Opinion
2011-08-2
Patrick HENRY, et al., respondents,v.ELEVENTH AVENUE, L.P., et al., appellants.
Milber Makris Plousadis & Seiden, LLP, White Plains, N.Y. (Otto Cheng of counsel), for appellants.Tomkiel & Tomkiel, PC, Scarsdale, N.Y. (Matthew Tomkiel of counsel), for respondents.
Milber Makris Plousadis & Seiden, LLP, White Plains, N.Y. (Otto Cheng of counsel), for appellants.Tomkiel & Tomkiel, PC, Scarsdale, N.Y. (Matthew Tomkiel of counsel), for respondents.
In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, the defendants appeal from an order of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Schmidt, J.), dated June 23, 2010, which granted the plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment on the cause of action pursuant to Labor Law § 240(1).
ORDERED that the order is affirmed, with costs.
During the construction of a new high-rise building in Manhattan, the plaintiff, Patrick Henry (hereinafter the injured plaintiff), a carpenter, was working on the roof of a shanty that was located in the basement and used to store tools for the project. Above the shanty was a first floor concrete slab with, inter alia, metal pipes attached to it. Approximately four to five feet of space existed between the roof of the shanty and the first floor slab. While the injured plaintiff was installing waterproofing on the roof of the shanty, he struck his head against something and fell eight feet to the ground. He had not been provided with any safety devices to prevent or protect against a fall. The injured plaintiff and his wife, derivatively, commenced this action against the defendants alleging, inter alia, a violation of Labor Law § 240(1). Thereafter, the plaintiffs moved for summary judgment on the cause of action pursuant to Labor Law § 240(1). The Supreme Court granted the motion. We affirm.
Labor Law § 240(1) imposes liability upon owners and contractors who violate the statute by failing to provide or erect necessary safety devices for the protection of workers exposed to elevation-related hazards, where such failure is a proximate cause of the accident ( see Balzer v. City of New York, 61 A.D.3d 796, 797, 877 N.Y.S.2d 435). Labor Law § 240(1) was specifically “designed to prevent those types of accidents in which the scaffold, hoist, stay, ladder or other protective device proved inadequate to shield the injured worker from harm directly flowing from the application of the force of gravity to an object or person ” ( Ross v. Curtis–Palmer Hydro–Elec. Co., 81 N.Y.2d 494, 501, 601 N.Y.S.2d 49, 618 N.E.2d 82). Labor Law § 240(1) “is to be construed as liberally as may be for the accomplishment of the purpose for which it was thus framed” ( Rocovich v. Consolidated Edison Co., 78 N.Y.2d 509, 513, 577 N.Y.S.2d 219, 583 N.E.2d 932 [internal quotation marks omitted] ). To establish a prima facie violation of Labor Law § 240(1), a plaintiff must demonstrate that the defendants violated the statute and that the violation was the proximate cause of his or her injuries ( see Andro v. City of New York, 62 A.D.3d 919, 880 N.Y.S.2d 111; Reaber v. Connequot Cent. School Dist. No. 7, 57 A.D.3d 640, 641, 870 N.Y.S.2d 72).
Here, the plaintiffs established their prima facie entitlement to judgment as a matter of law by submitting evidence sufficient to demonstrate that the defendants failed to provide the injured plaintiff with an adequate safety device and that this failure was a proximate cause of his injuries ( see Gordon v. Eastern Ry. Supply, 82 N.Y.2d 555, 562, 606 N.Y.S.2d 127, 626 N.E.2d 912; Cordero v. Kaiser Org., 288 A.D.2d 424, 425–426, 733 N.Y.S.2d 234). In opposition, the defendants failed to raise a triable issue of fact. Contrary to the defendants' contention, the injured plaintiff's eight-foot fall from the roof of the shanty is the type of elevation-related hazard that is contemplated by Labor Law § 240(1) ( see Striegel v. Hillcrest Hgts. Dev. Corp., 100 N.Y.2d 974, 978, 768 N.Y.S.2d 727, 800 N.E.2d 1093; Bland v. Manocherian, 66 N.Y.2d 452, 459, 497 N.Y.S.2d 880, 488 N.E.2d 810; Danielewski v. Kenyon Realty Co., 2 A.D.3d 666, 666–667, 770 N.Y.S.2d 97). Moreover, the risk of the injured plaintiff hitting his head
against the concrete slab or an object protruding therefrom, located only four to five feet above his head, “was neither so extraordinary nor so attenuated as to constitute a superseding cause sufficient to relieve [the defendants] of liability” ( Cordero v. Kaiser Org., 288 A.D.2d at 426, 733 N.Y.S.2d 234; see Mooney v. PCM Dev. Co., 238 A.D.2d 487, 488, 656 N.Y.S.2d 655).
The defendants' remaining contentions are without merit.