New York’s Scaffold Law holds owners and general contractors responsible when a worker is hurt by a fall or a falling object and the right safety device was missing or failed. Here is what the law says, who it covers, and what to do next.
Founding & Managing Attorney · Amparo Law Firm
If you were hurt on a New York construction site in a fall from a height, or were hit by something that fell, two separate claims may apply. Workers’ compensation pays some of your medical bills and lost wages no matter who was at fault. Labor Law §240 can support a separate lawsuit against the property owner and the general contractor, and that case is not limited the way workers’ comp is.
Labor Law §240(1), often called the Scaffold Law, requires owners and contractors to provide safety devices that properly protect workers from height-related hazards during construction work. The statute names the kinds of devices it means:
The duty applies to the erection, demolition, repairing, altering, painting, cleaning, or pointing of a building or structure. If the right device was not provided, or it was provided but did not protect you, and that failure caused your injury, the owner and the general contractor are responsible.
In most injury cases, fault is split between the people involved, and your own mistakes reduce what you can recover. A §240 case works differently. Once the violation and the cause of the injury are shown, your own carelessness does not reduce what the owner and general contractor owe you. The main exception is when the worker’s own conduct was the only cause of the accident, for example refusing to use safety equipment that was provided and available.
The law covers gravity-related accidents: injuries that happen because of a difference in height. The most common situations are:
1. A worker falls from a scaffold, ladder, roof, beam, floor opening, or other elevated work area.
2. An object falls on a worker: a load being hoisted or secured, or material that should have been secured, falls and strikes the worker.
3. A safety device fails: a ladder slips, a scaffold plank breaks, or a harness or line gives way.
4. The height does not have to be great. Courts ask whether the injury came from the force of gravity acting on a person or object, and whether a proper safety device would have prevented it. Even a short fall can qualify.
Workers’ compensation generally bars a lawsuit against your direct employer. It does not protect the other companies on the job. Under §240, responsibility falls on:
This is called a third-party case. Owners and general contractors cannot shift this duty to a subcontractor by contract, and the law places it on them even if they were not on site that day. One exception: owners of one- and two-family homes who hire the work but do not direct or control it are exempt.
A third-party case can recover what workers’ compensation does not pay, including pain and suffering and your full lost earnings. The workers’ comp carrier usually has a lien on part of the recovery, and your lawyer handles that as part of the case.
Immigration status does not bar a §240 claim. Owners and contractors owe the same safety duty to every worker on the site.
If a foreman, supervisor, or insurance adjuster tells you workers’ comp is all you can get, get a second opinion. When a fall or a falling object is involved, comp is often not the only claim.
1. Routine maintenance, such as changing a light bulb or a filter, is usually not covered. Construction, repair, and alteration work usually is.
2. Hazards that are not height-related, like tripping over debris on a flat floor. Those may fall under Labor Law §241(6) or §200 instead.
3. Accidents where the worker’s own conduct was the only cause, such as refusing a harness that was provided and available.
4. A lawsuit against your direct employer, which workers’ compensation generally bars except in cases of grave injury.
5. Claims filed too late. The general deadline is three years from the injury, but if the owner is the City or another public entity, a notice of claim is usually due within 90 days.
Founding and Managing Attorney of Amparo Law Firm. Former Federal Circuit clerk. Venable LLP alumnus. Admitted in NY, CA, TX, and DC. Represents injured construction workers across the five boroughs in English and Spanish.
