QUESTION OF FACT WHETHER THE TRIPPING HAZARD WAS INHERENT IN PLAINTIFF’S JOB; THEREFORE THE LABOR LAW 200 CAUSE OF ACTION SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN DISMISSD (SECOND DEPT).
The Second Department, reversing (modifying) Supreme Court, determined there was a question of fact whether the hazard which caused plaintiff to trip was inherent in his job. A sheet of plastic had been placed over a pipe:
Supreme Court should have denied those branches of the defendants’ motion which were for summary judgment dismissing the Labor Law § 200 and common-law negligence causes of action. “Owners and general contractors, and their agents, have a common-law duty to provide employees with a safe place to work,” and Labor Law § 200 “merely codified that duty” … . The duty does not extend “to hazards that are part of, or inherent in, the very work the employee is to perform or defects the employee is hired to repair” … . Here, the evidence submitted by the defendants did not eliminate triable issues of fact as to whether the placement of the plastic sheet on top of, as opposed to underneath, the installed pipe was a hazard that was part of, or inherent in, the work the injured plaintiff was hired to perform … . Fonck v City of New York, 2021 NY Slip Op 05693, Second Dept 10-20-21