Published March 18, 2019
Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is being sued by a contractor who claims he slipped and broke his spine at the possible presidential candidate's multi-million dollar Hamptons home after being made to wear slippery booties so he wouldn't scratch the floors.
Julio Guerrero, 58, says in a new lawsuit that the billionaire was so paranoid about the floors in his East Hampton mansion that he made workers wear blue slip-on booties over their shoes. While standing on a ladder to install automatic curtains at Schultz's private gym in June 2017, he slipped and fell about eight feet. On the way down, he reportedly hit his heel on a stationary bicycle, causing him to fracture disks in his spine.
“Had he not been forced to wear the booties, he clearly wouldn’t have fallen. They’re slippery by nature,” his lawyer, Edmond Chakmakian, told the New York Post. “We appreciate that Schultz has nice floors, but unfortunately, this man paid for those floors with his physical condition.”
Guerrero's 22-year-old daughter, Melani,says that her father's life has changed completely because of the accident, and rendered him uncapable of doing many of the things he used to.
SCHULTZ DETAILS HOW HE'D RUN THE COUNTRY IF ELECTED AS AN INDEPENDENT PRESIDENT
HOWARD SCHULTZ APOLOGIZES AFTER CLAIMING HE SPENT MORE TIME THAN 2020 CANDIDATES WITH MILITARY
“He walks like an 80-year-old man with a cane,” she said. “He’s frustrated in himself. He wants to walk normally and do daily things … he can’t take a shower on his own, can’t leave the house.”
Guerrero said in Spanish that he understands Schultz's attempts to keep his floors scratch-free, but that it's not safe to wear booties in his line of work.
“It’s [like] wearing socks in a home. It’s not stable, it’s not grounding, especially around construction equipment," he said.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Schultz's wife, Sheri Kersch-Scholtz, told the New York Post that it was their general contractor, Bulgin & Associates, who managed the ongoing construction work at their home and that she and her husband had "zero involvement."
“I hope it gets worked out and they do their due diligence and it gets handled,” she said.
Neither Schultz's representatives nor Bulgin & Associates immediately responded to Fox News' requests for comment.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/howard-schultz-sued-by-former-contractor-who-slipped-and-broke-his-spine-at-former-starbucks-ceos-hamptons-home