FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 28, 2020
Contact:Eric W. Boyer, Esq.
Managing Partner
305.670.1101 Ext. 1023
Email: eboyer@qpwblaw.com
CARPENTER’S ON THE JOB INJURY IS USUAL AND ORDINARY – NOT IN
VIOLATION OF NEW YORK LABOR LAW
Tanya M. Branch
Personal Injury Defense – Construction
QUEENS COUNTY, New York ― Tanya M. Branch, managing partner of the New York office, received a Summary Judgment and Dismissal on behalf of her client, Buena Vista Associates. The plaintiff suffered personal injuries resulting from a fall of construction materials at a construction site. He claimed violations of New York Labor Law Sections 200, 240, and 241.
Plaintiff claimed his left hand was injured working on a construction site. He claimed the injury was caused while moving boxes of tiles up an interior stairway. Plaintiff argued that the defendant failed to provide any type of “hoisting apparatus” in violation of Labor Law Section 240(1). Defendant argued the injury as “usual and ordinary” as plaintiff’s occupation as a carpenter and not those against which Labor Law Section 240(1) guards against which is to protect the rights of workers injured in a fall or due to a falling object striking them – the “New York Scaffold Law Sections 200, 240, 241” – where the worker must fall from an elevated surface or receive an injury due to a falling item.
The court finds the plaintiff’s argument is unavailing. Because to prevail on a Labor Law 240(1) claim, the plaintiff must show a violation of the statute and that the violation was a proximate cause of the injury. Honorable Janice A. Taylor, Queens County Supreme Court, finds plaintiff failed to satisfy this burden and grants the complaint dismissed.
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Tanya M. Branch is the Managing Partner of the New York City office. She represents contractors, subcontractors and municipalities in claims involving personal injury, property damage and construction accidents. Her practice focuses on complex general liability and the representation of insurers and insureds in commercial general liability claims and all other aspects of personal injury litigation. She received her law degree from Touro College Fuchsberg Law Center in 1994 and is admitted to practice in New York and the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York.
Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A., is the largest minority and women owned law firm in the nation with 23 offices in the U.S. and abroad across a spectrum of industries in over 40 areas of practice. Our lawyers provide representation in litigation, business, real estate and governmental law.