United States Second Circuit

Award of lost earnings to plaintiff undocumented alien, calculated partially by reference to U.S. pay rates as compensation for disabling personal injuries attributable to defendants' violation of New York Labor Law section 240(1), and apportioned among defendants and plaintiff's direct employer based on relative negligence, is affirmed over claim that federal immigration law, as articulated in the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 necessarily precluded any damages award under New York law that compensated an undocumented worker for lost earnings, at least to the extent such earnings were based on pay rates in the U.S. rather than in the worker's native country.

Appellate Information

• Decided 11/14/2006
• Published 11/15/2006

Judges

• RAGGI, Circuit Judge., Before FEINBERG, WALKER, and RAGGI, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Garth S. Wolfson, Cornelius A. Mahoney, Mahoney & Keane, LLP, and Ginarte, O'Dwyer & Winograd, New York, NY, for Plaintiff-Appellee Jose Raimundo Madeira., Donald J. Feerick, Jr., New City, NY, for Defendant-Third-Party-Plaintiff-Appellee-Cross-Appellant Mountain Developers Associates, LLC., Dennis Lynch, Dorfman, Lynch & Knoebel, Nyack, NY, for Defendant-Third-Party-Plaintiff-Appellee-Cross-Appellant Affordable Housing Foundation, Inc., Joseph M. Glatstein, Williamson & Williamson, P.C., New York, NY, for Third-Party Defendant-Appellee Preferred National Insurance Co., David Samel, Jeffrey Samel & Partners, New York, NY, for Third-Party-Defendant-Appellant-Cross-Appellant Cleidson C. Silva, d/b/a C & L Construction.