Labor Law §240(1) imposes liability on owners and general contractors for injuries incurred by workers who suffer a gravity-related accident. Among the few defenses to this statute is the so-called “recalcitrant worker defense,” a circumscribed defense that had previously been unavailing to defendants except in the most extreme cases.
In the past, this affirmative defense required a defendant to prove that the injured worker refused to use an available safety device after being specifically and immediately instructed to do so and that this refusal proximately caused the accident.
