GONCALVES v. CITY OF NEW YORK (2023)

Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Lucindo Suarez, J.), entered April 7, 2022, which denied plaintiff's motion for partial summary judgment on the issue of Labor Law § 240(1) liability, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

The court properly denied plaintiff's motion for partial summary judgment because he failed to meet his prima facie burden of establishing that the alleged incident was the type of gravity-related event contemplated by Labor Law § 240(1) (see Rocovich v. Consolidated Edison Co., 78 N.Y.2d 509, 514 [1991];  see also Runner v. New York Stock Exch., Inc., 13 NY3d 599, 603 [2009];  Nieves v Five Boro A.C. & Refrig.  Corp., 93 N.Y.2d 914, 915–916 [1999]).  Plaintiff's testimony also raises issues of fact whether his own actions were the sole proximate cause of his injury (see Cahill v Triborough Bridge & Tunnel Auth., 4 NY3d 35, 40 [2004];  see also Blake v Neighborhood Hous. Servs. of N.Y. City., 1 NY3d 280, 290–291 [2003];  Weininger v. Hagedorn & Co., 91 N.Y.2d 958, 960 [1998]).

Furthermore, no discovery has occurred, and plaintiff's motion was based on his General Municipal Law § 50–h transcript, in which he admitted that he did not see what caused the pipe to start rolling (see Colon v. Martin, 35 NY3d 75, 79–80 [2020]), and thus summary judgment was properly denied at this early stage.