North Jersey laundry worker's case of horrific hand injury will soon head to trial

The case of a Paterson laundry worker who sued her employer after a workplace accident caused the amputation of her hand will soon go to trial after a judge's ruling.

Rosalba Peralta suffered a horrific degloving injury while working at Star Laundry on 16th Street in Paterson in September 2019.

Peralta's attorney, James Lynch, called the decision "a small but mighty victory."

An attorney for Star Laundry could not be reached for comment.

Peralta filed a lawsuit in state Superior Court in Bergen County in 2020 against American Laundry Corp. and Star Laundry owner Yaakoub Hijazi. The suit said Peralta was operating a modified heavy-duty commercial ironer.

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Her fingers, hand and wrist passed under the ironer, which had a purposely disabled finger guard, causing her hand to melt down to the bones when it got stuck in the hot rollers after being pulled in. Finger guards are a safety feature that are supposed to shut down the ironer if it is touched.

A judge denied the defense's motion for a summary judgment in the lawsuit after it argued that Peralta couldn't prove the enhanced burden to file the lawsuit against Hijazi.

In a statement, Lynch said the defendants "abused the court system and its valuable time by using the seemingly limitless financial resources of Hijazi" to prolong the case.

"It has been a long four-plus years and we have no intention of backing down until Ms. Peralta achieves some semblance of justice and we hold Mr. Hijazi, Star Laundry and others fully accountable for their egregious workplace negligence to ensure this never happens to another person," Lynch said.

The lawsuit said Star Laundry had a history of Occupational Safety and Health Administration violations resulting in fines before Peralta lost her hand. The lawsuit pointed to a July 2016 violation in which OSHA cited Star Laundry for tampering with or removing machinery guards that exposed employees to amputation hazards.

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The suit said Hijazi was at the laundry facility every day and should have known the safety guard was altered. It said Hijazi fixed the safety guards, gave false statements to OSHA about the incident and "destroyed or erased video recordings" of the incident.

A trial date is set for March 25.

Hijazi also owns a Paterson diner, a business the mayor said will reopen imminently, but renovations have been taking place at the restaurant seemingly without the requisite city construction permits.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Paterson NJ laundry worker's lawsuit to go to trial