NO NEED TO SHOW LADDER WAS DEFECTIVE; ENOUGH TO SHOW PLAINTIFF WAS NOT PROVIDED WITH ANY EQUIPMENT TO ENSURE THE LADDER REMAINED UPRIGHT (FIRST DEPT).

The First Department determined plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment in this Labor Law 240 (1) ladder-fall case was properly granted. The court noted there was no need to show the ladder was defective, only that nothing was provided to keep the ladder upright while plaintiff was using it:

Whether plaintiff slipped from the rung of the ladder or the ladder tipped over as he sought to steady himself while descending it, plaintiff’s testimony established prima facie that defendant failed to provide a safety device to insure that the ladder would remain upright while plaintiff used it to perform his statutorily covered work; plaintiff was not required to show that the ladder was defective (Labor Law § 240[1] …).

In opposition, defendant failed to raise an issue of fact as to whether plaintiff’s placement of the ladder where he could fall or step onto a stack of sheetrock was the sole proximate cause of his accident, since it presented no evidence that the appropriate equipment was available to plaintiff … . Moreover, because plaintiff established that defendant failed to provide an adequate safety device to protect him from elevation-related risks and that that failure was a proximate cause of his injuries, any negligence on plaintiff’s part in placing the ladder near the sheetrock is of no consequence … . Pierrakeas v 137 E. 38th St. LLC, 2019 NY Slip Op 08539, First Dept 11-26-19