Gabrielle Russon
A worker doing renovations at an Orlando hotel pool was injured in an accident that cost him several fingers, according to a new federal lawsuit.
It doesn’t appear that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was notified that Mario Navarro Perez, who worked for an audio installation company, had been hurt at the Orlando World Center Marriott in 2023.
“As a result of the incident, he suffered fractures to multiple fingers on his left hand that required surgery, and tragically, his fourth and fifth fingers on his right hand were amputated,” said Carrie Mendrick Roane, Perez’s attorney at Fasig Brooks law offices, in a statement to Florida Politics.
No complaints on the day of the injury were listed on OSHA’s online database for the Tampa office, which covers Central Florida.
Perez’s legal team said they did not know why OSHA wouldn’t be contacted and plan to raise that question during the ongoing lawsuit.
“We continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding his injury, and discovery in the case is ongoing,” Roane said.
OSHA did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Perez’s injury happened May 19, 2023, as he installed new televisions and speakers at the hotel’s pool. He had just finished the work using a rented “scissor lift that was equipped with their quick fold rail system,” the lawsuit said.
“Upon the completion of his task, Mr. Perez properly lowered the lift with the onboard controls, and prepared to disembark lift. While preparing to navigate the steps to exit the subject lift, Mr. Perez placed his hands on the handrails,” the lawsuit said.
“As he did so, the upper railing suddenly, and without warning, collapsed. This sudden collapse caused both of Mr. Perez’s hands to become caught in the mechanism that allows the upper rail to fold up and down.”
The lawsuit described Perez as “properly experienced and trained for his job.”
Perez is suing Marriott International, Sunbelt Rentals and manufacturer Oshkosh Corp in the lawsuit. The suit was first filed in state court in March, then moved to U.S. District Court in late May. Sunbelt and Oshkosh denied the allegations in court filings.
Perez had worked at Millennium Waves, which is not named as a plaintiff. “Due to Florida’s workers’ compensation laws, his employer is not named in the lawsuit and is protected under workers’ compensation immunity,” Roane said.
Marriott, Sunbelt, Oshkosh and Millennium Waves did not respond to comments or questions for this story.
Today, Perez is 37 and has relocated from St. Cloud to Oklahoma where he works full time in a different career, his attorney said.
