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. Runner v. New York Stock Exchange, 13 N.Y.3d 599, 895 N.Y.S.2d 279 (2009), and Wilinski v. 334 East 92nd Housing Development Fund, 18 N.Y.3d 1 (2011), which we have discussed in previous articles, were important decisions in which the Court of Appeals examined the relevant criteria in determining liability under this statute. Labor Law §240(l) provides in pertinent part as follows:

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 Labor Law §240(l) is a proximate cause of injuries.1 To prevail, the plaintiff must prove that the statute was violated, and that the violation was a proximate cause of the injuries sustained. Unlike its sister statute, Labor Law §241(6), comparative negligence, no matter how extreme, is not a defense to liability under §240(1).2

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