After he was injured in a nearly-deadly construction accident in Polk City in 2019, one Colfax man is now a millionaire after winning his jury trial.According to his attorney, Tim Kono was working on a home and was underground for a large part of the job he was doing for home construction company D.R. Horton.He got trapped underneath several tons of soil — largely because he says D.R. Horton wasn’t using an OSHA-mandated trench box during the job.In a fact sheet issued by OSHA, that can equal the weight of a car.It’s an incident that Kono suffers post-traumatic stress from. “It’s a nightmare, unfortunately. You go through a lot of emotions like a roller coaster. It’s hard to control your emotions,” he said. “And especially with the flashbacks, the nightmares, it’s something that I’ll never be able to move on from.”However, a jury in the district court of Polk County awarded Kono just over $3 million in damages. He will also get one-fourth of $16.18 million in punitive damages against his former company for what happened.By Iowa code, the remaining 75% of the punitive damage amount will go toward a civil reparations trust fund.The victim said he’s happy it could make a difference.”I was shocked and also extremely happy that this is going to make a big difference and save other people’s lives,” he said. ” make bigger companies realize that there is no way to get out of skipping safety regulations and OSHA regulations.”Kono’s lawyer said it’s the second-greatest dollar amount of punitive damage she’s ever seen in an Iowa case.KCCI called, left a message, and went to D.R. Horton’s office in Ankeny to get a comment, but no one responded.
After he was injured in a nearly-deadly construction accident in Polk City in 2019, one Colfax man is now a millionaire after winning his jury trial.
According to his attorney, Tim Kono was working on a home and was underground for a large part of the job he was doing for home construction company D.R. Horton.
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He got trapped underneath several tons of soil — largely because he says D.R. Horton wasn’t using an OSHA-mandated trench box during the job.
In a fact sheet issued by OSHA, that can equal the weight of a car.
It’s an incident that Kono suffers post-traumatic stress from.
“It’s a nightmare, unfortunately. You go through a lot of emotions like a roller coaster. It’s hard to control your emotions,” he said. “And especially with the flashbacks, the nightmares, it’s something that I’ll never be able to move on from.”
However, a jury in the district court of Polk County awarded Kono just over $3 million in damages.
He will also get one-fourth of $16.18 million in punitive damages against his former company for what happened.
By Iowa code, the remaining 75% of the punitive damage amount will go toward a civil reparations trust fund.
The victim said he’s happy it could make a difference.
“I was shocked and also extremely happy that this is going to make a big difference and save other people’s lives,” he said. “[It’ll] make bigger companies realize that there is no way to get out of skipping safety regulations and OSHA regulations.”
Kono’s lawyer said it’s the second-greatest dollar amount of punitive damage she’s ever seen in an Iowa case.
KCCI called, left a message, and went to D.R. Horton’s office in Ankeny to get a comment, but no one responded.
