Moises Ore was on the eighth rung of a 12-foot ladder when the step gave out from under him. Next thing he knew, he was tumbling through the air before everything went black.

“No one witnessed it. They found him on the floor unconscious,” said his attorney, Sam Coffey of Coffey Trial Law in Fort Lauderdale, who helped secure a $4.7 million verdict against the ladder’s manufacturer Tricam Industries Inc. and seller Home Depot USA Inc.