Boyle v. 42nd Street Development Project, Inc.

38 A.D.3d 404, 835 N.Y.S.2d 7
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedMarch 27, 2007
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 38 A.D.3d 404 (Boyle v. 42nd Street Development Project, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Boyle v. 42nd Street Development Project, Inc., 38 A.D.3d 404, 835 N.Y.S.2d 7 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinions

Orders, Supreme Court, New York County (Shirley Kornreich, J.), entered January 19, 2005 and May 17, 2005, which granted defendants and third-party plaintiffs’ cross motion and Archer’s cross motion to the extent of dismissing Boyle’s claims pursuant to Labor Law § 240 (1) and § 200 and for common-law negligence; denied the cross motions to the extent they sought dis[405]*405missal of Boyle’s claims pursuant to Labor Law § 241 (6) and § 241-a; conditioned the award of contractual indemnification to third-party plaintiffs upon a finding of negligence against Archer; and granted the cross motion of third-party defendant seeking dismissal of the third-party action as against it, modified, on the law, to the extent of reinstating plaintiffs’ Labor Law § 240 (1) claim, dismissing plaintiffs’ section 241 (6) and section 241-a claims, and otherwise affirmed, without costs.

Oh July 8, 1999, plaintiff Matthew Boyle was one of a six-man crew engaged in the unloading, hoisting and installation of stringers, which are steel components that form the sides of metal stairs. The stringers, each about 10 to 13 feet long and weighing several hundred pounds, were being moved from the ground level to the building’s upper floors. To achieve this, the stringers had to be hoisted through an open elevator shaft by an electrical chain fall, which was erected in the elevator shaft. The chain fall was hung from about the 10th floor and extended to ground level.

There were three workers at ground level attaching the stringers to the chain fall. Boyle was kneeling on a beam in the elevator shaft on the 6th floor and operating the chain fall, which required him to guide the stringers as they were being hoisted. Also, two workers, Fred Fegel and Thomas Frame, were positioned on the 8th floor and were unloading and installing the stringers. Fegel and Frame would swing the stringers out of the elevator shaft and onto a platform in the stairwell that was adjacent to the elevator shaft.

The assembly of steel stairs further required threaded rods, which are about six feet long and weigh between 10 and 15 pounds. The threaded rods were hung from the building’s structural steel and the stringers were then hung from the rods before the stair treads and risers were placed between the stringers to form the staircase. The threaded rods were placed into clips that were attached to the structural steel and secured on both the top and bottom with washers and nuts. When installing the staircase, the nuts that secured the threaded rods were left loose so that the rods could be adjusted as the stairs were installed. The nuts were not tightened until final height adjustments were made and the stringers were plumb.

Fegel was in the process of aligning the stairs with the use of a hammer when he exposed his coworker to the effects of Newton’s First Law. One of the threaded rods came loose and tumbled down the elevator shaft, striking Boyle in the back as he worked two floors below. As a result, Boyle sustained injuries, including an L2-L3 disc herniation and several bulging discs.

[406]*406In January 2001, Boyle commenced an action against 42nd Street and Sciame and asserted claims pursuant to Labor Law §§ 200, 240 (1) and § 241 (6) and common-law negligence. In a second supplemental bill of particulars, dated June 30, 2003, he alleged a claim pursuant to Labor Law § 241-a.

In May 2004, Boyle moved for summary judgment on the Labor Law § 240 (1) and § 241-a claims. 42nd Street and Sciame opposed and cross-moved for summary judgment seeking dismissal of Boyle’s complaint. The court initially denied the motion and cross motions for summary judgment on the section 240 (1) claim but upon reargument dismissed Boyle’s Labor Law § 240 (1) claim. The court held that since the threaded rod that struck Boyle was not being “hoisted or secured” at the time of the accident, section 240 (1) was not applicable.

The motion court erred in vacating its initial determination. The accident clearly falls within the purview of the statute inasmuch as plaintiff was struck by a falling object that had been inadequately secured (Outar v City of New York, 5 NY3d 731 [2005]; see also Tavarez v Sea-Cargoes, 278 AD2d 94 [2000] [the purpose of section 240 (1) is to safeguard a worker from injury caused by an inadequate protective device designed to shield him from the fall of object or person], citing Carroll v Timko Contr. Corp., 264 AD2d 706 [1999] [no section 240 (1) liability because “plaintiff was not working at an elevated worksite, nor was he struck by an object positioned at a higher level” (emphasis added)]).

Labor Law § 240 (1) was enacted “in recognition of the exceptionally dangerous conditions posed by elevation differentials at work sites . . . for workers laboring under unique gravity-related hazards” (Misseritti v Mark IV Constr. Co., 86 NY2d 487, 491 [1995]). The Court of Appeals has recognized the hazards as those related to the effects of gravity in two specific construction site situations: first, where there is “a difference between the elevation level of the required work and a lower level”; and second, where there is “a difference between the elevation level where the worker is positioned and the higher level of the materials or load being hoisted or secured” (Rocovich v Consolidated Edison Co., 78 NY2d 509, 514 [1991]).

Defendants’ assertion that the claim was properly dismissed because the threaded rod that struck Boyle was not being hoisted or secured at the time of the accident is without merit since it is based on a misreading of Narducci v Manhasset Bay Assoc. (96 NY2d 259, 267-268 [2001] [plaintiff must show that the object fell, while being hoisted or secured, because of the absence or inadequacy of a safety device of the kind enumerated [407]*407in the statute]). In Narducci, the plaintiff was working on a ladder when a large piece of glass from an adjacent window frame that was neither being hoisted nor secured fell and injured his arm. The Court held that there was no viable section 240 (1) claim. The full text of its holding in that case states: “the glass that fell on plaintiff was not a material being hoisted or a load that required securing for the purposes of the undertaking at the time it fell .... No one was working on the window from which the glass fell, nor was there evidence that anyone worked on that window during the renovation. The glass that fell was part of the pre-existing building structure as it appeared before work began. This was not a situation where a hoisting or securing device of the kind enumerated in the statute would have been necessary or even expected” (id. at 268).

In other words, the glass did not qualify as the type of falling object contemplated by the statute because it was not an integral part of the renovation/construction work undertaken by plaintiff that involved the hoisting or securing of objects.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
38 A.D.3d 404, 835 N.Y.S.2d 7, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/boyle-v-42nd-street-development-project-inc-nyappdiv-2007.