Fremont firm sued in '07 on-job death

7/1/2009

A Fremont woman whose husband died in 2007 while working on a project at the Toledo wastewater treatment plant has filed a lawsuit against the Fremont company where he worked.

Tammy Zunk filed the lawsuit against Mosser Construction Inc.

Her husband, Tommy Zunk, 51, died July 9, 2007, when he was crushed by a counterweight that fell from a crane at the construction site, 3900 North Summit St. The lawsuit, filed by an Akron-based law firm, says: "Mosser required Zunk to perform the dangerous task of assisting in the removal of the counterweights of the crane, without adequate supervision, direction, training, instruction, testing or certification, without the benefit of a standard and required employer disassembly procedure, utilizing a dangerous procedure directly contrary to the crane manufacturer's disassembly instructions, and utilizing tools which increased the substantial risk of injury/death."

Claiming wrongful death, the lawsuit asks for damages in excess of $25,000. The case was assigned to Judge James Jensen.

Mosser Construction was fined $5,000 by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration in September, 2007, in connection with the death.