The Court of Appeals has stated that Labor Law §240—the so-called strict liability scaffold statute—does not apply to workers injured by gravity-related accidents resulting from “routine workplace risks,”1 “ordinary and usual dangers,”2 “general hazards of the workplace”3 and “the types of perils a construction worker usually encounters at a work site.”4
However, parties and judges often disagree as to what characterizes a loss as the result of routine, ordinary, usual, normal or general job site perils. This discussion will examine several recent appellate decisions that have focused on foreseeability in deciding the applicability of §240.
