| Fabrizi v 1095 Ave. of the Ams., L.L.C. |
| 2012 NY Slip Op 06182 [98 AD3d 864] |
| September 18, 2012 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| Richard Fabrizi, Respondent, v 1095 Avenue of theAmericas, L.L.C., et al., Appellants, et al., Defendants. (And OtherActions.) |
—[*1] Pollack, Pollack, Isaac & DeCicco, New York (Brian J. Isaac of counsel), forrespondent.
Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Emily Jane Goodman, J.), entered June 9, 2011,which, to the extent appealed from, denied defendants 1095 Avenue of the Americas, L.L.C. andJ.T. Magen Construction Company, Inc.'s motion for summary judgment dismissing the LaborLaw § 240 (1) claim as against them, and granted plaintiff's motion for summary judgmenton the issue of said defendants and defendant Dechert LLP's liability under section 240 (1),modified, on the law, to deny plaintiff's motion, and otherwise affirmed, without costs.
Plaintiff, an electrician employed by nonparty Forest Electric Corp., was working at a job sitewhere the general contractor was gutting and remodeling a commercial space. He was injuredwhen he was struck in the hand by a piece of galvanized steel conduit pipe. The pipe had beenattached to another piece of pipe by a compression coupling at the ceiling before it fell. At thetime of the accident, plaintiff was engaged in moving a pool box (also called a pencil box), adevice used to access telecommunication wires. The box was connected to a section of conduitpiping running from the floor to the ceiling, as well as to a support system known as Kindorfsupports. After cutting the conduit to remove the pencil box, plaintiff kneeled down to drill intothe floor in order to reposition the conduit and the pencil box, when the piece of conduit that wassecured to the other pipe came loose and fell upon him.
Contrary to defendants' argument, adopted by Justice Tom in his dissent (the dissent), thefacts in this case are not outside the scope of Labor Law § 240 (1). Plaintiff claims that herequested and should have been provided with a set screw coupling to secure the conduit pipe tothe ceiling and that defendants' failure to provide this protective device was a proximate cause ofhis accident. Defendants assert that in light of the Kindorf support system and compressioncoupling that attached the conduit to the ceiling, no protective devices were called for. However,neither of these positions was demonstrated as a matter of law. Thus, summary judgment is not[*2]warranted in favor of either side.
The dissent misconstrues plaintiff's claim when it asserts that plaintiff's theory of recovery isflawed because Labor Law § 240 (1) has no application to the type of component part thatplaintiff claims his employer should have used to assemble the conduit system. Plaintiffdoes not maintain that the conduit system was assembled in an unsafe manner. Rather, plaintiff'stestimony is that when directed to move the pool box, he requested a set screw coupling to securethe pipe to prevent the pipe from falling during the disassembly, and that the failure ofdefendants to provide this device was a proximate cause of his accident. As to the dissent'sobservation that it is unclear whether we adopt plaintiff's position, we find an issue of fact as towhether defendants failed to provide a protective device (Wilinski v 334 E. 92nd Hous. Dev. Fund Corp., 18 NY3d 1, 11[2011] ["whether plaintiff's injuries were proximately caused by the lack of a safety device of thekind required by statute is an issue for a trier of fact to determine"]).[FN1]
The dissent cites Narducci v Manhasset Bay Assoc. (96 NY2d 259, 268 [2001]),which states that "for section 240 (1) to apply, "[a] plaintiff must show that the object fell[ ]while being hoisted or secured." However, it is clear from another portion of that decision, aswell as from subsequent case law, that section 240 (1) is not limited to that situation. TheNarducci Court observed that "the glass that fell on plaintiff was not a material beinghoisted or a load that required securing for the purposes of the undertaking at the time itfell" (id. [emphasis added]). In Quattrocchi v F.J. Sciame Constr. Corp. (11 NY3d 757, 758-759[2008]), a case where plaintiff was struck by falling planks that had been placed over open doors,the Court stated outright that " 'falling object' liability under Labor Law § 240 (1) is notlimited to cases in which the falling object is in the process of being hoisted or secured." InWilinski (18 NY3d at 10), citing Runner v New York Stock Exch., Inc. (13 NY3d599), the Court held that the plaintiff was not precluded from recovery under section 240 (1)"simply because he and the pipes that struck him were on the same level."
Furthermore, the dissent's analogy to Narducci is inapt. In that case, the plaintiff wasinjured when glass fell from a window that was not being worked on during the renovation butwas part of the preexisting building structure. In contrast, here, plaintiff's employer had beenengaged in overhauling the building's electrical system, and at the time of the accident, plaintiffhad been doing conduit work and installation of pool boxes. Following the completion of thework, the general contractor issued a change order, directing the relocation of the pool box. Thus,plaintiff was not injured by a part of the preexisting structure unrelated to the work he wasperforming but was injured by the apparatus that had been installed by his employer and wasbeing relocated.
The dissent also posits two different methods by which plaintiff could have performed thework that would have eliminated any possibility that the hanging conduit would fall. However,"no evidence, expert or lay, was submitted that either of these options were [*3]appropriate" (Cordeiro v TS MidtownHoldings, LLC, 87 AD3d 904, 905 [2011]).[FN2]Concur—Moskowitz, Richter and Abdus-Salaam, JJ.
Román, J., concurs in part and dissents in part in a memorandum as follows: While Iagree with the majority's position that the accident here falls within the ambit of Labor Law§ 240 (1) and that questions of fact preclude summary judgment in favor of any of theparties on plaintiff's Labor Law § 240 (1) claim, I write separately in order to addressforeseeability as an element in all Labor Law § 240 (1) cases, an issue whose discussion, atleast in my view, is long overdue.
In cases pursuant to Labor Law § 240 (1), whether an accident falls within the ambit ofthe statute depends on whether the task being performed at the time of an accident exposes aworker to a gravity-related risk against which an owner or contractor must guard. Consequently,an accident falls within the ambit of Labor Law § 240 (1) only if it is reasonablyforeseeable that in performing the task giving rise to the accident, a worker will be exposed to agravity-related hazard so that he/she should be provided, at the outset, with safety devicesadequate to prevent the accident.
On March 20, 2008, plaintiff, an electrician employed by nonparty Forest Electric Corp.(Forest), was injured while working within premises owned by defendant 1095 Avenue of theAmericas, LLC (1095). 1095 leased a portion of its building to defendant Dechert, LLP(Dechert), which thereafter hired defendant Magen Construction Company, Inc. (Magen) to buildout the leased space for its intended use. The build-out involved a gut and remodel of Dechert'sspace, and Forest was hired by Magen to overhaul the electrical system. Plaintiff's work, termed"telephone riser, conduit work," involved running galvanized steel conduit up through thebuilding's floors. Once in place, the conduit housed telecommunication wires that emanated fromthe building's sub-cellar. The conduit traveled up through the building, through designated datashaftways or closets and through core cuts on each floor. As it rose through the building inseparate pieces, the conduit on each floor met and abutted the conduit from the preceding andsubsequent floors. Separate pieces of conduit were held together by compression couplings. Thecompression couplings held the conduits together by the force created by an inner ring when thecouplings were tightened. On each floor, the conduit rose from the ground several feet, where itthen met a "pencil box" and was attached thereto by a compression connector. The pencil boxcontained no conduit, thereby allowing access to the wires that would ultimately travel within theconduit. The pencil box was affixed and screwed to a vertical metal support called a Kindorf.The Kindorf resembled a giant bracket and was affixed to the concrete walls within the closet.Another piece of conduit, approximately 10 feet in length and approximately 60-80 pounds, thenemanated from the top of the pencil box, was affixed thereto by another compression connector,and rose through the ceiling, through core cuts, where it then joined the conduit on thesubsequent floor.
On the date of his accident, plaintiff was tasked with repositioning an already installed [*4]pencil box within a telecommunications closet on the 11th floor.Plaintiff intended to move the pencil box, which was already affixed to a conduit running fromthe floor below to the floor above. He unscrewed the pencil box from the Kindorf and then useda saw to make cuts in the conduit, which enabled him to unscrew and remove the pencil box.Plaintiff removed the pencil box and proceeded to drill the new holes necessary for the pencilbox's relocation. As he drilled, the conduit above where the pencil box had been was still affixedto the compression coupling above. Suddenly, the conduit fell, coming loose from itscompression coupling, falling on top of plaintiff's hand, and causing him injury. Before theaccident, plaintiff had requested screw couplings for purposes of performing the telephone riser,conduit work, averring that such a coupling was "safer when dealing with any kind of heavyloads." Screw couplings were never provided.
Plaintiff commenced this action, alleging a cause of action for common-law negligence andcauses of action pursuant to Labor Law §§ 200, 240 (1) and 241 (6). Defendants1095 and Magen moved for summary judgment arguing, inter alia, that plaintiff's accident did nottrigger the protections of Labor Law § 240 (1) because it did not involve a gravityrelated-risk or hazard. Plaintiff opposed and cross-moved for partial summary judgment asagainst 1095, Magan and Dechert on his claim pursuant to Labor Law § 240 (1). Themotion court granted defendants' motion to the extent of dismissing all but plaintiff's cause ofaction pursuant to Labor Law § 240 (1). As to that cause of action, the court grantedplaintiff's cross motion, deciding the issue of liability in his favor.
Defendants appeal, seeking reversal of the motion court's order to the extent it grantedplaintiff's motion for partial summary judgment and denied their motion to dismiss plaintiff'scause of action pursuant to Labor Law § 240 (1). Dechert, not having moved for summaryjudgment before the motion court, nevertheless seeks dismissal of plaintiff's claims as against itfor the same reasons proffered by the other defendants. For the reasons that follow hereinafter, I,like the majority, would modify the motion court's decision to deny partial summary judgment inplaintiff's favor.
Labor Law § 240 (1) applies where the work being performed subjects those involvedto risks related to elevation differentials (Gordon v Eastern Ry. Supply, 82 NY2d 555,561 [1993]; Rocovich v Consolidated Edison Co., 78 NY2d 509, 514 [1991]).Specifically, the hazards contemplated by the statute "are those related to the effects of gravitywhere protective devices are called for . . . because of a difference between theelevation level of the required work and a lower level" (Gordon at 561 [internal quotationmarks omitted]). Since Labor Law § 240 (1) is intended to prevent accidents whereladders, scaffolds, or other safety devices provided to a worker prove inadequate to prevent aninjury related to the forces of gravity (id.), it applies equally to injuries caused by fallingobjects and falling workers (Narducci v Manhasset Bay Assoc., 96 NY2d 259, 267-268[2001]). However, not every fall either of a worker from a scaffold or ladder or of an objectconstitutes a violation of Labor Law § 240 (1) (Blake v Neighborhood Hous. Servs. of N.Y. City, 1 NY3d 280, 288[2003]; Narducci at 267). Thus, a distinction must be made between those accidentscaused by the failure to provide a safety device required by Labor Law § 240 (1) and thosecaused by the general hazards of a workplace (id. at 268-269); the former constitutes aviolation of Labor Law § 240 (1), while the latter does not (Thompson v St. CharlesCondominiums, 303 AD2d 152, 153 [2003], lv dismissed 100 NY2d 556 [2003]).
Since not every injury caused by the effects of gravity falls within the ambit of Labor Law§ 240 (1) (Narducci at 267), it is clear that liability turns on the nature of theactivity being performed, and more specifically, on whether the activity requires the use of thesafety devices enumerated in the statute. Whether an activity requires the use of the safetydevices enumerated within Labor Law § 240 (1) turns on whether "the risk of some injuryfrom defendants' conduct [i.e., the failure to provide the requisite safety devices, is] foreseeable"(Gordon at 562). More specifically, an accident falls within the purview of Labor Law§ 240 (1) when, given the nature of the injury-producing task, a worker is exposed to agravity-related hazard, meaning, a risk of a fall from an elevation or the risk of injury as a resultof a falling object, so that the worker should be provided with adequate safety devices to preventthe gravity-related accident. Absent a foreseeability requirement,[FN1]then, we leave owners and contractors with no reasonable way to determine when the statuteapplies and therefore when they are required to provide the safety devices enumerated therein.After all, an accident cannot trigger the extraordinary protections of Labor Law § 240 (1)merely because it is gravity-related (Narducci at 267). Otherwise, virtually every accidentwould fall within the purview of Labor Law § 240 (1), and defendants would never be ableto forecast when safety devices are required. For example, while a trip and fall, at ground level,over a defect or negligently placed object is, in large measure, caused by gravity, the Court ofAppeals has held that such an accident does not give rise to liability under Labor Law §240 (1) (Melber v 6333 Main St., 91 NY2d 759, 763 [1998] [Labor Law § 240 (1)not implicated when plaintiff trips and falls over conduit protruding through unfinished floor]).
Appreciable risk of a particular harm, or, more particularly, foreseeability, as an element ofany Labor Law § 240 (1) claim is of course not novel. It has in fact been expressly orimplicitly discussed in the relevant case law for decades. However, despite the use of the term inGordon, our line of cases making this an essential element in cases involving the collapseof a permanent structure (see Vasquez vUrbahn Assoc. Inc., 79 AD3d 493 [2010]; Jones v 414 Equities LLC, 57 AD3d 65 [2008]; Espinosa v Azure Holdings II, LP, 58AD3d 287 [2008]), and our holding in Buckley v Columbia Grammar & Preparatory (44 AD3d 263[2007], lv denied 10 NY3d 710 [2008]), where we held that foreseeability was in fact anessential element of any Labor Law § 240 (1) claim, foreseeability, in the context of LaborLaw § 240 (1) jurisprudence, is a term we seldom see expressly mentioned in the relevantcase law. Moreover, whether foreseeability is an element in any Labor Law § 240 (1)analysis remains a point of contention in our very own department (see Ortega v City of New York, 95AD3d 125, 126 [2012] ["We hold that a plaintiff is not required to demonstrate that theinjury was foreseeable, except in the context of a collapse of a permanent structure"];Vasquez at 497 [Acosta, J., dissenting] ["the statute imposes no requirement that aparticular accident be foreseeable"]). Nevertheless, even when not specifically mentioned, in agreat number of cases, in particular those cases that premise liability under Labor Law §240 (1) on the existence of a gravity-related risk or hazard, foreseeability has been dispositiveand has been necessarily implied.
Recently, in Runner v New YorkStock Exch., Inc. (13 NY3d 599 [2009]), the Court of Appeals reiterated that while theapplicability of Labor Law § 240 (1) hinges on "whether the harm flows directly from theapplication of the force of gravity to the object" (id. at 604), it also [*5]dispositively hinges on "whether plaintiff's injuries were the directconsequence of a failure to provide adequate protection against a risk arising from aphysically significant elevation differential" (id. at 603 [emphasis added]). Since aforeseeable risk is "[t]he risk reasonably to be perceived . . . [or] it is risk to anotheror to others within the range of apprehension" (Palsgraf v Long Is. R.R. Co., 248 NY339, 344 [1928]), it is clear, that the risk referenced by the Court of Appeals inRunner is a direct reference to the element of foreseeability. Indeed, if a particular hazardis not foreseeable, then it cannot be reasonably guarded against. Runner, of course, isonly a recent example of the Court of Appeals implicit reference to foreseeability as an elementin cases involving Labor Law § 240 (1).
In Rocovich, the Court, in addressing what kinds of tasks fell within the purview ofthe statute, held that given the types of devices called for by Labor Law § 240 (1), itapplied when "elevation poses a risk" (78 NY2d at 514 [emphasis added]). Furthermore,in rejecting the plaintiff's contention that the mere happening of his accident, where he steppedinto a 12-inch-deep trough, in close proximity to where he was required to work, triggered theprotections of the statute, the Court held that such assertion was at odds with the thrust of thestatute, which is "the protection against risks due in some way to relative differences inelevation" (id. at 515 [emphasis added]). In Melber, the Court of Appeals, againimplying that foreseeability was crucial, dismissed the plaintiff's cause of action pursuant toLabor Law § 240 (1), citing its own precedent, stating that liability under the statute wasconfined "to [the] failure to protect against elevation-related risks (91 NY2d at 763[emphasis added]). In Narducci, the Court of Appeals once again found that Labor Law§ 240 (1) was inapplicable to the plaintiff's accident for want of foreseeability, albeitwithout ever expressly using the term. In Narducci, one of the plaintiffs was injured by apiece of glass that fell from a window frame while he worked on an adjacent window (96 NY2dat 266). The plaintiff had not been assigned to work at the window from which the glass fell, norwas there evidence that anyone had worked at that particular window before the plaintiff'saccident (id. at 268). Noting that not every injury caused by a falling object falls underthe penumbra of Labor Law § 240 (1), the Court granted the defendants' motion forsummary judgment, holding that "[t]his was not a situation where a hoisting or securing device ofthe kind enumerated in the statute would have been necessary or even expected"(id. [emphasis added]). Thus, it is clear that in Narducci, the Court granted thedefendants' motion for summary judgment because it was not reasonably foreseeable that theplaintiff's assigned task would expose him to the particular gravity-related hazard that caused hisaccident. Accordingly, the Court held that the defendants could not have expected theplaintiff's accident so as to require that he be provided with any safety devices as mandated bythe statute.
In Outar v City of New York (5NY3d 731 [2005]), the Court of Appeals again implied that foreseeability was dispositive indetermining the applicability of Labor Law § 240 (1) to an accident that seemed far beyondthe statute's purview. In Outar, the plaintiff was injured by a dolly that fell inside hiswork area from 5.5 feet above. While the dolly had essentially been parked and was being neithersecured nor hoisted (see 286 AD2d 671, 672 [2001]), the Court nevertheless held that theaccident fell within the ambit of the statute since "the dolly was an object that required securingfor the purposes of the undertaking" (5 NY3d at 731). The Court's ruling in Outarnecessarily implied that foreseeability was decisive to the statute's applicability since thedefendant could not have been required to secure the dolly had it not been reasonably foreseeablethat the work the plaintiff was performing, the "undertaking," exposed him to the gravity-relatedhazard posed by the dolly, namely that it would fall and strike him.[*6]
Following Court of Appeals precedent, in Buckley,we expressly held that the dispositive issue with respect to the statute's applicability is "theforeseeable risks of harm presented by the nature of the work being performed" (44 AD3d 268 at268). Thereafter, in Jones, Espinosa, and most recently in Vasquez, wecontinued to hold that foreseeability is an essential prerequisite to liability under Labor Law§ 240 (1) (Jones, 57 AD3d at 79-80; Espinosa, 58 AD3d at 291;Vasquez, 79 AD3d at 495). Although these last three cases involved the collapse ofpermanent structures, and our holdings were limited to those facts, I see no reason to limitforeseeability, as a requirement, to only those kinds of cases. After all, as evinced by theforegoing discussion, in holding that foreseeability is an essential element I simply articulatewhat has in fact been the law for over two decades.
Based on the foregoing, it is beyond cavil that in cases pursuant to Labor Law § 240(1) and, more particularly, as is the case here, cases involving injury by virtue of a falling object,the dispositive issue for purposes of the statute's applicability is not, as argued by defendants,whether an object falls from a permanent structure or whether at the time of injury the object wasbeing hoisted or secured. Instead, the pertinent and indeed dispositive inquiry is whether it wasreasonably foreseeable at the outset that the task assigned to a worker exposed him/her to agravity-related hazard, so that he/she should have been provided with one or more of the safetydevices required by the statute.
Defendants' contention that plaintiff's accident does not come within the ambit of Labor Law§ 240 (1)'s protection is unavailing.[FN2]A review of the record evinces that the task assigned to plaintiff, namely the repositioning of thepencil box, presented a foreseeable gravity-related risk, such that his task and indeed his resultingaccident fall squarely within the ambit of Labor Law § 240 (1). Specifically, it wasreasonably foreseeable that when plaintiff moved the pencil box, the [*7]conduit on top of the pencil box, since it was suspended fromabove, could fall and strike plaintiff. Presented with a foreseeable risk, defendants thus had aduty to provide him with an adequate safety device to prevent the conduit from falling andstriking him.
Here, however, the conduit that ultimately fell was in fact secured and held in place by acompression coupling that had attached the falling conduit to the conduit on the floor above. Theconduit was also held in place by a compression connector attaching the conduit to the pencilbox. The pencil box, in turn, was held in place by its attachment to the Kindorf, a brace-likepiece of metal attached to the walls. Thus, defendants did in fact provide plaintiff with a host ofsafety devices that served to secure the conduit and prevent its fall. I therefore turn to whether thecompression coupling failed to properly secure the conduit so that plaintiff is entitled to haveliability resolved in his favor, or, as argued by defendants, that this accident is solely the result ofplaintiff's misuse of the compression coupling, so that dismissal of his claim is warranted.
Liability under Labor Law § 240 (1) is established when it is proved both that thestatute has been violated and that the violation proximately caused the plaintiff's accident (Blake v Neighborhood Hous. Servs. ofN.Y. City, 1 NY3d 280, 287 [2003], supra). When safety devices were requiredand the defendant failed to provide them, the statute was violated as a matter of law (Zimmerv Chemung County Performing Arts, 65 NY2d 513, 523 [1985]). When, however, adefendant provides safety devices and an accident nevertheless occurs, the adequacy,functionality, and placement of said devices must be assessed in order to determine whether therehas been a violation of the Labor Law (Felker v Corning Inc., 90 NY2d 219, 224, 225[1997]; Buckley, 44 AD3d at 268-269). A defendant who proves both that it did notviolate the Labor Law and that the sole proximate cause of the plaintiff's accident was insteadhis/her own negligence will not be liable under Labor Law § 240 (1) (Blake, 1NY3d at 290). Further, a plaintiff who chooses not to use or misuses adequate and availablesafety devices is, as a matter of law, the sole proximate cause of his accident (Gallagher v New York Post, 14 NY3d83, 88 [2010] ["Liability under section 240 (1) does not attach when the safety devices thatplaintiff alleges were absent were readily available at the work site . . . and plaintiffknew he was expected to use them but for no good reason chose not to do so, causing anaccident"]; Robinson v East Med. Ctr.,LP, 6 NY3d 550, 554 [2006]; Cahill v Triborough Bridge & Tunnel Auth., 4 NY3d 35, 39-40[2004]).
Defendants argue that the safety device—the compression coupling—failedbecause plaintiff misused it, and that this misuse was the sole proximate cause of his accident.Specifically, defendants aver that the compression coupling adequately supported the weight ofthe upper conduit when it was used in conjunction with the Kindorf that secured the pencil boxand to which the conduit was affixed. Thus, defendants argue that plaintiff's decision to removethe pencil box, part of the conduit's support, thereby leaving the conduit to hang solely from thecompression coupling, overstressed the coupling, causing it to fail. Conversely, plaintiff arguesthat since the conduit fell, the compression coupling was thus inadequate to protect him from thegravity-related hazard posed by the conduit and that, accordingly, defendants violated Labor Law§ 240 (1).
Having provided a safety device, defendants are only liable if the compression couplingfailed because it was inadequate to secure the conduit, thereby causing this accident. While thecompression coupling failed, the record supports defendants' contention that such failure wasattributable to plaintiff's misuse of the coupling, namely, the method by which plaintiffperformed his work. Therefore, there exists a sharp question of fact with respect to whether the[*8]compression coupling holding the conduit in place failedbecause it was inadequate or because plaintiff misused the coupling by removing supportsdesigned to be used in conjunction therewith; the former constituting a violation of Labor Law§ 240 (1), the latter precluding any liability thereunder. Thus, in granting partial summaryjudgment in plaintiff's favor, the motion court erred.
While not addressed by the majority, upon a search of the record, I find, for the very samereasons asserted by the motion court, that Dechert, while not having moved for summaryjudgment below, is nevertheless entitled to summary judgment dismissing plaintiff's causes ofaction for common-law negligence and pursuant to Labor Law §§ 200 and 241 (6)(CPLR 3212 [b]; Merritt Hill Vineyards v Windy Hgts. Vineyard, 61 NY2d 106, 110[1984]; Whitehead v Reithoffer Shows, 304 AD2d 754, 755 [2003]; Grimaldi vPagan, 135 AD2d 496, 497 [1987]).
Accordingly, I would not only modify the motion court's order to deny plaintiff summaryjudgment, but would also grant Dechert summary judgment on plaintiff's claims of common-lawnegligence and pursuant to Labor Law §§ 200 and 241 (6).
Tom, J.P., dissents in a memorandum as follows: Plaintiff's employer, nonparty ForestElectric, was retained to overhaul the wiring in the building known as 1095 Avenue of theAmericas in Manhattan. After the company completed the installation of a four-inch wide "riser"(a vertical run of conduit) in the 11th-floor telecommunications closet, it received a change orderto relocate the riser because a rectangular pull box, or "pencil box," was obstructing conduitbeing installed parallel to it by another company. As plaintiff explained, a pull box is installed ina riser to allow wiring to be pulled through the pipe from above or below. The work requiredplaintiff to remove the pull box, which was secured to a steel strut channel (Kindorf support)affixed to the floor and, at the top of the strut channel by means of a perpendicular extension, tothe wall located a few feet away. The section of conduit below the pull box was secured at floorlevel with a clamp. The conduit above the pull box was held in place with a strap attached to thetop of the Kindorf support and was joined at its top to another section of vertical conduit by acompression coupling, a ring-shaped device that tightens around the ends of the adjoiningsections of conduit to hold the pipes in alignment and help secure them in place.
In the process of relocating the pull box, plaintiff had to drill new holes in the concrete floordirectly underneath the new location to affix the lower bracket of the strut channel to the floor.Before drilling the holes, plaintiff cut through the conduit above the pull box with a Sawzall (areciprocating demolition saw) and removed the box from the lower conduit and the Kindorfsupport. At this point, the upper section of conduit was secured only by the compression couplingholding it to the conduit above it. As plaintiff knelt on the floor drilling the holes for the supportbracket, the upper section of conduit fell onto his right hand, breaking his thumb.
Plaintiff alleges that defendants violated Labor Law § 240 (1) by permitting theconduit to be improperly and inadequately secured, allowing it to fall and injure him. "Where aplaintiff's actions [are] the sole proximate cause of his injuries, . . . liability underLabor Law § 240 (1) [does] not attach" (Robinson v East Med. Ctr., LP, 6 NY3d 550, 554 [2006] [internalquotation marks omitted]; Montgomeryv Federal Express Corp., 4 NY3d 805 [2005]). Here, plaintiff's injuries were the directconsequence of his action in disengaging and removing the devices that secured the conduit pipein place, to wit, the metal strap or clamp that secured the pipe to the Kindorf support and thepencil box upon which the conduit pipe was also attached. It is [*9]undisputed that the conduit was firmly secured in place with thesedevices before the work began. Plaintiff's injuries were not caused by a lack of protectiveequipment but, rather, by plaintiff's act of removing the supporting devices before drilling, whichcaused the section of conduit above the box (now attached to the overhead conduit pipe with onlya compression coupling) to fall. Plaintiff offered no rational explanation for disengaging the twosecuring devices before starting to drill the hole in the floor, rather than leaving the devices inplace until he completed the drilling or removing the overhanging piece of conduit pipe beforedrilling. To permit this action to go forward would require a departure from the well settled rulethat the protection of Labor Law § 240 (1) is unavailable where no breach of the statutoryduty to provide a worker with a protective device of the kind listed in the statute has beendemonstrated (see Robinson v East Med. Ctr., L.P., 6 NY3d at 554).
Here, there was no violation of Labor Law § 240 (1), nor does the majority identifyany safety device that defendants failed to provide plaintiff for performing the work. Themajority merely states, "Plaintiff claims that he requested and should have been provided with aset screw coupling to secure the conduit pipe to the ceiling and that defendants' failure to providethis protective device was a proximate cause of his accident." It is not clear that the majorityadopts plaintiff's position. In any event, the coupling is not a statutory safety device. Rather, it isa component part of an already built conduit system, whose purpose is to connect two sections ofconduit pipes in alignment, using either a ring or a screw to apply pressure to the adjoining pipes.
Plaintiff's theory of recovery under Labor Law § 240 (1) is flawed. Labor Law §240 (1) provides for safety devices to protect workers against gravity-related hazards whileperforming construction work, and has no application to the type of component part that plaintiffclaims his employer should have used to assemble an already built conduit system. In fact, thetype of coupling used to build the system is irrelevant since it was the metal strap and pencil boxthat held and secured the conduit pipe in place, not the coupling.
Further, there is no testimony, expert or otherwise, that such couplings are meant to suspenda substantial weight, and the manner in which the box and conduit assembly wasinstalled—utilizing steel brackets, pipe straps, securing screws and floor clamps to build arigid, self-supporting unit—amply demonstrates that the designer did not rely on pipecouplings for vertical support.
The majority misreads plaintiff's deposition testimony in stating that "when directed to movethe pool [sic] box, he requested a set screw coupling to secure the pipe." Plaintiff merely testifiedthat compression couplings had been exclusively used by Forest Electric in performing theelectrical work.
"Q.
At any time after your accident, did you ever learn as to why compression screwcoupling was used as opposed to set screw coupling?
"A.
No. It's basic. They are both basic couplings.
"Q.
Did you ever learn why one was used as opposed to the other?
"A.
No."
Moreover, the majority's presumption that if only a set screw coupling had been madeavailable to plaintiff his injury would have been prevented reveals its misunderstanding of themakeup of conduit pipe system and the operation in which he was engaged. Even if plaintiff had[*10]specifically requested a set screw coupling to use in hisassigned task of moving the pull box, which he did not, he would have been required to firstremove the existing compression coupling since at the time of the accident, that was the onlything holding the section of conduit that fell on him to the pipe above it, as reflected in plaintiff'stestimony.
"Q.
Is it possible at the time of the accident that the bottom of the conduit was stillsupported by the compression coupling? Is it possible at the time of the accident that the bottomof the conduit was still being locked in and was being supported by the compression connector?
"A.
The top piece of conduit was being supported by the top compression coupling. . .
"Q.
So the conduit was supported by the compression coupling at the time only?
"A.
Yes."
As indicated above, the removal of the existing compression coupling in order to be replacedby a set screw coupling would have meant removing or releasing the section of conduit pipe thatfell. Had plaintiff done so, there would have been no need to secure the pipe with a new set screwcoupling; the conduit's removal would have eliminated the hazard it presented.
In marked similarity to Narducci v Manhasset Bay Assoc. (96 NY2d 259 [2001]),plaintiff's injury was the consequence of his own actions. There, the worker's act of sawing awindow frame in the course of dismantling it caused a pane of glass from an adjacent windowframe to fall and injure his arm. Here, plaintiff's removal of the devices securing the conduit inplace and drilling a hole in the concrete floor caused the conduit to fall and injure his hand.Plaintiff's injury was not caused by the absence of a safety device of the kind enumerated inLabor Law § 240 (1). Succinctly stated, "That is not the type of risk that Labor Law§ 240 (1) was intended to address" (Narducci, 96 NY2d at 268).
Unlike Quattrocchi v F.J. SciameConstr. Corp. (11 NY3d 757 [2008], citing Outar v City of New York, 5 NY3d 731 [2005]), on which plaintiffrelies, there is no allegation in this case that the falling object was unsecured before the workcommenced (Outar v City of New York, 286 AD3d 671, 672 [2001] [falling dolly]; Wilinski v 334 E. 92nd Hous. Dev. FundCorp., 18 NY3d 1, 5 [2011] [falling pipes not secured when work commenced]). Rather,the conduit became unsecured as the direct consequence of plaintiff's own actions, which werethe sole proximate cause of his injuries.
In contrast to the plaintiff in Narducci, who had no choice but to work beneath thewindow glass that fell on him, plaintiff herein could have taken basic precautions to preventinjury. To recapitulate, when plaintiff began work, the section of conduit that ultimately fell wassupported by a clamp positioned about two feet above the pencil box and affixed to a supportingsteel strut channel structure attached to the wall. The conduit was further supported by the boxitself, on which the pipe rested and which was likewise affixed to the Kindorf support. Thus,plaintiff had the option of leaving in place both the clamp and the box while he drilled a hole in[*11]the floor beneath. In the alternative, having removed boththe clamp and box, the logical and prudent course would have been to loosen the singlecompression coupling suspending the remaining section of the top conduit and remove thatlength of pipe, thereby eliminating any possibility that the hanging conduit would fall and injurehim. Once again, the section of conduit pipe in issue was properly secured in place by supportingdevices when the work began.
Accordingly, the order should be reversed, to the extent appealed from, and plaintiff's LaborLaw § 240 (1) claim dismissed. [Prior Case History: 2011 NY Slip Op31529(U).]
Footnote 1: Although, in concurring in thedenial of plaintiff's motion for summary judgment, Justice Román focuses on the issue offoreseeability, we note that defendants did not raise that issue.
Footnote 2: Notably, defendants did notargue below that plaintiff's actions were the sole proximate cause of the accident.
Footnote 1: I concede that the statute (LaborLaw § 240 [1]) does not impose a foreseeability requirement. However, as will bediscussed in detail, such an element logically is, and has always been, an element in many casesanalyzing Labor Law § 240 (1).
Footnote 2: It is certainly true, as argued bydefendants, that our case law in this area has been less than consistent. For example, in Doucoure v Atlantic Dev. Group, LLC(18 AD3d 337, 338-339 [2005]), we held that "for section 240 (1) to apply, a plaintiff mustshow more than simply that an object fell causing injury to a worker. A plaintiff must show thatthe object fell, while being hoisted or secured, because of the absence or inadequacy of a safetydevice of the kind enumerated in the statute" (emphasis omitted). In Dias v Stahl (256AD2d 235, 236 [1998]), we held that plaintiff's accident, where he was hit by a falling section ofair conditioning duct, did not come under the purview of Labor Law § 240 (1) because theduct was "an integral part of the [building's] structure." While the holdings in those cases areseemingly inconsistent, in that they premise liability on issues unrelated to foreseeability, areview of those cases evince a complete lack of foreseeable risk of the particular harm befallingthe plaintiffs therein. In both of those cases, plaintiffs were not exposed to a gravityrelated-hazard at the outset, such that the accident and more particularly, the gravity-relatedhazards that caused them injury, were not foreseeable. Therefore, the defendants therein were notrequired to provide any safety devices.