Category Archives: General Personal Injury
Not All Regulations Are Created Equal
New York Labor Law section 241(6) requires employers to provide reasonable and adequate protection and safety to construction workers. In order to state a claim that this section was violated, an injured worker must identify a particular Industrial Code regulation that was violated by the defendant. As a recent case in the Supreme Court,… Read More »
How Do You Plead?
Just because you were injured by the negligence of another, that does not guarantee you can receive compensation for your injuries. As the plaintiff in a personal injury lawsuit, you bear the burden of proving every element of the case by a preponderance of the evidence to the jury’s satisfaction. The defendants, meanwhile, are… Read More »
Injured Workers Are Not Required to Prove Accident was Foreseeable to Win Summary Judgment on Labor Law 240(1) Claim
In Cesar Ortega v. New York, a construction worker was injured when a heavy metal pipe caused the platform/scaffold he was working on to topple over, sending him down eight feet to the ground. The construction project at issue was the Second Avenue Subway Tunnel Construction Project in Manhattan, so the worker sued the… Read More »
A Hole in the Street Injures Plaintiff’s Ankle; A Hole in Defendant’s No-Fault Theory Saves her Case from Dismissal
A passenger steps off of a city bus and into a hole in the street, causing her to fall and sprain her ankle. She sues the bus company and the City of New York, both of whom move to dismiss the case on the grounds that the plaintiff did not establish a serious injury… Read More »
Not All Eye Injuries Are Serious Injuries
A recent case in Queens County shows that not all eye injuries are “serious injuries” under New York law. This case also points up the challenges an injured plaintiff faces in getting an automobile accident personal injury case to trial. New York has no-fault insurance, which generally speaking allows automobile accident victims to recover… Read More »
Falling Objects and Falling Workers: Both Fall Under New York Labor Law Section 240(1)
In the case of Naughton v. NYC, the plaintiff construction worker was injured when he fell fifteen feet while unloading bundles of curtain wall panels off a flatbed truck. The plaintiff was instructed to climb on top of the bundles to attach them to a crane for off-loading. Plaintiff’s request for a ladder was… Read More »
Does the Government Have a (Special) Duty to Protect You?
You might expect that the government should manage its property so that it is safe to use – a duty that is regularly imposed on private property owners. If a city builds and maintains a park, providing lighting and security personnel to afford a safe environment, you would think that the municipality would be… Read More »
Not Just the Usual Jerks You Experience on the Bus
If traveling on New York City buses, you should expect to encounter plenty of jerks along the way. No, not the people you meet; they are great. But the bus itself will jerk and jolt as it starts and stops, maneuvering from traffic to curb and back again. Some of these movements will be… Read More »
When is a Contractor Not a Contractor?
New York Labor Law 240(1) requires “contractors and owners and their agents” to provide scaffolds, ladders, hoists, and other safety devices to protect workers from gravity-related hazards, such as falls or falling objects, during construction projects, including erection, demolition, repairing, painting, and more. Section 241 places duties on “contractors and owners and their agents”… Read More »
Punitive Damages may be Appropriate for Hiding Medical Error in Medical Malpractice Case
In the case of Marsh v. Arnot Ogden Medical Center, the Appellate Division, Third Department has unanimously reversed a decision of the trial court dismissing the plaintiff’s punitive damages claims against a doctor and medical center in a medical malpractice wrongful death lawsuit. In this case, a patient in the hospital was mistakenly injected… Read More »