Mescall v Structure-Tone, Inc.
2008 NY Slip Op 02189 [49 AD3d 339]
March 13, 2008
Appellate Division, First Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, May 14, 2008


John Mescall et al., Respondents,
v
Structure-Tone, Inc., Appellant. (And a Third-Party Action.)

[*1] Camacho Mauro Mulholland, LLP, New York City (Kathleen Mulholland of counsel), for appellant.

Sacks & Sacks, LLP, New York City (Scott N. Singer of counsel), for respondents.

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Barbara R. Kapnick, J.), entered December 20, 2006, which granted plaintiff's motion for partial summary judgment on the issue of liability under Labor Law § 240 (1), unanimously affirmed, without costs.

Plaintiff, an ironworker, was injured when a crane that was lifting a 25-by-25-foot steel "screen" or "curtain" failed, causing the screen to fall some 20 feet in the air before striking plaintiff. Although defendant asserts that it instructed plaintiff to use steel "cradles" to prepare the screens for hoisting, plaintiff and the coworker attested that no such cradles were available on the date of the accident, and defendant adduces no evidence to the contrary. Thus, defendant cannot argue that plaintiff was a recalcitrant worker, or that his actions were the sole proximate cause of the accident (see Rivera v Ambassador Fuel & Oil Burner Corp., 45 AD3d 275, 276 [2007]; Ramos v Port Auth. of N.Y. & N.J., 306 AD2d 147 [2003]). We have considered defendant's other arguments and find them unavailing. Concur—Lippman, P.J., Andrias, Williams and McGuire, JJ.