New York Labor Law §240(1), commonly referred to as the Scaffold Law, provides in pertinent part:
All contractors and owners and their agents … in the erection, demolition, repairing, altering, painting, cleaning or pointing of a building or structure shall furnish or erect … for the performance of such labor, scaffolding, hoists, stays, ladders … and other devices which shall be so constructed, placed and operated as to give proper protection to a person so employed.
In essence, this statute imposes absolute liability upon owners and contractors and their agents for failing to protect workers from elevation-related hazards while employed on a construction site that proximately causes injury to the worker. See Wilinski v. 334 East 92nd Housing Dev. Fund, 18 N.Y.3d 1, 3 (2001); Ross v. Curtis-Palmer Hydro-Elec. Co., 81 N.Y.2d 494, 500-01 (1993). The purpose of §240 is to protect workers and to impose the responsibility for safety practices on those best situated to bear that responsibility. It is well-settled that §240(1) is to be construed liberally in order to accomplish the purpose for which it is framed. Once it has been determined that the work being performed is afforded the protection of Labor Law §240(1), the inquiry is whether there is a violation of same. Thus, the threshold issue is whether the injury-producing work is an enumerated activity.
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