PLAINTIFF PROPERLY AWARDED SUMMARY JUDGMENT IN THIS LABOR LAW 240(1) ACTION, HEAVY TRANSFORMER SHIFTED DOWNWARD STRIKING PLAINTIFF, NO SAFETY DEVICES PROVIDED (FIRST DEPT).
The First Department determined plaintiff was entitled to summary judgment in this Labor Law 240(1) action. Plaintiff was on a ladder working on a heavy suspended transformer when it shifted and struck him. Plaintiff demonstrated he was not provided with any adequate safety devices, and defendants did not demonstrate adequate safety devices were available:
Plaintiff established prima facie his entitlement to the protections of Labor Law § 240(1) by submitting evidence that he was injured when a corner of an electrical transformer weighing hundreds of pounds and suspended from a ceiling shifted downward and struck him on the head as he was standing on a ladder working on it and that he had not been provided with any safety devices adequate to his task… .
In opposition, defendants failed to raise an issue of fact as to their contention that plaintiff was the sole proximate cause of the accident. Plaintiff’s coworker testified that there were no readily available safety devices to assist him and plaintiff in their task… . While plaintiff’s foreman testified that he had given specific instructions to his workers about using wooden delivery pallets to prop up the transformer at the corner being worked on, he conceded that he did not know whether plaintiff was standing near enough to him to have heard these instructions … . In any event, defendants submitted no evidence that this improvised method was a suitable safety device … . Gericitano v Brookfield Props. OLP Co. LLC, 2018 NY Slip Op 00480, First Dept 1-25-18
LABOR LAW-CONSTRUCTION LAW (PLAINTIFF PROPERLY AWARDED SUMMARY JUDGMENT IN THIS LABOR LAW 240(1) ACTION, HEAVY TRANSFORMER SHIFTED DOWNWARD STRIKING PLAINTIFF, NO SAFETY DEVICES PROVIDED (FIRST DEPT))/FALLING OBJECTS (LABOR LAW-CONSTRUCTION LAW, PLAINTIFF PROPERLY AWARDED SUMMARY JUDGMENT IN THIS LABOR LAW 240(1) ACTION, HEAVY TRANSFORMER SHIFTED DOWNWARD STRIKING PLAINTIFF, NO SAFETY DEVICES PROVIDED (FIRST DEPT))