Associate, Tom Daly awarded Summary Judgment in Labor Law action.
Associate Thomas Daly recently achieved a significant victory by being awarded summary judgment on motion that led to the complete dismissal of a plaintiff’s Labor Law action. The plaintiff had filed a lawsuit in Kings County Supreme Court, asserting that he sustained personal injuries while employed by a BMM client, which had been subcontracted to carry out excavation and foundation work at a construction site in Brooklyn, NY. The plaintiff claimed he was partially buried due to the collapse of an excavation trench and was unable to return to work for over six years. Subsequently, four third-party actions were initiated, each seeking recovery based on contractual and common law indemnity principles.
Motions were submitted in this case, contending that the labor law was not applicable given the circumstances of the matter. The court concurred with the arguments presented, determining that Labor Law 240 was not relevant as the incident was a result of an unforeseen, latent condition rather than one that an industry-related device could have prevented, despite the opinions of the plaintiff’s experts. Similarly, the claims under Labor Law 241(6) were dismissed due to the argument that the industrial codes cited by the plaintiff were not applicable. The court observed that sections 23-4.2(f) and 23-1.7(a) pertain to materials that ‘fall normally,’ and since this collapse was deemed unforeseeable, those sections were not applicable. Ultimately, the court also dismissed the plaintiff’s section 200 claims against our client, citing the absence of notice regarding any hazardous condition. The court’s ruling included a remark that “what transpired was realistically not foreseeable, and these moving Defendants owed no duty of care.”
The plaintiff had claimed serious injuries that posed a significant risk of high verdict exposure for BMM’s clients. However, numerous inconsistencies were present in the plaintiff’s recovery theory. This favorable outcome highlights the importance of implementing an effective discovery strategy with a focus on dispositive motion practice. Effective and assertive advocacy is essential in such cases and one of the KPI’s focused on at BMM.
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