Szczesiak v. Ery Tenant LLC

Summary

The New York Appellate Division, First Department, reversed an order denying plaintiff Mikolaj Szczesiak summary judgment on liability under Labor Law § 240(1). The court held that the defective A-frame ladder, which moved and caused plaintiff to fall after a mild electric shock, failed to provide adequate protection against a gravity-related risk. Defendants' comparative-negligence and expert-evidence arguments did not raise a triable issue of fact.

Holdings

1. Plaintiff was entitled to summary judgment on liability under Labor Law § 240(1) because the ladder was defective and failed to provide adequate protection against the gravity-related risk inherent in his work; the defective ladder was the proximate cause of his fall.
2. Plaintiff's failure to completely turn off the electricity, at most, constituted comparative negligence, which is not a defense to a Labor Law § 240(1) claim and did not establish that plaintiff was the sole proximate cause of the accident.

Questions Presented

1. Whether plaintiff established as a matter of law that the defective and inadequate A-frame ladder violated Labor Law § 240(1) and proximately caused his gravity-related fall.
2. Whether evidence that plaintiff failed to shut off all electricity, or that the electric shock caused him to exert lateral force on the ladder, raised a triable issue of fact or established that plaintiff was the sole proximate cause of the accident.
3. Whether plaintiff's alleged failure to completely shut off the electricity constituted a defense to liability under Labor Law § 240(1).

Disposition

reversed