BURNS, JEFFERY v. LECESSE CONSTRUCTION SERVICES LLC

130 A.D.3d 1429, 12 N.Y.S.3d 722
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York·Decided July 2, 2015·No. CA 14-01125·Published·Cited by 18 cases

Opinions

Appeals from an order of the Supreme Court, Monroe County (J. Scott Odorisi, J.), entered April 7, 2014. The order granted the motion of Pro Carpet, Inc., for summary judgment dismissing the amended complaint and cross claims against it, dismissed the third-party action of Pro Carpet, Inc., denied in part the motion and cross motions of the remaining defendants for summary judgment, and granted in part plaintiffs motion for partial summary judgment.

It is hereby ordered that said appeal by defendant Dukes Property Development, LLC from the order insofar as it denied that part of its motion with respect to the Labor Law § 241 (6) claim against it and granted that part of the motion of defendant-third-party plaintiff Pro Carpet, Inc. with respect to the Labor Law § 241 (6) claim against it, and appeal by defendant U.S. Ceiling Corp. from the order insofar as it denied that part of its cross motion with respect to the Labor Law § 241 (6) claim against it, and appeal by defendants Lecesse Construction Services LLC, The Mills High Falls Housing Development Fund Company, Inc., and Urban League of Rochester, NY, Inc. from the order insofar as it granted the motion of defendant-third-party plaintiff Pro Carpet, Inc., and insofar as it sua sponte dismissed the third-party complaint is dismissed without costs, and the order is modified on the law by granting in part the cross motion of defendants Lecesse Construction Services LLC, The Mills High Falls Housing Development Fund Company, Inc. and Urban League of Rochester, NY, Inc. with respect to the Labor Law § 241 (6) claim and dismissing that claim against them except to the extent that it is premised on violations of Industrial Code (12 NYCRR) §§ 23-1.7 (e) and 23-1.30; granting that part of the motion of defendant Dukes Property Development, LLC and that part of the cross motion [1431]*1431of defendant U.S. Ceiling Corp. with respect to the Labor Law § 200 claim and dismissing that claim against them; denying plaintiff’s motion in its entirety; and reinstating the third-party complaint of defendant-third-party plaintiff Pro Carpet, Inc., and granting that part of its motion seeking summary judgment on its claim for attorney’s fees and costs against third-party defendant pursuant to the indemnification agreement, and as modified the order is affirmed without costs.

Memorandum: Plaintiff commenced this Labor Law and common-law negligence action seeking damages for injuries that he allegedly sustained when he fell down a stairway in an apartment complex then under construction. The accident allegedly occurred when he tripped on a drywall screw that was protruding out of the top of the stairway. Defendant Lecesse Construction Services LLC (Lecesse) was the general contractor for the construction project, and defendants The Mills High Falls Housing Development Fund Company, Inc. (Mills) and Urban League of Rochester, NY, Inc. (Urban League), jointly owned the apartment complex. Defendant Dukes Property Development, LLC (Dukes) was the finish carpentry subcontractor, defendant U.S. Ceiling Corp. (U.S. Ceiling) was the drywall and insulation contractor, and defendant-third-party plaintiff Pro Carpet, Inc. (Pro Carpet) was the flooring subcontractor. Pro Carpet subcontracted a portion of its work to third-party defendant, Jeffrey W. Burns, doing business as Burns Flooring, and Pro Carpet commenced a third-party action against him seeking, inter alia, contractual indemnification pursuant to its “Hold Harmless, Indemnification and Insurance” agreement with third-party-defendant.

By the order in appeal No. 1, Supreme Court granted in its entirety Pro Carpet’s motion seeking summary judgment dismissing the amended complaint and cross claims against it, and sua sponte dismissed the third-party complaint. The court denied the motion of Dukes, the cross motion of U.S. Ceiling and the cross motion of Lecesse, Mills and Urban League (collectively, Lecesse defendants) insofar as they each sought summary judgment dismissing the common-law negligence and Labor Law §§ 200 and 241 (6) claims against them. The court granted plaintiff’s motion to the extent that it sought partial summary judgment determining that the accident was a substantial factor in causing his lumbar spine injuries, which required medical treatment that included surgery.

By the order in appeal No. 2, the court, inter alia, granted the motion of Dukes and the cross motion of U.S. Ceiling seeking, inter alia, leave to reargue their respective motion and [1432]*1432cross motion insofar as they sought summary judgment dismissing the Labor Law § 241 (6) claim against them. Upon reargument, the court adhered to its original determination with respect to that claim.

As a preliminary matter, we dismiss the appeals of Dukes and U.S. Ceiling from the order in appeal No. 1 insofar as it denied those parts of their respective motion and cross motion with respect to the Labor Law § 241 (6) claim (see Loafin’ Tree Rest. v Pardi [appeal No. 1], 162 AD2d 985, 985 [1990]). In addition, we dismiss the appeal of the Lecesse defendants from the order in appeal No. 2. The Lecesse defendants are not aggrieved by that order, and the contentions raised in their brief with respect to that order are in support of affirmance (see Schramm v Cold Spring Harbor Lab., 17 AD3d 661, 663 [2005]). Pro Carpet’s appeal from the order in appeal No. 2 is also dismissed inasmuch as Pro Carpet has not raised on appeal any issue with respect to that order and has thus abandoned its appeal from that order (see Abasciano v Dandrea, 83 AD3d 1542, 1545 [2011]).

We conclude in appeal No. 2 that the court erred in adhering to its prior decision denying Dukes’ motion and U.S. Ceiling’s cross motion insofar as they sought summary judgment dismissing the Labor Law § 241 (6) claim against them. The nondelegable duty imposed by that statute extends only to “[general] 'contractors and owners and their agents’ ” (Krajnik v Forbes Homes, Inc., 120 AD3d 902, 904 [2014], quoting Labor Law § 241 [6]; see Russin v Louis N. Picciano & Son, 54 NY2d 311, 317-318 [1981]). As subcontractors, Dukes and U.S. Ceiling qualify as statutory agents only with regard to injuries “sustained in those areas and activities within the scope of the work delegated to [them]” (Piazza v Frank L. Ciminelli Constr. Co., Inc., 12 AD3d 1059, 1060 [2004]). Dukes and U.S. Ceiling met their burden of establishing that they did not have control over plaintiff’s work or the safety of the area involved in the incident, and plaintiff failed to raise a triable issue of fact (see Rice v City of Cortland, 262 AD2d 770, 771-772 [1999]). We therefore reverse the order in appeal No. 2 insofar as appealed from by granting, upon reargument, the motion of Dukes and cross motion of U.S. Ceiling with respect to Labor Law § 241 (6).

In appeal No. 1, we conclude with respect to the Labor Law § 241 (6) claim that the court properly denied that part of the cross motion of the Lecesse defendants for summary judgment dismissing that claim against them to the extent that it is premised on the alleged violations of 12 NYCRR 23-1.7 (e) and [1433]*143323-1.30. Those regulations are sufficiently specific to support the Labor Law § 241 (6) claim (see Murphy v Columbia Univ., 4 AD3d 200, 202 [2004]). “ ‘Moreover, both regulations are applicable to the facts of this case and arguably were violated by [the Lecesse] defendants, thus warranting a trial of [that] claim’ ” (Mergenhagen v Dish Network Serv. L.L.C., 64 AD3d 1170, 1172 [2009]).

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BURNS, JEFFERY v. LECESSE CONSTRUCTION SERVICES LLC, 130 A.D.3d 1429, 12 N.Y.S.3d 722 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2015).

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BURNS, JEFFERY v. LECESSE CONSTRUCTION SERVICES LLC
130 A.D.3d 1436 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2015)