PLAINTIFF WAS STRUCK BY A PIECE OF UNSECURED PLYWOOD WHICH FELL, PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT ON HIS LABOR LAW 240 (1) CAUSE OF ACTION SHOULD HAVE BEEN GRANTED (SECOND DEPT).

The Second Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment on his Labor Law 240 (1) cause of action should have been granted. Plaintiff was struck a a piece of plywood after the supporting vertical post was removed:

Labor Law § 240(1) imposes upon owners, general contractors, and their agents a nondelegable duty to provide safety devices necessary to protect workers from risks inherent in elevated work sites  … . To prevail on a motion for summary judgment in a Labor Law § 240(1) “falling object” case, the plaintiff must demonstrate that at the time the object fell, it either was being hoisted or secured, or required securing for the purposes of the undertaking … . Labor Law § 240(1) does not automatically apply simply because an object fell and injured a worker; a plaintiff must show that the object fell because of the absence or inadequacy of a safety device of the kind enumerated in the statute … .

Here, the plaintiff established his prima facie entitlement to judgment as a matter of law through the submission of his deposition testimony and the affidavit of a coworker who witnessed the accident. These submissions established that the plaintiff was hit by an unsecured [*2]four-by-eight-foot plywood sheet that fell from the first floor ceiling onto the plaintiff as he was walking underneath … . Passos v Noble Constr. Group, LLC, 2019 NY Slip Op 00893, Second Dept 2-6-19