LAWRENCE v. FOREST CITY RATNER COMPANIES (2000)

Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Bertram Katz, J.), entered April 29, 1998, which, to the extent appealed from as limited by plaintiff's brief, denied his motion for partial summary judgment, unanimously modified, on the law, to the extent of granting the motion as against defendant Herbert Construction Corp., and otherwise affirmed, without costs.

Plaintiff's deposition testimony, which indicated that he fell 16 feet from the scaffold upon which he was working when it broke in two and he was thrown against a wall, was sufficient to demonstrate his entitlement to summary judgment on the issue of liability on his Labor Law 240(1) claim (Samuel v. General Cinema Theaters, 254 A.D.2d 85, 678 N.Y.S.2d 615;  Vanriel v. A. Weissman Real Estate, 262 A.D.2d 56, 691 N.Y.S.2d 446).   To the extent that plaintiff may have failed to lock the wheels of the scaffold, it cannot be said that this was the sole proximate cause of his accident (Weininger v. Hagedorn & Co., 91 N.Y.2d 958, 672 N.Y.S.2d 840, 695 N.E.2d 709;  cf., Vanriel v. A. Weissman Real Estate, supra ).

MEMORANDUM DECISION.