Landlord Not Responsible for Worker's Injuries

Landlord-owners of two-family house hired their neighbor to install appliances in an apartment in the building. The neighbor had done small jobs for them in the past. The neighbor sued landlords after he fell from a ladder while installing a vent in the roof and required several surgeries due to his injuries. The neighbor claimed that landlords were responsible under Labor Law Section 240 for maintaining a safe workplace and were therefore responsible for his injuries. Landlords argued that the Section 240 exception for one- and two-family homeowners applied to them and asked the court to dismiss the case without a trial. The court refused, finding that this exception didn't apply where two-family homeowners directed or controlled the work and that a trial was needed to determine the facts.
Landlords appealed and won, first before an appeals court and then before New York's highest court. Landlords' participation in the neighbor's work was limited to discussion of the results they wanted, not the method or manner in which the work was to be performed. Landlords' direction to the neighbor to place a vent through the roof was simply a decision concerning how they wanted the house to look upon completion. Landlords didn't provide the neighbor with any equipment or work materials, and weren't even present at the time the venting work was being done. The manner and method of the work were left to the neighbor's judgment and experience.

Affri v. Basch: NYLJ, 11/25/09, p. 45, col. 3 (Ct. App.; Pigott, J, Graffeo, Read, Smith, JJ concurring; Lippman, CJ, Ciparick, Jones dissenting)