$7 million awarded in injury suit: 25-year-old fell down apartment elevator shaft

In the largest elevator-injury verdict in the state, a King County Superior Court jury has awarded $7 million to the family of a young man who was profoundly injured in 1998 after falling 10 stories down an elevator shaft in his First Hill apartment building.

The jury, citing the elevator's long history of malfunctioning, found Portland-based Harsch Investment Properties, owner of The Nettleton Apartments, negligent in the case of Greg Eoll.

The decision came after a six-week trial and two days of deliberations.

Representatives of Harsch, a privately held real-estate corporation with holdings in several states, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

A former high-school athlete, Eoll, 25, now lives in a rehabilitation center in Bakersfield, Calif.

"This injury was a preventable accident," said Eoll family attorney Ted Willhite.

Willhite and attorney Lance Palmer argued that elevators in The Nettleton, installed in 1949, should have been replaced or upgraded, fitted with safety latches that prevent people from exiting the elevator when it is not safely at a floor.

At the least, there should have been a sign posted warning people what to do in case of emergency, the attorneys argued.

Service records from The Nettleton show elevators had been stuck 167 times in the past five years, trapping 35 people. Graffiti in the elevator shafts proved that people seemed to pry elevator doors open at will, Palmer said.

While Seattle building codes require that elevators installed after 1980 have safety latches and a telephone to call for help, elevators that were installed before 1980 — as The Nettleton's were — are grandfathered in. Any improvements are up to the discretion of the owner, according to Eoll's attorneys.

In fact, elevator consultants hired by Harsch had recommended upgrading The Nettleton's elevators in both 1994 and 1997, according to records used in the trial.

The elevators were upgraded after Eoll's accident.

Eoll had earned accolades as a high-school athlete at Snoqualmie's Mount Si High School. He'd spent a year at Western Washington University and was working as a doorman at the Hotel Monaco in downtown Seattle at the time of the accident. Urban living excited him, said his father, Don Eoll.

On a Sunday in 1998, Eoll and a friend were taking the elevator when it stalled between the 10th and 11th floors. The young men pounded on the doors and held the buzzer down for about five minutes.

A security guard heard them and shouted down from the 11th floor, telling them how to open the elevator doors from the inside. After about a half-hour, they got the doors open.

Kneeling in the elevator, Eoll and the friend could see the 10th floor. They just had to shimmy out and jump onto the floor. Eoll went first. His friend followed, landing safely on the 10th floor. But he didn't see Eoll.

Eoll was found later at the bottom of the elevator shaft, with bones smashed and broken throughout his body. He also suffered brain damage.

The elevator company settled for $3 million, and the security-guard company, now out of business, settled for nearly a million.

But according to the Eoll family attorneys, Harsch declined to settle in the four mediation sessions held, making a single offer of $4 million in September.

Eoll has made progress since his fall.

He gets around in a wheelchair, can now hold his head up and is able to eat blended food. He recognizes his parents and some caregivers. He can spell, but he can't read and he needs help with everyday activities.

His parents say he will never live on his own.

"I just want him to be happy with the life he has now," said his mother, Barbara Eoll.

Sarah Anne Wright: swright@seattletimes.com or 206-464-2752.