The Court of Appeals ended March with a 4-to-3 ruling that at least some defense advocates are already heralding as having effected a sea change in the jurisprudence concerning Labor Law §240, the so-called “scaffold statute” that imposes “absolute liability” for certain elevation-related hazards that may arise during the course of covered construction work.
The case, O’Brien v. Port Authority,1 presented the issue of whether an exterior stairway that was wet, because it was raining, was violative of the statute as a matter of law. The O’Brien majority held that the issue was one of fact in the context of the proof.
