In a decision dated June 15, 2011, Justice David B. Vaughan granted the defendant City of New York summary judgment dismissing the plaintiff’s complaint which alleged that the City was negligent and violated Labor Law §§200, 240(1) and 241(6). The plaintiff, an ironworker, was allegedly injured while working for his employer at a project located on the lower roadway of the Manhattan Bridge owned by the City. At the time of the accident, the plaintiff was standing on a steel box girder that was being lowered by a mobile crane when a “come-along” failed causing the girder to shake and the come-along’s chain to strike him in the right leg. The court granted the City’s motion for summary judgment dismissing the common law negligence and Labor Law §200 causes of action because the plaintiff’s work was supervised, directed and controlled by his employer and no one else.  The cause of action pursuant to Labor Law §240(1) was dismissed because the plaintiff was not exposed to an elevation-related risk and a violation of the statute was not a proximate cause of his accident. Lastly, the court dismissed the cause of action pursuant to Labor Law §241(6) because the alleged Industrial Code Rules which served as a prerequisite to the §241(6) claim were either too general, inapplicable to the facts of the case, not violated and/or were not the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s accident.

O’Brien v. The City of New York, Index No.: 46072/07 (Kings Co. Sup. Ct., June 15, 2011)