The Court of Appeals recently stated that "the phrase ‘strict (or absolute) liability’ in the Labor Law §240(1) context is different from the use of the term elsewhere"…and that it would be a mistake to believe "that a fall from a scaffold or a ladder, in and of itself, results in an award of damages to the injured party. That is not the law, and [they] have never held or suggested otherwise." Blake v. Neighborhood Housing Services, 1 N.Y.3d 280, 771 N.Y.S.2d 484 (2003).

The Construction Practice Group represents major real estate owners and developers such as Morgan Stanley, Tishman Construction Corporation, McClear Corporation, Turner Construction Corp., and others in all aspects of complex construction litigation and has extensive trial experience in the defense of Labor Law §240, 241, and 200 cases. This experience is repeatedly drawn on by the AIG Construction Group, AIG Excess, Firemen’s Fund Insurance Company, Zurich Insurance Company, Providence Washington Insurance Company, Safeco, Allianz Insurance Company and others.

The recent Court of Appeals holdings in Narducci, Weininger and Blake have brought about a significant change in the defense of Labor Law cases, moving away from strict liability and focusing more upon the actual conduct of the plaintiff, and upon the specific task that was undertaken at the time of the accident. Our familiarity with the nuances of construction litigation, the evolving Court interpretations, and the precise language of the New York State Industrial Code often enables us to obtain, through motion practice, the outright dismissal of statutory claims. In other cases, we break down the statutory claims by motion into defensible "questions of fact" in order to maximize our chance to prevail at trial.

We use our unique knowledge of the construction industry to effectively shift liability to the party chiefly responsible. Through strategic cross-claims, third-party actions, and motion practice, we undertake to protect our client’s position well in advance of trial. This is particularly important in New York where common law claims for contribution and indemnity against a plaintiff’s employer have been limited by statute to cases in which there is a narrowly-defined "grave injury".

In order to preserve the contractual rights of our clients against employers and others, we are also involved pro-actively in the review and preparation of contractual agreements and provisions, including critical indemnification and coverage provisions.

We also have extensive experience with the significant economic damage claims presented by wrongful death actions, and by career-ending injuries by unionized construction workers. We know exactly what information is required to defend these serious economic damage cases, and we are therefore armed at trial to aggressively attack many of the economic assumptions tabled by the "experts" of the plaintiffs’ bar. As economic damage claims are less susceptible to appellate reduction, these claims must be carefully and aggressively defended at trial.