Opinion
8866 Index 303432/14
04-02-2019
Baxter Smith & Shapiro, P.C., White Plains (Sim R. Shapiro of counsel), for appellants. William Schwitzer & Associates, P.C., New York (Howard R. Cohen of counsel), for respondent.
Baxter Smith & Shapiro, P.C., White Plains (Sim R. Shapiro of counsel), for appellants.
William Schwitzer & Associates, P.C., New York (Howard R. Cohen of counsel), for respondent.
Friedman, J.P., Gische, Tom, Gesmer, Moulton JJ
Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Lucindo Suarez, J.), entered on or about October 26, 2017, which granted plaintiff's motion for partial summary judgment on the issue of liability on his Labor Law § 240(1) claim, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
Plaintiff's deposition testimony establishes that a proximate cause of his injury was the unsecured scaffold planks which tipped when he stepped on them (see Kristo v. Board of Ed. of the City of N.Y. , 134 A.D.3d 550, 23 N.Y.S.3d 165 [1st Dept. 2015] ). Thus, contrary to defendants' contention, plaintiff was not the sole proximate cause of his accident and we reject defendant's recalcitrant worker defense (see Blake v. Neighborhood Hous. Servs. of N.Y. City , 1 N.Y.3d 280, 290, 771 N.Y.S.2d 484, 803 N.E.2d 757 [2003] ["if a statutory violation is a proximate cause of an injury, the plaintiff cannot be solely to blame for it"] ).