Brown v. 44 Street Development, LLC

137 A.D.3d 703, 27 N.Y.S.3d 380

• Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
• Decided: March 31, 2016
• Docket: 671 154315/12
• Status: Published

Opinion

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Anil C. Singh, J.), entered March 23, 2015, which, insofar as appealed from, denied defendants’ motion for summary judgment dismissing plaintiffs’ claim pursuant to Labor Law § 240 (1), and granted plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment on the issue of liability on that claim, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

Plaintiff was injured when, while carrying wood planks, he fell through an opening in a latticework rebar deck to a plywood form that was 12 to 18 inches below. “There is no bright-line minimum height differential that determines whether an elevation hazard exists” (Auriemma v Biltmore Theatre, LLC, 82 AD3d 1, 9 [1st Dept 2011]), and here, the record establishes that plaintiff’s fall was the result of exposure to an elevation related hazard (see Arrasti v HRH Constr. LLC, 60 AD3d 582 [1st Dept 2009]). We have considered defendants’ remaining arguments and find them unavailing.

Concur—Mazzarelli, J.P., Renwick, Moskowitz, Kapnick and Kahn, JJ.