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CLAIMANT FELL ATTEMPTING TO MOVE FROM AN UPPER WALKWAY TO A LOWER WALKWAY; CLAIMANT WAS ENTITLED TO SUMMARY JUDGMENT ON THE LABOR LAW 240(1) AND LABOR LAW 241(6) CAUSES OF ACTION (SECOND DEPT).

The Second Department, reversing the Court of Claims, determined claimant construction-worker’s motions for summary judgment pursuant to Labor Law 240(1) and Labor Law 241(6) should have been granted. Claimant was attempting to move from a walkway on one level to a walkway on a lower level when the handrail swung away from him, the walkway shifted, and he fell. The defendant’s failure to provide a ladder warranted summary judgment on the Labor Law 240(1) cause of action. And the violation of two Industrial Code provisions warranted summary judgment on the Labor Law 241(6) cause of action:

Although the defendant contended that the sole proximate cause of the accident was the claimant’s decision to use the wooden pallet, rather than a readily available ladder, to descend from the upper walkway, the defendant failed to submit sufficient evidence to raise a triable issue of fact as to whether a proper ladder was readily available to the claimant or whether the claimant had been instructed to use a ladder rather than the wooden pallet installed between the walkway levels … . …

… [T]he defendant violated 12 NYCRR 23-1.7(f) by failing to provide “ladders or other safe means of access” from walkway levels on the work site and that this violation was a proximate cause of the accident. ,,, [T]he defendant violated 12 NYCRR 23-1.15(a) by failing to provide a safety railing that was “securely supported.” Chiarella v New York State Thruway Auth., 2024 NY Slip Op 04122, Second Dept 8-7-24

Practice Point: Defendant in the Labor Law 240(1) cause of action did not demonstrate a ladder was readily available. Therefore defendant did not demonstrate claimant’s failure to use a ladder to move from an upper walkway to a lower walkway was the sole proximate cause of claimant’s fall.

 

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