Dallas Cowboys’ coaches injured and paralyzed by May 2009 roof collapse reach $34 million settlement

DALLAS, TEXAS (BNO NEWS) — Dallas Cowboys’ assistant coaches will be receiving a total of $34 million after suffering from severe injuries in the May 2009 collapse of a team practice facility in Irving, Texas, prosecutors said Monday.

Attorney Frank L. Branson, of Dallas, Texas, announced that the combined settlement on behalf of Dallas Cowboys scouting assistant Richard Behm and special teams coach Joe DeCamillis, following lawsuits against the practice facility’s manufacturer, Allentown, Pennsylvania-based Summit Structures LLC, and Summit’s parent company, Cover-All Building Systems Inc. of Saskatoon, Canada.

According to terms of the two settlements, Behm and his family received a total settlement valued at more than $24 million, and DeCamillis and his family received a total settlement valued at more than $9 million.

This most recent settlement, which was finalized August 27, ends legal claims against a group of companies owned by Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, including Blue Star Development Co. and Cowboys Center, Ltd.

“While claims are still pending against the building’s engineers, we are very pleased to have this portion of the lawsuit settled,” says Branson said. “Rich and Joe also want to thank Jerry Jones, Stephen Jones and the rest of the Jones family and the Dallas Cowboys football organization for all of the support they provided them throughout this ordeal. They truly treated these men as their own.”

Behm, DeCamillis and several others were seriously injured at the Valley Ranch practice facility when the roof of the structure split open during a thunderstorm, causing heavy steel supports to crumple and fall.

Behm’s spine was severed, resulting in his paralysis from the waist down, and DeCamillis suffered a severe compression fracture, including the dislocation of a cervical vertebrae. An investigation by the National Institute of Standards and Technology concluded that the building’s collapse was caused by design failures that included faulty wind-load calculations, weak steel framing and vulnerable joints, among other shortcomings.

Engineer Scott Jacobs and engineering services company JCI Holding LLC of Las Vegas still face claims of negligence and gross negligence for their roles in the building’s collapse. Both have filed for bankruptcy protection.

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