On April 28, 2022, the Court of Appeals decided a trio of Labor Law §240(1) ladder fall cases, all of which resulted in either the denial of summary judgment to the plaintiff or the dismissal of the claim altogether. The decisions are refreshing anomalies amid the landscape of New York courts reflexively granting plaintiffs summary judgment on §240(1) claims in ladder fall cases and will produce significant ripples in the area.

'Cutaia v. The Board of Managers of the 160/170 Varick Street Condominium'. In Cutaia, plaintiff was tasked with cutting and rerouting ceiling pipes located near electrical wiring. To reach the pipes, he used an A-frame ladder, which he leaned against the wall in the closed position due to spatial limitations. While attempting to connect two pipes, plaintiff was electrocuted and fell to the ground. He could not remember anything about the accident, including whether the ladder fell or whether he was thrown from it after being electrocuted.

The Appellate Division, First Department, found that the "unsecured and unsupported A-frame ladder" was inadequate for plaintiff's task because "the failure to properly secure a ladder … is precisely the foreseeable elevation-related risk against which section 240(1) was designed to protect." Cutaia v. Bd. of Managers of 160/170 Varick St. Condo., 172 A.D.3d 424 (1st Dep't 2019). The fact that the accident stemmed from plaintiff's electrocution did not impact the First Department's analysis. On this point, the court distinguished the Court of Appeals' prior holding in Nazario v. 222 Broadway, LLC, 28 N.Y.3d 1054 (2016), reasoning that the ladder in Nazario "remained in an open locked position when it landed" and, therefore, no evidence existed "that the ladder was defective or that another safety device was needed." In other words, the First Department, not for the first time, took the position that a plaintiff's fall from a non-defective ladder due to an external force constitutes a per se statutory violation unless the ladder was affixed to the floor or wall—i.e., that all A-frame ladders are inherently defective until bolted down.