Artículos publicados en Falling Objects and Worker Falls

Many working in construction and construction-related jobs in New York City are day laborers and many of those day laborers are also undocumented workers. For these individuals, the possibility of an injury on the job can be especially frightening and perilous. If you’ve been hurt on the job, those responsible may attempt to use your undocumented status as a weapon against you. They may try to use the threat of reporting your immigration status to keep you from seeking compensation in court for your injuries, or they may try to convince you that because you are undocumented, you cannot win and receive compensation under the law.

The truth is that, whether you are documented or undocumented, you can pursue and obtain the compensation for the injuries you suffered working your construction job. If you’ve experienced such an injury, then you should not fear and should not hold back from pursuing your rights. You should call a skilled New York City construction injury attorney to find out more about your rights and your options.

In one recent case, D. B.-R. was a day laborer hurt on the job. He worked for a kitchen supply company and his job included many duties related to the renovation of the employer’s warehouse, including assembling shelving units. One of these assembly tasks required him to access those shelving units with a raised platform attached to a forklift. On the day of the laborer’s accident, he fell while the platform was 20 feet off the ground, suffering substantial injuries as a result. He subsequently sued for compensation under New York statutory law (Section 240(1) of the Labor Law).

If you are working on a large building construction project and you suffer injuries on the job, it may be fairly clear that yours is a circumstance covered by New York’s construction injury statutes. However, just because your work or your injury doesn’t represent a “stereotypical” instance of a construction injury, that doesn’t mean that those laws don’t apply and that you can’t use them to get the compensation you need. There may be more options available to you under the New York statutes than you might think. To get a clear picture of all the legal avenues you possibly have, be sure you have an experienced New York City construction attorney on your side.

As an example, there’s the case of O.C., an environmental technician working at an asbestos abatement project. O.C.’s specific tasks involved monitoring asbestos removal at a school to ensure proper removal and disposal, and to take air samples from air-sampling pumps around the site. One of the pumps was located on the second floor of the school. Accessing it was quite a chore, requiring O.C. to use a scaffold and to access that scaffold by standing on a milk crate beneath a window and climbing through that window to get to the scaffold.

As one might expect, such an improvised system eventually led to injury, according to O.C.’s lawsuit. The technician alleged that, on the return trip, he climbed back through the window and again stepped on the milk crate. This time, however, he fell, suffering injuries.

When you’re hurt while working at a construction job, you may have many concerns, like how you will pay your bills and how you will make ends meet if you can’t work. Fortunately, you may have multiple options for getting the compensation you need under New York law.

One possible way that injured construction workers can obtain compensation is through something called “Labor Law Section 241(6).” That statute may allow you to obtain a judgment and an award of damages if there were violations of certain New York safety regulations at your job site and those violations led to your accident and injuries. Another potential avenue is something called “Labor Law Section 240(1).” That section, however, only applies to injuries that resulted from a failure to provide you with sufficient safety protections against “elevation-related” risks of harm. When it comes to making the right legal choices to get the compensation you need, be sure to rely on the experience and knowledge of a skilled New York City construction attorney.

Sometimes, the options available to you may be more numerous than you, as a layperson, might otherwise have thought. W.T.’s case is an example. W.T. was a construction worker in Manhattan. One day, a crane’s bucket became tangled on shackles, then twisted from right to left, dropped a bit and then slammed into W.T. After the impact, the worker tripped over some rock ties and fell. The bucket was 1-2 feet off the ground when it struck W.T.

Imagine you are a New York construction worker. You’re working hard, just like you do every day. Then, in a moment, you’re injured and everything changes. You may have many concerns, such as ones that relate to providing for yourself and your family financially. For too many New York City construction workers, they don’t have to imagine this situation – it is all too real. Fortunately, the law does provide a way for many injured construction workers to obtain much needed compensation in court. To find what you can do if you’ve been injured, talk to a New York City construction attorney.

Many of these accidents that take place involve falling materials. At the time of his workplace accident, B.M. did work that involved pointing, caulking and cleaning masonry. While working at a project in Greenwich Village, B.M. was assigned to repair some pointing on the building’s eighth floor. B.M. took the hoist elevator up to floor eight and, as he exited the elevator, was unexpectedly hit by “a heavy nine-or-ten foot-long, nine-inch wide, two-inch thick board” that was being used as a scaffold plank. A worker on the ninth floor had lost control of the plank, allowing it to crash into B.M.’s head.

B.M. was wearing his hard hat at the time, but nevertheless suffered substantial injuries. He sued under a New York law that allows construction workers to obtain compensation when hurt as a result of a fall or a falling object. When an injured worker pursues recovery based upon a “falling object” injury, the law requires him to demonstrate several things to the court. The law requires a worker like B.M. to show that the object that struck him was “in the process of being hoisted or secured at the time of the accident.” Alternately, an injured worker can still win his case if he can show that the item that hit him “was a load that required securing for the purposes of the undertaking at the time it fell.”

If you work in construction, you face many possible threats of injury. One of those is objects falling on you. If you are hurt on the job as a result of something falling and hitting you, New York law may allow you to pursue the project’s general contractor or the site’s owner for an award of damages. When you do, though, you’ll likely face a vigorous defense that may argue, among other things, that the facts surrounding your injury don’t fit all of the criteria for recovery that the law demands. To make sure you have the best possible chance of getting the fullest award that you deserve, be sure to retain experienced New York City construction injury counsel.

For A.G., a construction worker in Manhattan, the facts preceding his lawsuit unfolded as many do. A financial services company decided to do a “build-out” of its space in a 48-story building on Broadway. A.G., an employee of the general contractor on the job, was responsible for carving rectangular openings in the building’s cinderblock walls to permit ductwork to pass through those walls.

A.G. saw a potential problem with falling cinderblocks and asked for a device called a “lintel,” which would hold certain blocks in place that were situated above the opening the laborer had carved out. A.G. was not provided with a lintel. As the worker finished his last opening of the day, two blocks directly above the opening fell, striking A.G. in the knee.

In construction, any type of structure that you must build yourself to complete the duties of your job can present a possibility for danger and serious injury. This can be especially true of or temporary systems rigged for workers. These structures may sometimes be erected hastily, with a reduced or non-existent focus on safety. When a temporary structure leads to a construction injury, the injured worker may have a legal claim for compensation. If you’re injured at your construction job, contact a skilled New York City construction injury attorney.

For M.K., it was a temporary truss system that was the source of his workplace accident and injury lawsuit. M.K. was working as an ironworker in Manhattan. That temporary system contained a steel column and a metal shim plate that was attached to the column. Unfortunately for the ironworker, the steel plate was not attached well enough, and came free suddenly, fell roughly 10 feet and then struck M.K. in the head. The impact caused the ironworker to suffer numerous facial fractures, in addition to neck and back fractures and a brain bleed.

As that graphic and harrowing description makes clear, construction work can be incredibly dangerous and the injuries construction workers suffer can be massive and sometimes permanent. You may never again have the same level of physical ability to earn a living or live your life as you had before. For those reasons and others, you should definitely avail yourself to the legal avenues for compensation that New York law creates.

The rulings that the courts make, which then get published publicly, can be very educational – and not just to lawyers. These rulings can be instructive for anyone who might find themselves having a legal issue down the road. For example, say you’re a construction worker and you construct a rickety platform upon which to stand and do your job. The platform fails and you fall, suffering a serious injury. Can you sue successfully for compensation for your injury in New York, even though you were the one that put the platform together? As one recent ruling reminds us all, you quite possibly can sue and win in that kind of scenario, depending on the exact facts of your case. As always, to get the best and most customized advice for your exact circumstance, talk to an experienced New York City construction injury attorney.

In the case, D.C. was a construction contractor working at an upstate job site east of Albany. D.C. was a siding installer. At the time of the accident, D.C. was installing siding above a staircase that ran along the side of the building. The awkward location and small space where D.C. was required to work limited his options. There was a lift device but it wouldn’t fit. There was a “ladder jack” device but it was in use elsewhere. D.C. was not provided with a traditional scaffold.

Lacking those other options, the worker rigged a system using his A-frame ladder, a scaffolding plank and the top landing of the staircase itself. Neither the ladder nor the plank were anchored to anything. Unsurprisingly, the makeshift system didn’t work. As D.C. pushed the new siding into place, the plank shifted and slid from beneath him, causing him to crash to the ground, breaking his ankle.

In construction work, there are often competing priorities. Those in charge of a job site may choose to prioritize safety, or they may choose to prioritize speed, even at the risk of compromising safety. Regrettably, the latter scenario happens too often and, too many times workers are injured as a result. If that happens to you, you may be able to secure compensation for the harm you suffered. Consult a knowledgeable New York City construction injury attorney about your options if you’ve been hurt.

F.K. was a worker injured on the job. F.K. was performing stucco work on the exterior of a four-story, three-family residence. At first, F.K. was using a scaffold to do his job. After one day, one of the owners allegedly told him to take down the scaffold and finish his work quickly because a building inspector was coming to the site. After that first day, F.K. used a makeshift system. That system consisted of planks laid across a ladder that was itself laid down horizontally across a fire escape and strapped to the fire escape with wire.

Unsurprisingly, this makeshift system led to problems. When F.K. placed a bucket of stucco materials on one end, the ladder tipped over, which caused F.K. to fall and suffer substantial injuries.

In the law, there’s a term that is called a “bright line test.” That means that the law has erected a black-and-white rule in all circumstances. A result less than “X” always yields one result, a result greater than “X” always mean the opposite outcome. That’s important because, in the law, there’s actually very few “bright line tests.” Indeed, if you ask a knowledgeable lawyer a legal question, it is very possible he or she will answer, “it depends.” He or she will say “it depends” because many legal issues are resolved by analyzing wide array of factors. So, it is important never to assume. Particularly, don’t assume that your construction injury is not something that will allow you to go to court and obtain compensation. Always check with an experienced New York City construction injury attorney first.

For example, there is a law in New York that allows you to pursue a claim for damages if you were hurt as a result of a fall or an object falling on you. How far must that fall be in order for an injured worker to have a valid case? Well; it depends, but sometimes even just a very short fall can be enough to yield a successful outcome for an injured worker.

Consider the case of M.M., who was serving as a mechanical inspector when he was hurt in the summer of 2015. The inspector was working near the 72nd Street subway station in Manhattan when a metal road plate, which was being hoisted by an excavator machine, fell. The falling plate occurred when a sling, which was attached to the excavator and was holding the plate, snapped. The plate bounced, struck a street sign, and the street sign crashed into the inspector’s arm.