The First Department determined loading ladders onto a truck did not create an elevation-related risk contemplated by Labor Law 240(1). The ladders slid into plaintiff when plaintiff released a bungee cord. The court further determined plaintiff’s negligence (releasing the bungee cord) was the sole proximate cause of his injury:
The work that plaintiff was engaged in when he was injured, i.e., retrieving ladders that his employer had used in its work at the site, was a construction-related activity covered by Labor Law §§ 240(1) and 241(6) … . However, it did not present an elevation-related risk contemplated by Labor Law § 240(1) … . Moreover, in view of plaintiff’s testimony that he did not notice the tilt of the truck onto which he was loading the ladders, any elevation differential resulting from the tilt was de minimis. Nor is Industrial Code (12 NYCRR) § 23-1.7(e), which requires that passageways and working areas be kept free of accumulations of dirt and debris, a proper predicate for plaintiff’s Labor Law § 241(6) claim, since the area outside the gate to the loading dock where plaintiff parked his truck was not a passageway or working area … . * * *
… [T]he record demonstrates as a matter of law that plaintiff was the sole proximate cause of his accident … . Although the first ladder that he loaded onto the rack atop the truck slid toward the end of the rack as he loaded it, after plaintiff had secured it with a bungee cord and loaded the second ladder, instead of taking another of the several bungee cords available to him, he unhooked the bungee cord securing the first ladder, intending to wrap it around both ladders, and the ladders slid into him and knocked him off the truck. Guido v Dormitory Auth. of the State of N.Y., 2016 NY Slip Op 08600, 1st Dept 12-22-16
LABOR LAW-CONSTRUCTION LAW (LOADING LADDERS ONTO A TRUCK DID NOT CREATE AN ELEVATION-RELATED RISK, PLAINTIFF’S NEGLIGENCE WAS THE SOLE PROXIMATE CAUSE OF HIS INJURY)/TRUCKS (LABOR LAW-CONSTRUCTION LAW, LOADING LADDERS ONTO A TRUCK DID NOT CREATE AN ELEVATION-RELATED RISK, PLAINTIFF’S NEGLIGENCE WAS THE SOLE PROXIMATE CAUSE OF HIS INJURY)/ELEVATION-RELATED RISK (LABOR LAW-CONSTRUCTION LAW, LOADING LADDERS ONTO A TRUCK DID NOT CREATE AN ELEVATION-RELATED RISK, PLAINTIFF’S NEGLIGENCE WAS THE SOLE PROXIMATE CAUSE OF HIS INJURY)/SOLE PROXIMATE CAUSE (LABOR LAW-CONSTRUCTION LAW, LOADING LADDERS ONTO A TRUCK DID NOT CREATE AN ELEVATION-RELATED RISK, PLAINTIFF’S NEGLIGENCE WAS THE SOLE PROXIMATE CAUSE OF HIS INJURY)