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Families win $18.2 Million verdict in tower deaths, but bankrupt firms may leave them with pennies on the dollar
Families win $18.2 Million verdict in tower deaths, but bankrupt Nexius and Myndco may leave them with pennies on the dollar
In Featured News by Wireless Estimator May 4, 2026
THE COLLAPSED GENIE Z-135/70 articulating boom lift lies at the base of the Sussex Water Company tower in Bethany Beach, Delaware, after high winds toppled it on November 2, 2020, killing brothers Jovan and Bryan Maldonado-Andino, who were working on a T-Mobile cell antenna 120 feet in the air. Wind gusts of 35 to 44 mph exceeded both the lift’s manufacturer threshold and Nexius’s own wind policy. A Delaware jury awarded the family $18.2 million in April 2026 — but with both Nexius and Myndco bankrupt and only $6 million in documented insurance coverage, the family may recover less than a third of the verdict.
A Delaware jury has awarded $18.2 million to the families of two brothers killed when an articulated boom lift toppled onto power lines at a Bethany Beach cell tower site in November 2020. The verdict against general contractor Nexius Solutions, Inc. and its internal training affiliate Myndco, Inc. came after nearly four years of litigation and a ten-day trial that methodically exposed a cascade of safety failures — uncertified workers, dangerous wind conditions that company policy prohibited, a remote safety manager instead of an on-site one, and a corporate structure that talked extensively about safety oversight while failing to exercise it when it mattered most.
The lift fell onto electrical lines alongside Coastal Highway (Route 1). The two men were working on a T-Mobile sector on this pedisphere water tower. — Google Earth image
But as the families of Jovan Maldonado-Andino and Bryan Maldonado-Andino absorb the jury’s verdict, a deeply troubling question shadows every dollar of the $18,228,409 award: with both Nexius and Myndco bankrupt, stripped of assets, and closed, and with the T-Mobile contract that governed this project requiring Nexius to carry a combined insurance maximum of just $6 million, who is actually going to pay — and how much?
The answer, based on court records, bankruptcy filings, and the T-Mobile Master Agreement that governed Nexius’s work, is that the family may recover a fraction of what twelve Delaware jurors said they deserved. The verdict is a moral and legal vindication for a family that fought for nearly four years to hold these companies accountable. Whether it translates into full financial accountability is a different question — one whose answer may ultimately be determined not by what happened on a windy Delaware beach on November 2, 2020, but by the fine print of insurance policies held by companies that no longer exist.
{snip}
In Featured News by Wireless Estimator May 4, 2026
THE COLLAPSED GENIE Z-135/70 articulating boom lift lies at the base of the Sussex Water Company tower in Bethany Beach, Delaware, after high winds toppled it on November 2, 2020, killing brothers Jovan and Bryan Maldonado-Andino, who were working on a T-Mobile cell antenna 120 feet in the air. Wind gusts of 35 to 44 mph exceeded both the lift’s manufacturer threshold and Nexius’s own wind policy. A Delaware jury awarded the family $18.2 million in April 2026 — but with both Nexius and Myndco bankrupt and only $6 million in documented insurance coverage, the family may recover less than a third of the verdict.
A Delaware jury has awarded $18.2 million to the families of two brothers killed when an articulated boom lift toppled onto power lines at a Bethany Beach cell tower site in November 2020. The verdict against general contractor Nexius Solutions, Inc. and its internal training affiliate Myndco, Inc. came after nearly four years of litigation and a ten-day trial that methodically exposed a cascade of safety failures — uncertified workers, dangerous wind conditions that company policy prohibited, a remote safety manager instead of an on-site one, and a corporate structure that talked extensively about safety oversight while failing to exercise it when it mattered most.
The lift fell onto electrical lines alongside Coastal Highway (Route 1). The two men were working on a T-Mobile sector on this pedisphere water tower. — Google Earth image
But as the families of Jovan Maldonado-Andino and Bryan Maldonado-Andino absorb the jury’s verdict, a deeply troubling question shadows every dollar of the $18,228,409 award: with both Nexius and Myndco bankrupt, stripped of assets, and closed, and with the T-Mobile contract that governed this project requiring Nexius to carry a combined insurance maximum of just $6 million, who is actually going to pay — and how much?
The answer, based on court records, bankruptcy filings, and the T-Mobile Master Agreement that governed Nexius’s work, is that the family may recover a fraction of what twelve Delaware jurors said they deserved. The verdict is a moral and legal vindication for a family that fought for nearly four years to hold these companies accountable. Whether it translates into full financial accountability is a different question — one whose answer may ultimately be determined not by what happened on a windy Delaware beach on November 2, 2020, but by the fine print of insurance policies held by companies that no longer exist.
{snip}