Poor Workmanship Or Resulting Damage?

Poor Workmanship Or Resulting Damage?

Alberta Court of Appeal Explores Boundary Between Faulty Workmanship and Resulting Damage (By Carmen Tham and Glen Boswall) - In the recent case of Ledcor Construction Limited v. Northbridge Indemnity Insurance Company, the Alberta Court of Appeal was asked to decide whether a construction project "All Risks" property insurance policy covered damage caused by one trade contractor improperly cleaning windows provided by another trade. In particular, the issue was whether the window damage was excluded as "poor workmanship" or covered as "resulting damage."

Facts

Station Lands Ltd. ("Station Lands") retained Ledcor Construction Ltd. ("Ledcor") as construction manager and a number of other trades for the construction of the EPCOR Tower in Edmonton.

Station Lands obtained an "All Risks" policy (the "Policy") from Northbridge Indemnity Insurance Company and other insurers (the "Insurers") for the project. The Policy covered all "direct physical loss or damage except as hereinafter provided", with Station Lands and Ledcor as named insureds. Contractors, subcontractors, architects, engineers and all entities providing services or materials were additional insureds. The Policy contained the following exclusion (the "Exclusion"):

This policy section does not insure:

The cost of making good faulty workmanship, construction materials or design unless physical damage not otherwise excluded by this policy results, in which event this policy shall insure such resulting damage. Near completion of the tower, a trade contractor named Bristol Cleaning ("Bristol") was retained by Station Lands to do a "construction clean" of the building's exterior, including the windows that had concrete splatter, paint specks and other construction dirt. In carrying out its work, Bristol caused damage to the windows by using dull or inappropriate blades to scrape off dirt, failing to properly clean the blades during the process, and failing to follow the manufacturer's cleaning instructions. As a result, the glass had to be replaced. The Insurers claimed the Exclusion applied to the loss. Ledcor and Station Lands sued for coverage.

Trial

At trial, Ledcor and Station Lands argued that the Exclusion only removed coverage for the cost of having to re-do the cleaning with proper methods and tools. The damage to the windows was "physical damage not otherwise excluded" and therefore covered. The Insurers argued that "work" and "workmanship" did not just apply to the labour of the task but also the materials being worked on. The trial judge concluded that both interpretations were plausible and that prior case law on the subject was inconclusive and inconsistent. Having found the Policy to be ambiguous, the judge applied the doctrine of contra proferentum to reach the conclusion that the damage to the windows was covered. The Insurers appealed.

Appeal

In interpreting the Policy, the Alberta Court of Appeal noted that the base coverage was for "physical loss" and therefore the exclusion for the "cost of making good faulty workmanship" must exclude some physical loss or else the exclusion would be redundant. However, the Exclusion includes a proviso that "resulting damage" that is "physical damage not otherwise excluded" is nonetheless covered. Therefore, the Court of Appeal recognized it must determine the line between physical loss that is excluded because it is the "cost of making good" faulty workmanship, materials or design and the physical loss that is covered because it is "resulting damage".

The Court of Appeal determined that the proper test for application of the Exclusion is a test of connectedness between the work, the damage, and the physical object or system being worked on. Although the application of the test will depend on the facts of each case, the Court of Appeal set out the following primary considerations:

The extent or degree to which the damage was to a portion of the project actually being worked on at the time, or was collateral damage to other areas. The test will be relatively easy to apply when the damage is caused directly by the work to the very object being worked on. There may be cases where several parts of the project work together as one system. Work on one part of the system may cause damage to another part, but repairing that damage might still properly be characterized as the cost of making good faulty workmanship if there is sufficient systemic connectedness;

The nature of the work being done, how the damage related to the way that work is normally done, and the extent to which the damage is a natural or foreseeable consequence of the work itself. If the damage is a foreseeable consequence of an error in the ordinary incidents of the work, then it presumptively results from bad workmanship; and whether the damage was within the purview of normal risks of poor workmanship, or whether it is unexpected and fortuitous.

The Court of Appeal recognized that this physical or systemic connectedness test could lead to extreme results in extreme cases where, for example, an entire building that is burnt down by a cleaner working on the entire building would not be covered by insurance. However, the Court of Appeal noted that such extreme cases might call for a separate test or an exception to the connectedness test but the court declined to explore this issue further.

Here, the damage to the windows was caused directly by the cleaning carried out by Bristol. The scraping and wiping motions that caused the damage were the actual "work" and because the scraping and wiping forces were intentionally applied, the damage was not accidental or fortuitous. Repairing the resulting damage would be "making good the faulty workmanship" that caused the damage and therefore the cost of repairing the windows was excluded. The Court of Appeal therefore overturned the trial decision and ruled in favour of the Insurers.

Conclusion

There can be little doubt that the Court of Appeal's "systematic connectedness" test will be further analyzed in future cases. When arranging their insurance, insureds seeking greater certainty of wider coverage might press for addition of the more specific "particular part" language to restrict the scope of the faulty workmanship and materials exclusion. Conversely, insurers wanting to provide narrower coverage might resist addition of "particular part" language and see how far the systematic connectedness test goes.

The Court of Appeal may have re-opened a can of worms by adding the finding that the scraping and wiping forces were intentionally applied and so the foreseeable damage was not accidental or fortuitous. That is an insuring agreement issue which, if true, would put the loss outside coverage without any exclusion coming into play. The Supreme Court of Canada's 2010 decision in Progressive Homes v. Lombard Insurance was thought to have put an end to this debate, at least in the context of a CGL policy. The SCC noted there that it was simply not correct to say defective workmanship was not an "accident".

Window Washer Gives Chase

An employee of G4S (left) possibly the guard that was pepper sprayed and robbed outside Century Casino, 13103 Fort Road, chats with an unidentified person after the robbery of the pictured G4S security vehicle.

Armoured truck employee pepper-sprayed in robbery outside Century Casino: A brazen masked thief brandishing pepper spray attacked and robbed an armoured truck employee Thursday afternoon outside the front doors of Century Casino in northeast Edmonton. The robber, who left behind a dark blue duffel bag and can of pepper spray, jumped into a running black Jeep driven by an accomplice and fled with an undisclosed amount of cash moments after the 1:55 p.m. heist at Fort Road and 131st Avenue.

Police said two workers of G4S armoured truck company were at the casino to collect a package. A window washer, who didn’t to give his name, witnessed the robbery. He said the guards were conducting a “routine delivery” when a stocky man in a black hoodie ran up and sprayed a guard from a couple of feet away. The driver dropped the bag and the robber scooped it up. It looked like a “pro job,” and took only half a minute, the window washer said. “It happened in the blink of an eye. The guard got pepper sprayed by a big guy, I actually chased him but I didn’t want to risk my life.”

The window washer and the second armoured truck worker gave chase, as a Jeep pulled a U-turn and the robber jumped in. The vehicle sped from the parking lot, nearly hitting a pedestrian. “What’s going through your mind is, ‘does this guy have a gun or a knife?’ the window washer said. “You have one life, there’s always more money.”

Det. Ron Gamble said from “my perspective, anybody who does a crime of this nature is pretty brazen. It puts people at risk; it puts people at risk on the road trying to evade the getaway vehicle.” Police said the robbers later switched vehicles and were last seen in a white sport utility vehicle on 66th Street. The Jeep was recovered and police are searching it for evidence. Police will interview the armoured truck employee who suffered minor injuries during the robbery, Gamble said. The robber, who was dressed in black, was about six-foot-two, 200 pounds.

Casino spokesman Dan Keene said the company will evaluate its security. He wouldn’t comment about surveillance cameras, other than saying “we’re like a lot of other casinos.” Keene said he couldn’t remember a similar robbery in the city. “I’ve been here almost five years now and it’s never happened. I can’t recall it ever happening in Edmonton as long as I’ve been in this business.”

A window washer who witnessed the robbery, but didn't want to be identified, says he was shocked by what he saw. "It's like, 'Holy Christ! This is happening, this isnt' a movie. It takes a second to realize what was going on," said the witness, who tried chasing down the suspect. "Part of you is 'do the right thing.' If the guard, if enough of us had tackled him we could've perhaps subdued him, but I'm not going to take him on myself." After fleeing the scene, the robbers reportedly dumped their getaway car, and were reportedly seen getting into a white utility vehicle, possibly an Avalanche or Escalade, heading westbound on 66th Street.

A member of the Edmonton Police Service Identification unit with evidence outside Century Casino, 13103 Fort Road, after a robbery from the security vehicle.

Window Cleaning News

Seth Glick, Chief Friendliness Officer with Clear Skies Residential Cleaning Inc., stands in front of his company vehicle on Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2011. Clear Skies Residential Cleaning is a trusted professional window and gutter cleaning company in Edmonton.

Business Spotlight: Clear Skies Residential Cleaning - Edmonton — It takes a lot of moxie to say you’re the friendliest anything, but it’s something Seth Glick does with full conviction. “I would say we’re the friendliest window cleaners in Edmonton, one hundred per cent,” said Glick.  “Maybe there are some people that are friendly, but we are Edmonton’s friendliest window cleaners.” Glick makes his living as Chief Friendliness Officer of Clear Skies Residential Cleaning – a home-based company in west Edmonton.

Background: Glick said he first got into window and gutter cleaning as a summer job while taking the Bachelor of Management course at Grant MacEwan University. Upon graduation and in need of some real-world experience, Glick set out to find something he wasn’t getting from his textbooks. “I was looking for a company to start where I could take all the things that I learnt and try them,” said Glick. So with minimal start-up costs and the opportunity to expand, Clear Skies was born in 2008. “I love living here so I wanted to do something where I could meet pretty much as many people as possible and build that relationship.”

Business: Over the past three years, Clear Skies has managed to build a solid clientele, and according to Glick, business has been going great.  He credits the companies’ three-tier friendliness policy, which includes house friendly, pet friendly and family friendly, for much of their success. “I’ve been working a lot on making everything very rememberable and remarkable,” said Glick. Having a mini-squeegee on hand for curious children, dog treats in the van for rowdy pups and padding on ladders for extra protection are just a few examples of the things Clear Skies is doing to create a great experience. “We’re not going to come in and start swearing on the telephone or smoking a cigarette or spitting on the floor, just little things that people have had happen in the past, and we try to prevent that,” said Glick. “It’s really just about owning the service.” Beyond the experience, Glick said that having your windows cleaned is one of the most rewarding things someone can do for their home.  He compared it to walking around with dirty glasses. “Once they’re clean, you see the world in a whole different light.”

The Future: With two full-time employees (including himself) and one part-time helper, Glick said the business is almost at the point where it will have to expand. “I plan on getting another van, another crew, take a step back from day-to-day cleaning and work on the business itself,” said Glick. After that, Glick said there’s really no telling what his future is, but whatever happens, he will definitely be living in Edmonton.

West Lindsey Council is cleaning up surfaces in the town centre. It is planning to wash and remove stains from the York stone and other surfaces using high pressure washing equipment. The work will take place between 6am and 8am over several mornings in the coming weeks and should be completed by the time most businesses open. A local window cleaner has been employed to clean any windows that are affected by the work.

Police warn residents about window cleaning scam in Harrow: Police are warning residents to beware a door-to-door window cleaning scam in Harrow. Members of the public are being warned by Harrow Police to not hand over money to anyone knocking on their door claiming to be a window cleaner collecting money, unless they know it to be genuine. There have been reports of this type of scam taking place in Repton Road and Elm Park Road in Harrow. Police are also appealing to members of the public to come forward if they have been approached by anyone doing this. Contact DC Jenny Houchin of Harrow CID on 020 8733 3482 or email us at Harrow@met.police.uk A 22-year-old man was arrested yesterday on suspicion of fraud in connection with the window cleaning scam.

Records confirm: July 2011 was one of the hottest ever: Todd Bassler, a manager at Cereal City Window Cleaning, works outside about 80 or 90 percent of the time. "I've been doing it 31 years," Bassler said. "It's been one of the hottest (summers) in a lot of years."Mostly, the only heat-related problem Bassler's crew has is that the water on the windows dries too quickly. In these situations, one person puts water on the windows while another quickly squeegees the liquid off instead of one person wetting the window and then squeegeeing the window. Sometimes, however, the heat poses a safety risk. "We went home quite a few days because it got too hot," Bassler said. "It just got downright hot-hot. I usually do it at about 95 (degrees) with the heat index and all that."

Oklahoma family in trouble turns to homeless shelter: James Pigg has filled many roles, loving husband, proud father, Army veteran, college graduate and a successful business owner. Joyce Pigg reads a book with her daughter while living at the City Rescue Mission on Monday, July 18, 2011, in Oklahoma City, Okla. Pigg and her husband James along with their five children have been living at the center for ten months after losing their home. But, Pigg, 49, never imagined he and his family would be homeless. “What happened to us, we never seen it coming,” he said. First, the family's car was repossessed. Then, they couldn't afford to stay in the house they had been renting. “We had nowhere else to go,” Joyce Pigg, his wife of 19 years, said. For the past 10 months they and their five children have lived at the City Rescue Mission's shelter. “This place kept us together,” he said. “God sent us here.”

For the Pigg family, life wasn't always so hard. James Pigg spent four years in the U.S. Army. He left the military and enrolled at the University of Oklahoma in 1985, graduating four years later with a bachelor's degree in business. After college, he owned a roofing company and a window washing company. In 2007, his wife developed ovarian cancer after giving birth to her fourth child. The cancer was removed but came back a year later and spread to her kidneys and liver. It is now in remission. She did not have medical insurance, so she accumulated debt. According to an American Journal of Medicine study, medical problems contributed to 62.1 percent of all bankruptcies in 2007. James Pigg had a hard time coping with his wife's cancer. “It broke me down mentally,” he said.

Talk of the Town: Window cleaner wings it for Bruno - It was an ill-starred bid for freedom that left its owners in a bit of a flap. An on-the-run pet cockatiel has been caught and rescued thanks to the generous spirit of a courageous window-cleaner. Judy Thomson, 31, thought her feathered friend Bruno was gone forever when he escaped from his cage last Wednesday and disappeared up a 30ft tree. But her heartache was averted by the heroics of Dazzle Window Cleaners in Currie, which sent up a worker to retrieve the bird. After an hour perched precariously on the limb of the tree, the window cleaner enticed Bruno down.

BASE Jump Chute Failure, Miracle Save! from Rock & Ice on Vimeo.

Lucky Chance, a window cleaner & base jumper who cheated death in parachute mishap: An Australian thrill-seeker got a close glimpse at why they call it the 'Death Swing' as a BASE jumping stunt gone awry nearly cost him his life. The daredevil Down Under, who calls himself Lucky Chance, was filming his 100th jump atop Australia’s Blue Mountains. The 26-year-old window cleaner from Sydney has been BASE jumping for the last four years. The 'Death Swing,' situated at a top-secret location, propels a jumper on a 30-meter rope attached to a peak. Jumpers use a harness to stay connected to the rope, and Mr Chance is the first jumper to actually let go.

A spokesman for NSW Blue Mountains National Park said the use of the 'Death Swing' is ‘not an approved activity within the park at all.' Mr Chance, 26, didn’t seem to care about the danger as he launched into the air, executing a triple back-flip with a 'one-tuck double lay out.' The jump turned ugly as his foot got snagged in the parachute and it failed to deploy, causing him to 'spiral and tumble into the ground.' But just before he hit the ground, the chute miraculously emerged and Mr Chance was able to land safely.

He said an explanation as to how he managed to perform the death-defying stunt without a scratch on him is beyond him. Mr Chance said: 'Somehow, I don’t know how it came out of the bag, and I don’t know how I managed to survive.' Unfettered by his near-fatal dive, Mr Chance said the best is yet to come. He said: 'I want to keep pushing the limits… I want to do a quadruple backflip next time.'

Tributes have been paid to a former Chorley FC and Bamber Bridge player who died in his sleep. Lee Pryers was found dead at home by his father, John, at his flat on Smethurst Road, Bolton, on July 26. The 31-year-old played over 100 games during two spells at Bamber Bridge and spent a season at Victory Park with Chorley FC. The full back’s career, which began as a trainee at Bolton Wanderers, also included a two-year stint at Fleetwood Town, where he worked under Tony Greenwood, who took him back to Irongate in 2009. A minute’s silence was observed before last week’s pre-season friendly game between Bamber Bridge and Chorley at Irongate.

Johnny said: “Lee was round here last week, and we were in the kitchen singing along to the Small Faces. He seemed happy as Larry. He was doing his window cleaning, which he loved, and he was helping a few local teams with their training. “He was doing some youth work, too. On Tuesday morning he didn’t come down to collect his clothes and we thought something was wrong. “We got into the flat using the spare key, and my dad just found him there, passed away.” An inquest has been opened at Bolton Coroners Office.

The value of being silly - Dave Silverbrand: A squeegee and a bucket of water balloons -- those were the tools of my trade that day. Oh yeah, and the Spiderman costume. In Eureka's Old Town, I was playing the role of a window washer afraid of heights. No one even asked why I was throwing the balloons to break against the second-floor windows, and then wiping them dry. I had developed my business plan as a news feature with the help of co-worker Rick St. Charles. We had even constructed a fictional Spiderman website. Get it? Not surprisingly, I got no response, not even an interrogation from a passing patrolman. Certainly not a commendation from my TV employer. He had often said my work was too silly for the evening news. Funny that I'm still here and he is not. As a businessman, I had miserably failed. As a tough-as-nails reporter, I have failed again. As a clown, maybe not.

PFI – fat cats 1, public sector 0. The UK government’s Office for Budget Responsibility, in its recent “Fiscal Sustainability Report”, has finally published details of the total liabilities under the PFI (Private Finance Initiative). They come to a fairly astonishing £40 billion. There was also an announcement about the result of a pilot project to look at how money could be saved from existing PFI schemes. An impressive sounding £1.5 billion was suggested as the potential benefit.  But hang on a minute. That’s over the whole life of the current schemes, many of which are up to 30 years. And if we apply it to the liability, that would suggest a saving of less than 4%.

And how would it be achieved? The Treasury said savings have been made through a combination of changes, including reducing wasteful energy consumption, subletting or mothballing surplus building space, and reviewing service requirements such as window cleaning and frequency of decoration. So arguably a saving of 4% is disappointing, given that we seem to be talking cheifly about demand management, changes in specification and requirements (which may well impact on customer service or at least ‘happiness’ levels – less decoration etc.)

Any real “commercial” savings seem to be noticeable by their absence.  There is no mention of price reductions or margin being given up by the providers in the pilot as far as I can see. That is true of both the service providers or the financiers – there seems to be little hope of getting anything back from the financial institutions who have made a fortune out of PFI. So the announcement was notably free of the rhetoric we sometimes hear – from whichever political party are in opposition at the time – about the “rip-offs” of PFI.

Pedestrians pass the scene where glass fell from the 27th floor of the Festival Tower Condominiums at the Bell Lightbox (aka TIFF Bell Lightbox) in Toronto, Tuesday, August 3, 2011. This is the second time in two days glass has fallen from a condo building in Toronto.

Ex-SAS Window Cleaner in Canada

'Healthy fear' useful 27 storeys up - Highrise window washers can't afford to take safety for granted: When lightning is in the forecast, it's not a good idea to be in one of the highest places in the city, but for Michael Le Boubon (pictured), risks like that come with the job. There is no hiding from the elements hanging off the side of Commerce Place, 27 storeys in the air, washing windows for the day. "I'm excited, nervous. It's nerve-racking," he said as he stepped over the edge for his first "jump."

Le Boubon, 27, is a member of the Servpro Cleaning crew that spends its days climbing up ladders, balancing on swinging platforms and hanging off harness hooks while cleaning many of downtown Edmonton's windows, stopping only when the wind gets too strong and the lightning too close. "I've paid my dues," Le Boubon said about his three weeks working on the ground crew. A former roofer, heights aren't too much of a challenge for him, although he admits he's never gone off the side of a building this tall.

Before Le Boubon and his more experienced co-worker Brendan Jones went over the side, they spent about an hour setting up their harnesses and ropes, double-checking that everything was secure and then checking it all again. "(We) double up on everything and then there's no accidents," Le Boubon said.

That's exactly how the crew has been trained by their boss, John Collins. Collins, a former British Special Forces member, has been in the window-washing business off and on for 30 years. He's jumped all over the world, including several places in Alberta, Los Angeles and a 110-storey building in Las Vegas. "It's just a boring, everyday part of life," he said about hanging in the air, more than 90 metres above the ground.

When he started working with Servpro in February, Collins hired on a whole new crew so that he could handle every step of their training to ensure that employees were learning proper and safe technique, including how to wear harnesses, tie knots and do self-rescue, should their lines get tangled. "The more we set standards, the more these people will stay alive," he said.

And that's exactly what Shiane Runcie, 21, needs to hear. It's his first day on the job, and he's not feeling too confident. "No one even told me I was going to be this high in the air," he said with his back to the building, six metres away from the edge where La Boubon was checking equipment. Runcie, a running back with the Edmonton Wildcats, said he would rather get tackled than go over the side of a building. "I don't think I'll ever get over my fear of heights," he said. "Never, ever."

But his friend Kwabeno Neale, 28, knows from experience that those fears can disappear. "On my first day I was just like him," said Neale. "(But) my second day up here I was good. It's a healthy fear. It keeps you in check." If Runcie can get past his fear, he'll be trained by more experienced crew members, with Collins supervising. Collins said this reinforces the learning for everyone. "That gives me a bit of pride," he said of watching Jones, his first hire, lead Le Boubon over the edge. "But don't tell them that. They'll think I'm going soft on them."

The Window Cleaning Artists

Keeping their day jobs: Local artist-run businesses hire fellow creative types to help them fund their passion. Clockwise from bottom left are Kris Schindel, Adam Cope, Darren Paul, Elliott James and Patrick Howarth, a crew of window washers who all happen to be actors or musicians.

Working as an artist isn't easy - whether that art is making music, acting or painting. You're in a high-risk industry, working from contract to contract, and in between contracts you're hustling for more work. No job security, no benefits - all for a meagre financial reward. Statistics Canada says Canadian artists earn just $23,000 a year on average, not much above the poverty line. Hence, the day job. Many artists find clever ways to make a living, discovering that the skills they learned doing their BFAs end up surprisingly useful in doing other work, or even being a business owner. The stereotype of the actor who moonlights as a waiter exists for a reason: It's great work that fits into the lifestyle. But some actors find unexpected alternatives to food service. Heights Residential Services is a window-washing company that predominately hires actors and musicians. No surprise, as the owners of the business have strong ties to the Edmonton arts community. Kris Schindel is a singer/songwriter who has performed in various bands throughout the years, and Clinton Carew is an actor/director/filmmaker, who is finishing up an MFA in directing at the University of Alberta. It seems a bit odd, but window-washing has similarities to performing. For Schindel and Carew, it's about hiring crews who work well together.
Elliott James, an acting student at the U of A, was recruited by Carew and has been working for two seasons, along with several of his schoolmates. The invitation to wash windows, clean eaves- troughs and put up Christmas lights was a welcome change from his former day job. "It's better than serving (tables). You don't have to be a slave to people over food. Serving is a little more heartbreaking; this is a little more freeing." Actor/fight choreographer Patrick Howarth agrees. "It's more social. More task-oriented, but you are there in one place, you're not rushing about trying to multi-task. You have a chance to socialize with the people you're working with, and also there's a lot of talking that happens between the people who hired you. They want to get to know you." In fact, his two worlds sometimes intersect.
"I've even had the experience of someone describing something they had just seen two days before, Strawberries in January, which they really liked," says Howarth. "After I ascertained that they liked the play, I told them it was me." Schindel prefers to work with actors and musicians because the skills they've learned as artists are useful on top of a ladder. "They know how to improvise, they're personable, they know how to put on a good face and they work hard," he says, comparing the work ethic to the dedication it takes to put on a show. And skills learned wielding a squeegee can help a fledgling actor, says James.
"Yeah, balance on the ladder, and learning to do things you're scared of. You learn to be calm under pressure, and if you're on a high ladder or onstage, it's a skill you can use." He also notes that it's a great chance to have the ear of a more experienced actor, like Howarth, Jesse Gervais and George Szilagyi, who have also worked for Heights. And though window cleaning is a world away from the glamour of the stage, Howarth doesn't mind: it's all about control and lack of stress. It's humbling to take a day job, but there are worse things to do.
"There's a stigma. It's really hard for an artist to take another job, any job. It feels like a betrayal, even for practical reasons to fund your art. When Clinton first said, 'Do you want to wash windows?' I said, 'Wash windows? That sounds just terrible.' But then you go do it, and it's the best job in the world. It's just you and the window. You're out in the sunshine, enjoying the weather and whether you succeed or fails depends on how you clean the window." Still, the more traditional "day job" for many artists is working in the food and beverage industry.
Penny Jo Buckner, a visual artist and musician, has been running Cafe Mosaics for the last 12 years with her sisters and mother. She understands why her restaurant has as many artists taking orders as giving them: "It's not a normal work environment. The art on the walls is a big part of it, and bands come here to eat. It's for like-minded individuals." In this case, it was a matter of creating a space that was artist-friendly because they too were artists (one of the conditions of buying the business with her family was that Buckner be allowed to go on tour), and they ended up hiring friends. "It's the kind of job where you can quit for six months and come back," says Buckner. "And when we opened, I had to tour with a friend's band -- it was already built in." Currently on staff are actor Amy Shostak, visual artists Justin and Matt Zawada, Natalie Danchuk and Audrey Bray, jeweler Katie Janvier, potter Agnes White, and of course, Buckner and sister Jody Shenkarek, who is also a musician. Clockwise from front-centre are Cafe Mosaics staffers Penny Jo Buckner, a visual artist and musician; actor Amy Shostak; visual artists Matthew Zawada and Justin Zawada; jeweler Katie Janvier and potter Agnes White.

Suspension from Harness may Cause Death

Restricted circulation can lead to orthostatic intolerance and, in rare and worst-case scenarios, cause death, says information from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in the United States. Circulation can be impeded for three reasons: lack of body movement, the vertical position of the body, and restrictive pressure placed on the veins by a harness. Light-headedness, palpitations, nausea, headache and fainting are among the common signs of orthostatic intolerance. When orthostatic intolerance results in death, it is referred to as suspension trauma or harness-induced pathology, OSHA says. The administration adds it is unwise to quickly move a worker who has been hanging vertically for some time into a horizontal position, because doing so is likely to "cause a large volume of deoxygenated blood to move to the heart." The result is that "the heart may be unable to cope with the abrupt increase in blood flow, causing cardiac arrest. Rescue procedures must take this into account." There are factors that can increase the likelihood of suspension trauma. These include blood loss, respiratory/cardiovascular disease, hypothermia, and dehydration.

EDMONTON: Two window washers have returned to work following a harrowing incident on August 14 that left them hanging in the air in their safety harnesses, five storeys above the ground at an Edmonton office building. Dale Clinton and Jean-Marc Juneau, employees of Endure Cleaning Service, were left in their precarious positions for about 30 minutes after a suspension cable on their work platform disconnected from its anchorage point at the top of the Edmonton Law Courts building, says Joe Barbosa, Endure's owner. "There was a snap and one side [of the platform] came down," he says, describing the incident as "scary." The two workers — both prevented from falling to the pavement below by their safety harnesses — were rescued by firefighters who used an aerial ladder to reach them. "The guys were up there and all of a sudden the cable came off the [anchorage] hook," Barbosa explains, noting that the rented cable was just a couple of weeks old. Both workers escaped critical injuries, though Clinton did have to receive stitches for a wound on the back of his head, which resulted from contact with part of the platform, Barbosa says. Juneau returned to work the day after the incident and Clinton a few days later on August 18. Sharon Blackwell, a spokeswoman for Alberta Employment and Immigration (AEI), says investigators are looking into the incident but have not yet determined its cause. No orders had been issued to Endure Cleaning Service as of COHSN press time.If there is any good news arising from the accident, it is that both window washers were wearing fall protection, Blackwell adds. Hanging in their harnesses for about 30 minutes, Clinton and Juneau experienced decreased blood circulation, Barbosa says, adding that he intends to purchase new harnesses that enable better circulation while dangling in the air.

Battered Window Washer Rethinks High Life

Edmonton, Canada: Bloodied and bruised after almost plunging down the side of the courthouse, Dale Clinton (pictured) isn't sure if he'll ever set foot on a window washing stage again. "I don't know. I guess I'll just have to take it one day at a time and see what the future holds," said the 31-year-old. A day after Clinton and Jean Marc Juneau, 57, found themselves dangling 15 metres in the air after a clamp on their window washing stage broke loose, Clinton was nursing a deep gash to the back of his head and bruised legs and armpits. It's painful, but it's better than the alternative. "I'm happy to be sitting here alive," said Clinton. Shortly after 1:30 p.m., the pair were washing windows at the downtown Law Courts when a clamp on the left side of the stage broke. Fortunately, their harnesses held and rather than plunging to the ground they dangled in mid-air for a half-hour before rescue crews could reach them. It was a terrifying ordeal but the worst feeling was the slow motion feel of the surface being taken out from under their feet. "It's making me sick to my stomach to think about it because it's that initial feeling of something being taken out from under you that's holding you up. It's a pretty scary feeling considering you're 80 feet in the air," said Clinton. He said there was no warning and no sound of the clamp breaking but just a feeling of dropping. The world felt like it went into slow motion until they made it to the ground, said Clinton. Clinton had been on the right side of the stage furthest away from the clamp that broke. While Juneau, who was on the left side, dropped cleanly, the stage came up and hit Clinton in the back of the head, leaving a large gash that left his T-shirt bloodied. Dangling in the air, the harness cut off the blood flow in his left leg and he was beginning to lose feeling in it by the time firefighters reached him with an aerial ladder. Clinton has been working with Endure Cleaning since 1996. In all those years, he said he had never had any problems until Thursday.

Window Cleaner Platform Collapse

Edmonton, Canada: Harnesses save window cleaners after platform collapses at courthouse; Two window cleaners hung in mid-air for a terrifying half hour yesterday after their platform snapped and fell from underneath them at the downtown Law Courts. The accident left the men, whom their boss said are 31 and 57 years old, suspended from a safety rope 15 metres above ground. A harness held them in place underneath the building's overhang while the pair screamed for help, said witness Lisa Russell. Shortly after 1:30 p.m., Russell, 31, was walking towards the courthouse watching the men work on the building's east side when she heard something snap. "It just flew to the right side, and you just heard them screaming, 'Call the fire department,' " said the dayhome operator. It took a ladder truck from the fire department's technical rescue team to get the workers down. Two rescuers climbed up to the pair, where they unhooked them from their safety lines. The men then walked down to safety to the applause of onlookers. In the meantime, four rescuers stayed on the courthouse roof to intervene in case the ladder operation failed, said fire Capt. Roger Estey. But while the workers escaped serious injury, one of them emerged from the ordeal with his shirt bloodied after hitting his head on the falling platform, said their boss, Joe Barbosa of Endure Cleaning. Both men, who went to hospital for evaluation, were shaken. "They were tired. They'd been up there for long enough. They were in a hurry to get down," said Bob Gwartney, one of the ladder rescuers. One of the men, in fact, had been in pain throughout as the harness cut off his circulation. "He said, 'I'm passing out,' " said Barbosa. "At least he didn't fall - that's the main thing." Now, authorities have secured the site outside the courthouse's main entrance so occupational health and safety investigators can begin their probe today. But Barbosa, after examining the equipment, said it appeared to be due to a steel cable holding up the platform that broke. "The cable just ripped out of there. We've just been using that cable for three days," he said, noting he's contacted the company that rented it to him to look into the matter. "I've been in this (business) for 25 years, and it never happened," he added. Barbosa himself was working on the ground nearby when the platform fell. As he turned the corner to walk beneath it, the fall left pails of water and cleaning brushes the workers were using tumbling towards him. In the meantime, worried passersby watched as the men dangled high above the sidewalk. "Thank God they're alive," said Duane, 57, after the rescue. "They had their harnesses on. That's what saved them." And while the incident was certainly most terrifying for the two window washers, Russell said she, too, was scared watching the ordeal. "I felt so sorry for them. It looked like they were just dangling from a thread."

A man is tended to by emergency crews after some scaffolding collapsed out from underneath a pair of window cleaners yesterday at the Edmonton Law Courts building. The workers hung from their safety harnesses for half an hour until rescue crews got them down safely.

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Window washer hurt after 30-foot fall in Miramar, Hollywood: A window washer cleaning a five-story building fell 30 feet this morning, suffering serious injuries, a fire-rescue spokesman said.The plunge took place about 10:30 a.m. at 3450 Lakeside Drive, spokesman Bill Huff said.Paramedics took the 30-year-old worker to Memorial Regional Hospital's trauma center in Hollywood, Huff said. The window washer's identity was not immediately available.