| Crooks v E. Peters, LLC |
| 2009 NY Slip Op 01766 [60 AD3d 717] |
| March 10, 2009 |
| Appellate Division, Second Department |
| Neville Crooks, Respondent, v E. Peters, LLC, Appellant,et al., Defendants. |
—[*1] Block & O'Toole (Pollack, Pollack, Isaac & De Cicco, New York, N.Y. [Stephen JosephDonahue and Brian J. Isaac], of counsel), for respondent.
In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, the defendant E. Peters, LLC, appeals,as limited by its notice of appeal and brief, from so much of an order of the Supreme Court,Kings County (Ruchelsman, J.), dated October 30, 2007, as granted that branch of the plaintiff'smotion which was for summary judgment on the issue of liability on his Labor Law § 240(1) cause of action and, in effect, denied that branch of its cross motion which was for summaryjudgment dismissing that cause of action, and denied that branch of its cross motion which wasfor summary judgment dismissing the Labor Law § 241 (6) cause of action with respect toviolations of 12 NYCRR 23-1.21 (b) (4) (iv) and (v).
Ordered that the order is affirmed insofar as appealed from, with costs.
The plaintiff was injured when he fell from an aluminum extension ladder while securingpiping to a wall of a warehouse owned by the appellant E. Peters, LLC (hereinafter Peters). Theplaintiff, with the assistance of a coworker, cleaned the floor before leaning the ladder againstthe wall. The ladder had rubber feet which rested on the floor, but was not otherwise secured orprotected against slipping or falling. The plaintiff then ascended the ladder to secure with a strappiping that he had installed the day before. According to the plaintiff, he was standing on theeighth rung of the ladder, performing work approximately 12 feet above the ground. When hedrilled a hole [*2]in the wall, he felt "a slight jerk." The ladderthen slid "straight down the wall to the side." When the ladder came to a rest on the floor, he waslying on top of the ladder and his right leg and knee were caught underneath it.
The Supreme Court properly granted that branch of the plaintiff's motion which was forsummary judgment on the issue of liability on the Labor Law § 240 (1) cause of action.The plaintiff demonstrated his prima facie entitlement to judgment as a matter of law by offeringevidence that the unsecured ladder that he was standing on while working slipped, causing himto fall (see Lesisz v SalvationArmy, 40 AD3d 1050, 1051 [2007]; Blair v Cristani, 296 AD2d 471 [2002]). Inopposition, Peters failed to raise a triable issue of fact as to whether the plaintiff's own conductwas the sole proximate cause of the accident (see Lesisz v Salvation Army, 40 AD3d at1051).
The Supreme Court properly denied that branch of Peters' cross motion which was forsummary judgment dismissing the Labor Law § 241 (6) cause of action with respect toviolations of 12 NYCRR 23-1.21 (b) (4) (iv) and (v), as Peters failed to affirmativelydemonstrate that those code provisions were inapplicable. Fisher, J.P., Florio, Dickerson andBelen, JJ., concur.