sued after Richard Proctor fell from a ladder at University Park Mall in Mishawaka in January 2007.

Proctor suffered a skull fracture, brain trauma and other injuries when he fell 19 feet from a roof hatch ladder while servicing heating/air conditioning equipment on the mall's roof.

Attorney Kenneth Allen says the ladder didn't meet safety codes.

A Simon spokesman says the company doesn't comment on litigation.