MONAGHAN v. 540 INVESTMENT LAND COMPANY LLC

Thomas D. Hughes, New York (David D. Hess of counsel), for appellants.Hach & Rose, LLP, New York (Philip S. Abate of counsel), for respondent.

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Edward H. Lehner, J.), entered June 9, 2009, which, to the extent appealed from as limited by the brief, denied defendants' motion for summary judgment dismissing the Labor Law § 240(1) cause of action, unanimously reversed, on the law, without costs, and the motion granted.   The Clerk is directed to enter judgment in defendants' favor dismissing the complaint.

Plaintiff was engaged in routine maintenance when he fell from a ladder while attempting the limited task of removing a ballast from a fluorescent light fixture (compare Piccione v. 1165 Park Ave., 258 A.D.2d 357, 357, 685 N.Y.S.2d 242 [1999] [the plaintiff's work “entailed much more than merely changing a lightbulb”], lv. dismissed 93 N.Y.2d 957, 694 N.Y.S.2d 634, 716 N.E.2d 699 [1999], and Caban v. Maria Estela Houses I Assoc., L.P., 63 A.D.3d 639, 640, 882 N.Y.S.2d 97 [2009] [same] ).   Plaintiff routinely replaced the ballasts to the light fixtures, drawing on the building's supply of ballasts kept for that purpose.