UNLOADING STEEL PLATES USED TO COVER EXCAVATED AREAS AT A CONSTRUCTION SITE WAS A COVERED ACTIVITY UNDER LABOR LAW 240 (1) (FIRST DEPT).
The First Department determined plaintiff was properly awarded summary judgment on his Labor Law 240 (1) cause of action. Plaintiff was injured unloading a two-ton steel plate used to cover excavated areas at a construction site. The defendant’s argument that the plate was not unloaded for construction work. but rather for storage, was rejected:
Plaintiff made a prima facie showing that the work he was performing as an employee of Clean at the time of his accident was covered under section 240(1). There is no dispute that plaintiff was injured in the course of unloading an approximately two-ton steel plate at a construction site owned by defendant Con Ed, after transporting the plate to the site by truck. Witnesses consistently indicated that Clean routinely unloaded steel plates at the site for the purpose of covering areas excavated for electrical work. Clean performed this work pursuant to a contract that required it to provide steel plates at excavation sites owned by defendant including the subject site, and also required Clean to perform work ancillary to other tasks enumerated under Labor Law § 240(1) such as removing construction-related debris and installing barricades for excavation work … . Moreover, plaintiff performed this work on an active construction site while another worker on the site was building a removable roof for a transformer vault.
Clean failed to raise triable issues of fact as to whether plaintiff’s work was covered by Labor Law § 240(1). It does not avail Clean to assert that plaintiff unloaded the plate merely for the purpose of storage. The Court of Appeals has rejected an interpretation of Labor Law § 240(1) that “would compartmentalize a plaintiff’s activity and exclude from the statute’s coverage preparatory work essential to the enumerated act” … . Saquicaray v Consolidated Edison Co. of N.Y., Inc., 2019 NY Slip Op 02460, First Dept 4-2-19