Karandisecky v City of New York
2021 NY Slip Op 06950 [200 AD3d 520]
December 14, 2021
Appellate Division, First Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, February 2, 2022


[*1]
 John Karandisecky, Appellant,
v
City of New York et al., Respondents.

Law Office of Ephrem J. Wertenteil, New York (Ephrem J. Wertenteil of counsel), for appellant.

Cozen O'Connor, New York (Eric J. Berger of counsel), for respondents.

Amended order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Howard H. Sherman, J.), entered on or about November 4, 2019, which, to the extent appealed from, granted defendants' motion for summary judgment dismissing the Labor Law § 241 (6) claim predicated upon Industrial Code (12 NYCRR) § 23-1.7 (d), unanimously reversed, on the law, without costs, and the motion denied.

Plaintiff, a subcontractor's foreman, testified that he was attempting to unlock the door of the office trailer at 6:30 a.m. to review construction documents kept therein and to prepare the trailer for the day's employee meeting when he slipped and fell on the staircase landing-platform just outside the trailer door. Photographic exhibits reflect snow and ice on the narrow staircase. This evidence presents issues of fact as to whether plaintiff was engaged in a construction-related activity at the time he slipped and fell (see 12 NYCRR 23-1.4 [b] [13]; Gherardi City of New York, 49 AD3d 280 [1st Dept 2008]) and whether the landing on which he fell was the type of surface contemplated under 12 NYCRR 23-1.7 (d), i.e., whether it was a "walkway" (see e.g. Quigley v Port Auth. of N.Y. & N.J., 168 AD3d 65 [1st Dept 2018]) or a "passageway" (see Conklin v Triborough Bridge & Tunnel Auth., 49 AD3d 320 [1st Dept 2008]) or a "platform" (see Beltrone v City of New York, 299 AD2d 306 [2d Dept 2002]). Concur—Kern, J.P., Kennedy, Scarpulla, Mendez, Shulman, JJ.