Zengotita v JFK Intl. Air Term., LLC
2009 NY Slip Op 07941 [67 AD3d 426]
November 5, 2009
Appellate Division, First Department
As corrected through Wednesday, January 6, 2010


Caesar Zengotita, Appellant,
v
JFK International AirTerminal, LLC, Respondent.

[*1]Gorayeb & Associates, P.C., New York (Mark H. Edwards of counsel), for appellant.Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP, New York (Judy C. Selmeci of counsel), forrespondent.

Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Betty Owen Stinson, J.), entered July 17, 2008,which, insofar as appealed from, denied plaintiff's motion for summary judgment on the issue ofliability under Labor Law § 240 (1), unanimously reversed, on the law, without costs, andthe motion granted.

Plaintiff established, through his deposition testimony and his affidavits, that he fell from ascaffold platform because the scaffold moved, despite the fact that the wheels were securelylocked, when he bent down to begin his descent from the platform. Defendant failed to presentany evidence to support its contention that plaintiff fell because he was climbing down thescaffold in an improper manner. The uncontroverted evidence that the scaffold failed and that noother safety device was provided either to prevent the scaffold from moving or to preventplaintiff from falling demonstrates as a matter of law that the statute was violated and that theviolation was a proximate cause of plaintiff's injuries (see Blake v Neighborhood Hous. Servs. of N.Y. City, 1 NY3d 280,287 [2003]; Williams v 520 MadisonPartnership, 38 AD3d 464, 464-465 [2007]; Orellano v 29 E. 37th St. RealtyCorp., 292 AD2d 289 [2002]). Concur—Mazarelli, J.P., Andrias, Friedman, Nardelliand Moskowitz, JJ.


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