Torres v Our Townhouse, LLC
2012 NY Slip Op 00418 [91 AD3d 549]
Jnury 24, 2012
Appellate Division, First Department
As corrected through Wednesday, February 29, 2012


Indalecio Maldonado Torres, Appellant,
v
Our Townhouse,LLC, et al., Respondents.

[*1]Shapiro Law Offices, PLLC, Bronx (Jason S. Shapiro of counsel), for appellant.

Gallo Vitucci & Klar, LLP, New York (Chad E. Sjdquist of counsel), forrespondents.

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Milton A. Tingling, J.), entered March 29, 2011,which denied plaintiff's motion for partial summary judgment on his Labor Law § 240 (1)cause of action, unanimously reversed, on the law, without costs, and the motion granted.

Plaintiff was injured when he fell to the ground while descending from a 12-foot-highsidewalk bridge without the use of a ladder or scaffold or any other safety device. Defendantscontend that he was provided with a ladder and that his own decision to climb down a nearby treeinstead of using the ladder was the sole proximate cause of his injuries. However, the record failsto support this contention. Even if defendants' evidence suggested that there might have been aladder in the chassis under the truck at the work site, no evidence was presented that plaintiffknew where the ladder was or that he knew he was expected to use it and for no good reasonchose not to do so (see Gallagher v NewYork Post, 14 NY3d 83, 88 [2010]; Auriemma v Biltmore Theatre, LLC, 82 AD3d 1, 11 [2011]).Concur—Tom, J.P., Friedman, DeGrasse, Richter and Manzanet-Daniels, JJ.


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