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Our
Expertise . . . |
Forensic Projects (select list)
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Clausen Miller, P.C., Kentucky,
USA
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Erwin Martinkus & Cole, Ltd.,
Illinois, USA
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Mintzer Sarowitz Zeris & Ledva,
Pennsylvania, USA
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Saltz Mongeluzzi Barrett &
Bendesky, Pennsylvania, USA
Clausen Miller, P.C., Insurance Investigation of Underground Coal Mine
Flood, Island, Kentucky, USA
Agapito Associates, Inc., was retained by the attorneys for the
insurance carrier of a small coal company operating an underground coal mine
in western Kentucky. The coal mine was thought to be near decades-old
abandoned underground mines in the same seam which were likely water filled.
The mining company had a geophysics firm completed electrical resistivity
probing of the subsurface nearly 200 feet deep to locate the old workings.
The old workings were thought to be open water-filled voids. In fact the
workings were rubble-filled cavities that were interpreted improperly in the
resistivity survey, giving misleading indications of safety to the operating
mine. The mine encountered the water-filled rubble cavities, the mine was
safely evacuated, but all equipment and the mine itself were lost.
Erwin Martinkus & Cole, Ltd., Valuation of Sand & Gravel Producer and
Construction Company, Illinois, USA
Agapito Associates, Inc. was retained by attorneys for a spouse
during proceedings of a marriage dissolution for the purposes of
establishing a defensible overall valuation of a jointly-owned sand and
gravel business, including reserves, and a construction company in Illinois.
AAI inspected all properties, plants, and equipment, verified the reserves,
confirmed stockpile quantities, and completed valuations of the businesses
by several different methods including discounted future profit, comparable
sales, comparable stock companies, and adjusted book value.
Mintzer Sarowitz Zeris & Ledva, Blasting Litigation, Dunmore, Pennsylvania,
USA
Agapito Associates, Inc. was retained by attorneys representing a
major general contractor in the matter of alleged carbon monoxide poisonings
of several individuals arising from, or influenced by, construction trench
blasting during highway reconstruction in Dunmore Borough. It was alleged
that unexcavated blasts in soil and rock allowed subsurface seepage of
blast-generated or blast-mobilized abandoned coal mine carbon monoxide over
one hundred feet to residential structures. No definitive source for the
carbon monoxide was ever determined by the state DEP and the federal EPA
despite many months of field investigations in an area with extensive
abandoned anthracite mines.
Saltz Mongeluzzi Barrett & Bendesky, Core Drilling Rig Fatality, Lewistown,
Pennsylvania , USA
Agapito Associates, Inc. was retained by the attorneys
of the estate of a fatally injured driller and by his helper to investigate
a fatality and a serious injury involving a skid-mounted diamond-core
drilling rig, placed on a steep hillside for geological and geotechnical
drilling and sampling. The drilling rig was placed by a crane in darkness in
a place and position over the objections of the driller. Prior to beginning
drilling, the drill rig became loose from its fastenings, slid and rolled
down the hillside, injuring one person and killing another.
Saltz Mongeluzzi Barrett & Bendesky, Conveyor Fatality, New Hope,
Pennsylvania, USA
Agapito Associates, Inc. was retained the attorneys of the estate
of a worker to investigate a fatality involving a conveyor belt which was
intentionally started while the worker was inside the conveyor belt frame. A
carpenter employed by a subcontractor was asked to help the prime contractor
during conveyor belt startup at a new stone processing plant. No
documentation of adequate training on MSHA-required lock-out-tag-out
procedures for work on electrical equipment was produced. When told to
loosen bundled hydraulic lines underneath a take-up pulley, the conveyor
belt was started, without checking for the presence of the carpenter.
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AGAPITO
ASSOCIATES, INC.