CICALE v. [And A Third–Party Action] (2024)

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Shlomo S. Hagler, J.), entered on or about October 18, 2023, which denied defendants’ motion for summary judgment dismissing the Labor Law § 240(1) claim as against them, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

Plaintiff Anthony Cicale alleges that he was injured while trying to level a door buck when a two-to-six-inch metal “top track” of a door frame fell approximately two-to-four inches onto his hand.  According to plaintiff, the door frame shifted downwards, causing his hand to be immobilized.

Defendants did not establish prima facie entitlement to dismissal of the Labor Law § 240(1) claim as against them.  Defendants failed to show that the accident did not arise from an elevation-related risk contemplated by the statute (see Czajkowski v. City of New York, 126 A.D.3d 543, 543, 2 N.Y.S.3d 900 [1st Dept. 2015] [affirming summary judgment for the plaintiff on his Labor Law § 240(1) claim where he was injured while removing a window frame and the “unsecured top half of the window fell out of the wall and crushed his hand”]).