Fromel v. W2005/Hines W. Fifty-Third Realty, LLC

2024 NY Slip Op 31233(U)
CourtNew York Supreme Court, New York County
DecidedApril 10, 2024
StatusUnpublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 2024 NY Slip Op 31233(U) (Fromel v. W2005/Hines W. Fifty-Third Realty, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court, New York County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fromel v. W2005/Hines W. Fifty-Third Realty, LLC, 2024 NY Slip Op 31233(U) (N.Y. Super. Ct. 2024).

Opinion

Fromel v W2005/Hines W. Fifty-Third Realty, LLC 2024 NY Slip Op 31233(U) April 10, 2024 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 158914/2018 Judge: David B. Cohen Cases posted with a "30000" identifier, i.e., 2013 NY Slip Op 30001(U), are republished from various New York State and local government sources, including the New York State Unified Court System's eCourts Service. This opinion is uncorrected and not selected for official publication. INDEX NO. 158914/2018 NYSCEF DOC. NO. 124 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 04/10/2024

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK NEW YORK COUNTY PRESENT: HON. DAVID B. COHEN PART 58 Justice ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------X INDEX NO. 158914/2018 JAMES FROMEL, MOTION DATE 09/29/2023 Plaintiff, MOTION SEQ. NO. 003 004 -v- W2005/HINES WEST FIFTY-THIRD REALTY, LLC, LENDLEASE (US) CONSTRUCTION LMB, INC., ISLAND DECISION + ORDER ON ACOUSTICS OF NEW YORK, INC., ISLAND ACOUSTICS, LLC, MOTION

Defendants. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------X

The following e-filed documents, listed by NYSCEF document number (Motion 003) 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 120, 121 were read on this motion to/for JUDGMENT - SUMMARY .

The following e-filed documents, listed by NYSCEF document number (Motion 004) 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 117, 118, 119, 122 were read on this motion to/for JUDGMENT - SUMMARY .

In this Labor Law action, defendants/third-party plaintiffs W2005/Hines West Fifth-Third

Realty, LLC (Realty) and Lendlease (US) Construction LMB, Inc. (Lendlease) (collectively,

defendants) move pursuant to CPLR 3212 for an order granting them summary judgment on their

third-party claim against third-party defendant Spieler & Ricca Electrical Co., Inc. (mot. seq.

003).1 Spieler opposes.

By notice of motion, plaintiff moves pursuant to CPLR 3212 for an order granting him

partial summary judgment on liability against defendants (mot. seq. 004). Defendants oppose.

1 Plaintiff has discontinued his claims against Acoustics (NYSCEF 94). 158914/2018 FROMEL, JAMES vs. W2005/HINES WEST FIFTY-THIRD Page 1 of 9 Motion No. 003 004

1 of 9 [* 1] INDEX NO. 158914/2018 NYSCEF DOC. NO. 124 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 04/10/2024

I. PERTINENT BACKGROUND

As set forth in the parties’ statements of material facts, the following facts are

undisputed:

At the time of plaintiff’s accident, he was employed by Spieler as an electrician, and was

supervised solely by his two foremen; none of defendants’ employees directed or instructed him

as to his work. The construction project at issue was located at 53 West 53rd Street in Manhattan

(NYSCEF 83, 108).

At his deposition, plaintiff testified that Realty owned the building at issue, while

Lendlease was the general contractor. On August 16, 2016, plaintiff and other Spieler

employees were working on the eighth floor of the building, which was being used as a

“stripping floor,” which was where workers were taking plywood down to start moving it up to

the next floor. There were no walls around the floor but there was an exterior wraparound to

keep debris from falling off the building. Plaintiff described the floor as messy and containing a

lot of debris (NYSCEF 91).

The ninth floor had already had the concrete floor slab poured, and some workers were

up there stripping plywood forms. Plaintiff and his coworkers were working on the eighth floor

on electrical work while other trades were ripping down the plywood; they did not want to be

near the workers stripping the plywood from support beams (id.).

Plaintiff and his apprentice were running a temporary line to the eighth floor to feed

electricity to upper floors for future work. They were near the opening in the middle of the floor

where the interior crane was located. Barriers had been placed around the crane opening, which

were made out of wood with orange netting around them. The barriers measured only four or

five feet high. There were also some cutouts in the ceiling above them (id.).

158914/2018 FROMEL, JAMES vs. W2005/HINES WEST FIFTY-THIRD Page 2 of 9 Motion No. 003 004

2 of 9 [* 2] INDEX NO. 158914/2018 NYSCEF DOC. NO. 124 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 04/10/2024

As he talked to the apprentice, debris hit him and caused him to fall down. The debris

consisted of a ten-foot long four-by-four support beam, which hit him across the back of his

head. When plaintiff looked around to see what happened, he saw a worker standing on a

landing and holding other similar beams, and the worker looked at plaintiff and apologized,

saying that he had been carrying too many beams. The landing was behind plaintiff,

approximately six or seven feet high, and connected to stairs leading from the ground of the

eighth floor to the landing. He believed that the worker was employed by the site’s concrete

contractor (id.).

II. DEFENDANTS’ MOTION

Defendants rely on the contract between Lendlease and Spieler to argue that they are

entitled to judgment on their third-party claim for contractual indemnity against Spieler, as the

relevant lease provision requires Spieler to indemnify Lendlease for any liability “caused by,

arising out of, resulting from or occurring in connection with the performance of the work.”

They observe that it is undisputed that the contract was in effect on the date of plaintiff’s

accident and that plaintiff was working for Spieler when the accident occurred, thus triggering

the applicable provision, which provides for both defense and indemnity. Defendants also deny

that they were negligent in any way related to the accident, as they did not supervise or control

plaintiff’s work and did not perform any construction work themselves (NYSCEF 84).

Spieler asserts that defendants are not entitled to summary judgment on any of their third-

party claims. However, as it appears that defendants are seeking judgment solely on the

contractual indemnity claim, it is the only claim addressed herein. Spieler asserts that there is a

triable issue as to whether plaintiff was performing work for Spieler when he was injured, as he

was not performing electrical work at the time and none of his electrical work caused or

158914/2018 FROMEL, JAMES vs. W2005/HINES WEST FIFTY-THIRD Page 3 of 9 Motion No. 003 004

3 of 9 [* 3] INDEX NO. 158914/2018 NYSCEF DOC. NO. 124 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 04/10/2024

contributed to the accident. It also maintains that the provision violates General Obligations Law

(GOL) 5-322.1, thereby rendering it null and void, and that in any event, defendants have not

shown themselves to be free of negligence, as they were responsible for overall site safety and

maintenance and could have stopped unsafe work (NYSCEF 107).

As the pertinent language provides that Spieler must indemnify Lendlease “to the fullest

extent of the law,” against any liability “caused by, arising out of, resulting from or occurring in

connection with the performance of the work,” and as it is undisputed that plaintiff’s accident

occurred while he was performing work for Spieler at the construction site, defendants have

established that the provision is applicable. Spieler’s arguments that the provision was not

triggered as plaintiff was not performing electrical work when he was injured or that his work

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Fromel v. W2005/Hines W. Fifty-Third Realty, LLC
2024 NY Slip Op 31233(U) (New York Supreme Court, New York County, 2024)

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2024 NY Slip Op 31233(U), Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fromel-v-w2005hines-w-fifty-third-realty-llc-nysupctnewyork-2024.