Labor Law §240(1) was enacted to protect workers exposed to gravity-related hazards requiring the use of the types of devices enumerated in the statute. Labor Law §240(l) provides in pertinent part that:

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 or cause to be furnished and erected for the performance of such labor, scaffolding, hoists, stays, ladders, swings, hangars, blocks, pulleys, braces, irons, ropes and other devices which shall be so constructed, placed and operated as to give proper protection to a person so employed.

Owners, general contractors and their agents will be held absolutely liable where a violation of this statute is a proximate cause of injuries. To prevail, the plaintiff must prove that the statute was violated, and that the violation was a proximate cause of the injuries sustained. Comparative negligence, no matter how extreme, is not a defense.

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