Student Injured in Balcony Collapse Wins $2.35 Million

AUSTIN, Tex. —  A student who was seriously injured when an apartment balcony collapsed has been awarded $2.35 million by a jury that said the city was negligent in its inspection policy.

The city is responsible for $1.195 million in damages because it failed to order repairs to the balcony and did not properly enforce its building codes, state court jurors decided this week. The building contractor must pay $945,000 and the building owner $210,000.

City employees routinely failed to notify anyone at a building that it had failed inspection, attorneys for Everett Charles Price Jr. said.

Price, a University of Texas student, suffered a fractured skull when the balcony collapsed in October, 1987. His sight and hearing were permanently damaged, according to trial testimony.