Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

CNN's Anderson Cooper Sued by Designer Over Firepole Fall

By DNAinfo Staff on February 12, 2010 3:48pm  | Updated on February 15, 2010 7:03am

CNN Anchor Anderson Cooper.
CNN Anchor Anderson Cooper.
View Full Caption
gongus / flickr

MANHATTAN — A New York designer is suing Anderson Cooper and his architect after she allegedly fell through a firepole opening in the CNN anchor's recently purchased Greenwich Village firehouse home.

Killian O'Brien was working as a contractor for Cary Tamarkin, the architect Cooper hired to remodel Cooper's soon-to-be home at 84 W. Third St., according to the lawsuit posted on Web site WebofDeception.com.

O'Brien was using a laser pointer when she allegedly fell through an uncovered hole where the building's firepole used to be on Sept. 22, 2009, gossip Web site Gawker reported.

"My understanding is that the poles had been removed," O'Brien's lawyer Neil Greenberg told Gawker. "And the cutouts in the floor were capped. But somebody uncapped one of them."

Apparently Cooper had just left when the accident happened, Gawker reported.

The lawsuit said because of the fall O'Brien was "sick, sore and disabled and suffered severe and permanent personal injuries to her body."

Her complaint charges Cooper, Tamarkin and Firepatrol, the company Cooper used to buy the firehouse, with negligence and violating New York labor laws.

It's unclear how much O'Brien is suing for but it's more than the $25,000 minimum, Gawker reported.

"In commercial buildings there's an absolute requirement that the owner and general contractor maintain a safe work environment," Greenberg told Gawker. "Cooper may have intended to have it rezoned as a residential building, which has different work rules, but at the time of the accident, it was still zoned as a commercial building."