Garcia v. Martin

285 A.D.2d 391, 728 N.Y.S.2d 455, 2001 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 7489
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedJuly 19, 2001
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 285 A.D.2d 391 (Garcia v. Martin) 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
Garcia v. Martin, 285 A.D.2d 391, 728 N.Y.S.2d 455, 2001 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 7489 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

—Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Barry Salman, J.), entered July 18, 2000, which, to the extent appealed from, denied defendant Flossie Martin’s motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint as against her, affirmed, without costs.

Plaintiff, an employee of One Stop Shopping, a roofing contractor, was injured in a fall from the roof of defendant’s home. Plaintiff was told by defendant homeowner to install plywood before applying the roofing felt and shingles. After installing plywood on one side of the roof, as directed by his supervisor, the plywood ran out, and defendant refused to pay for more, instead instructing plaintiff to use pieces of the old roof decking material to patch rotted areas. At defendant’s insistence, plaintiff also reinstalled a leader and sealed defendant’s gutters, which, as plaintiff testified, “had nothing to do with the job.”

After the roofing felt was applied but before plaintiff and a fellow worker could begin shingling, it began to snow. Due to defendant’s demand that the work be completed immediately or payment would be withheld, plaintiff went up on the roof in the attempt to keep the felt dry by sweeping the snow away with a broom. In the process, plaintiff stepped on a piece of the old wood decking, which gave way, causing him to fall.

The exemption from liability for the owners of one- and two-family dwellings provided in Labor Law § 240 (1) and § 241 (6) is limited to those “who contract for but do not direct or control the work.” As Supreme Court recognized, where a worker is the employee of another, vicarious liability under the Labor [392]*392Law depends upon the degree of supervision and control exercised by the defendant (Duda v Rouse Constr. Corp., 32 NY2d 405; Ennis v Hayes, 152 AD2d 914, 915). In Rimoldi v Schanzer (147 AD2d 541, 545), in which workers were killed in the collapse of a patio that was being excavated to make room for a swimming pool, the Appellate Division, Second Department, noted (at 546) that the defendants’ “involvement in the construction of the pool * * * went beyond the mere choice of a pool and included their involvement in the shape, placement and construction of the pool as well as their supervision of the manner in which the pool was being constructed.” The Court found issues of fact as to whether the defendants had exercised the requisite degree of supervision and control to impose liability under Labor Law § 240 (1) and § 241 (6).

As the Court of Appeals has observed, the intent of the Labor Law is to afford protection to workers by placing responsibility for job safety on the owner. To this end, doubts concerning the applicability of the exception for one- and two-family homeowners “should be resolved in favor of the general provision rather than the exception” (Van Amerogen v Donnini, 78 NY2d 880, 882). In the instant case, the parties have given conflicting accounts respecting the direction and control exercised by defendant over plaintiff’s work. Plaintiff testified that he was given specific instructions on aspects of the work he was to perform and intimated that he and defendant had arrived at an understanding whereby he was to be compensated for work performed directly at defendant’s behest, apart from the salary he received from his employer. He stated that he had agreed to seal the gutters because “she said she was going to take care of me.” Defendant, by contrast, denies that she had any conversations with anyone concerning the work except for the contractor. In the context of a motion for summary judgment, the court is required to consign factual issues bearing upon a defendant’s right to rely on the exemption from liability under Labor Law § 240 (1) for resolution by the trier of fact (see, Chura v Baruzzi, 192 AD2d 918).

Finally, viewing the facts in a light most favorable to plaintiff, as a court is required to do on a motion for summary judgment (Ingle v Glamore Motor Sales, 73 NY2d 183, 194; Crosland v New York City Tr. Auth., 68 NY2d 165, 168, n 2), the homeowner’s involvement went beyond the mere expression of dissatisfaction and demands for timely completion of the work. The direction to reuse old planking rather than install new plywood was a material contributing factor in plaintiff’s injury, and the degree of interference thus implicates [393]*393both “direction as to the manner of the performance of the work by the injured work[er]” and direction as to use of materials supplied by her, even without direction as to the manner of performance (Galbraith v Pike & Son, 18 AD2d 39, 43, citing Mendes v Caristo Constr. Corp., 5 AD2d 268, 270, affd 6 NY2d 729; cf., Sanna v Potter, 179 AD2d 982, 983, lv denied 80 NY2d 758 [no evidence any materials supplied by defendants contributed to accident]). Under the circumstances of this case, defects in the materials that the homeowner supplied and her insistence upon the use of the materials in the performance of the project raise questions of fact as to her direction and control of the work within the contemplation of Labor Law § 240 (1).

In an extensive dissent, our colleague attempts to decide an issue of fact, losing sight of the very purpose of summary judgment, which is to ascertain if there are issues of fact (Sillman v Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp., 3 NY2d 395, 404; Wiener v Ga-Ro Die Cutting, 104 AD2d 331, 333, affd 65 NY2d 732; Creighton v Milbauer, 191 AD2d 162, 166).

The relevant inquiry is the degree of direction and control that the defendant had over the method and manner of work. As suggested in Chura v Baruzzi (supra), there can be no argument that defendant’s activities went well beyond those of an interested homeowner, who simply presented ideas and suggestions, made observations and inquiries and inspected the work. She was at the job site daily, organizing the work and, in effect, telling the plaintiff how to do his job and what materials to use or not use.

Under the circumstances of this case, sharp issues of fact exist as to whether the defects in the material that the defendant supplied, her daily intermeddling in the work in progress, and her insistence upon the use of the old planking constituted sufficient direction and control so as to remove this action from the exemption under the Labor Law for one- and two-family dwellings. Concur — Rosenberger, J. P., Ellerin and Rubin, JJ.

Tom and Buckley, JJ., dissent in a Memorandum by Tom, J., as follows: Insofar as I conclude that the facts of this case fit squarely within the exemption afforded to single-family homeowners in Labor Law § 240 (1), I would reverse and grant summary judgment to defendant private homeowners and thus dismiss the claim of strict liability arising under section 240.

Plaintiff was an employee of One Stop Shopping, a roofing contractor hired by defendants to replace the roof of their private home in the Bronx. Defendant-appellant is the homeowner; defendant Stowe was her husband who died before this action commenced. The job basically involved stripping [394]*394and replacing the roofs shingles and its felt underlayer, as well as cleaning and refastening the gutter which became the repository of roofing debris from the job. During that work, plaintiff stepped through a rotten panel of wood and, in trying to extricate himself, lost his balance and fell. He sued defendants, as owners and employers, under Labor Law § 240 (1) and other theories.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Rodriguez v. Wheeler
2024 NY Slip Op 32332(U) (New York Supreme Court, New York County, 2024)
Venter v. Cherkasky
2021 NY Slip Op 07022 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2021)
Guiracocha v. Weiss
2003 NY Slip Op 51505(U) (New York Supreme Court, 2003)
Garcia v. Bronx Lebanon Hospital
287 A.D.2d 381 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2001)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
285 A.D.2d 391, 728 N.Y.S.2d 455, 2001 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 7489, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/garcia-v-martin-nyappdiv-2001.