Gonzalez v Navillus Tile, Inc.
2026 NY Slip Op 02877 [249 AD3d 449]
May 7, 2026
Appellate Division, First Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, July 8, 2026
Paul Gonzalez, Appellant,
v
Navillus Tile, Inc., Doing Business as Navillus Contracting, Inc., Defendant, and City of New York et al., Respondents.
May 7, 2026
HEADNOTES
Labor — Safe Place to Work — Slip and Fall while Standing on Rebar Leveling Freshly Poured Concrete
APPEARANCES OF COUNSEL
Pollack, Pollack, Isaac & DeCicco, LLP, New York (Kolby Forrest of counsel), for appellant.
Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP, New York (Patrick J. Lawless of counsel), for respondents.
Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Shawn T. Kelly, J.), entered on or about March 18, 2025, which denied plaintiff's motion for partial summary judgment on the Labor Law §§ 240 (1) and 241 (6) claims, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
Plaintiff failed to establish entitlement to summary judgment on the Labor Law § 240 (1) claim (see Marte v Tishman Constr. Corp., 223 AD3d 527, 529-530 [1st Dept 2024]). Plaintiff testified that he was standing on rebar and leveling freshly poured concrete when he slipped and fell, causing parts of his body to fall through the rebar and into the concrete. Plaintiff argues that plywood planks should have been placed over the rebar as a work platform. However, defendants submitted the affidavit of plaintiff's foreman, who averred, in sum and substance, that it would have been "impractical and contrary to the very work at hand to cover the area where the concrete was being spread" (id. at 530, quoting Salazar v Novalex Contr. Corp., 18 NY3d 134, 140 [2011]).
The court correctly denied plaintiff's motion for summary judgment on the Labor Law § 241 (6) claim premised on Industrial Code (12 NYCRR) § 23-1.7 (d). Plaintiff failed to establish that the alleged wet substance on the rebar he slipped on was not associated with the work that he was performing (see Orellana v 386 Park S. LLC, 222 AD3d 438, 438 [1st Dept 2023]). Concur—Moulton, J.P., Gesmer, Higgitt, Michael, Chan, JJ.