Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf
Rankings Legal Malpractice Law – Plaintiffs
Medical Malpractice Law – Plaintiffs Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs Professional Malpractice Law – Plaintiffs
This Seminar presented by The New York State Bar Association is still available. A construction worker involved in a work related accident in addition to a workers’ compensation claim may have a third party law suit against the general contractor and/or owner of the construction site pursuant to Sections 200, 240 and 241(6) of the New York Labor Law.
The first half of this seminar provides an overview of the case law, statutes and regulations governing construction site accidents. There is also discussion concerning the important aspects of the relationships between and among the carriers and their insureds. In the second half of the seminar, presenters address strategic, evidentiary and tactical concerns and provide live demonstrations of critical components of the trial of a labor law case. Panelists offer advice on jury selection, opening and closing statements, cross-examination and trial strategies. New and experienced practitioners alike will benefit from this seminar’s coverage of all the major aspect of a labor law trial.
Our Partner, Howard S. Hershenhorn was The Overall Planning Chair Of This New York State Bar Association Program and our Partner, Christopher L. Sallay was the Assistant Planning Chair. To order directly from The NYSBA click here.
Our Partner Howard Hershenhorn has been appointed an Adjunct Associate Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School, Brooklyn, New York. He will be teach a Seminar on Personal Injury and Medical Malpractice. This seminar will focus on the practical aspects of the fields of personal injury and medical malpractice. For more information click here.
Anthony Gair was quoted in The New York Times regarding New York Wrongful Death Law;
“The $3.25 million settlement that the city announced this week with the estate of Sean Bell, who was shot to death by the police in 2006, serves as a reminder of a ruthless truth about calculating settlements: It is generally cheaper to settle a case in which there was a death than one in which there was a serious injury…”
“That partly explains why the family of another victim of a fatal police shooting, Amadou Diallo, refused for years to accept the city’s settlement offers, said Anthony H. Gair, the lawyer who handled the case.
Our Partner Howard Hershenhorn commented on the verdict in The New York Times;
“A lawyer for the family of Wayne Bleidner, the crane operator who died in the collapse, said he understood the judge’s decision. “From what I heard as the evidence was presented at this trial, there wasn’t enough evidence that he acted in a criminal manner to bring this crane down,” said the lawyer, Howard S. Hershenhorn.
“But Mr. Hershenhorn said there was still a strong case for civil negligence against Mr. Rapetti and others. A Manhattan judge has already found the general contractor on the project and the owner of the building civilly liable under New York labor law for the seven deaths. A trial to determine damages is scheduled to begin next month, Mr. Hershenhorn said.”
In Barrios v. City of New York, et.al., decided on July 13, 2010, The Appellate Division, Second Department, affirmed the granting of Summary judgment against a prime contractor/construction manager despite the prime contractor not being in privity of contract with plaintiff’s employer. In holding the defendant contractor to be a statutory agent The Court stated;
“[w]here a separate prime contractor has been delegated the authority to supervise and control the plaintiff’s work, the contractor “becomes a statutory agent’ of the owner or general contractor” (Russin v Louis N. Picciano & Son, 54 NY2d at 318; see Walls v Turner Constr. Co., 4 NY3d 861, 863-864). Here, although Skanska was not in contractual privity with the plaintiff’s employer, the record establishes that Skanska had been delegated a significant degree of authority to supervise and oversee on-site safety matters.”
The Court further held that the fact that defendant was a construction manager and not a general contractor was not dispositive;
In McCoy v. Metropolitan Transportation Authority, et al., The First Department held that a Gradall Forklift was a mobile crane within the meaning of the Industrial Code, 12 NYCRR 23-8.2 stating;
“The court correctly held, based on the evidence adduced at the framed-issue hearing, that the subject equipment was a mobile crane for purposes of the Industrial Code regulations governing the safe operation of mobile cranes, considering the manner in which the equipment was being used at the time of plaintiff’s injury. The term “mobile crane” is undefined in the Industrial Code, and plaintiff’s expert witnesses provided persuasive testimony that the Gradall was functioning as a mobile crane at the time of plaintiff’s accident, and that the Industrial Code provisions governing mobile cranes could sensibly be applied to the Gradall in light of the manner it was being used at the time (see Giordano v Forest City Ratner Cos., 43 AD3d 1106, 1108 [2007]; Millard v City of Ogdensburg, 300 AD2d 1088, 1089 [2002], lv denied 303 AD2d 1060 [2003]). Defendants’ expert testimony, in contrast, was unpersuasive and merely demonstrated that the Gradall was manufactured, tested, and sold in conformity with industry safety standards applicable to manufacturers governing rough terrain forklift trucks and lacked certain characteristics essential to a particular subset of mobile cranes, but ignored that there are [*2]several categories of mobile cranes not all of which possess these characteristics, that the Gradall is a multi-purpose machine capable of functioning as both a forklift and a mobile crane depending on the type of attachment being used, and that the Industrial Code was enacted before multi-purpose machines such as the Gradall were developed and therefore such machines were not within the contemplation of the drafters.”
View image 1997 Gradall Forklift.
Once again our Partner Howard Hershenhorn was forced to respond to the ludicrous assertion by lawyers for master rigger William Rapetti who chose to rely on four pre-used and worn-out yellow polyester straps — called “slings,” — to secure a five-ton metal brace to the crane’s mast that Wayne Blinder, the Crane operator was at fault. The crane’s boom and its cab — with Wayne Bleidner, 51, helpless at the controls — broke off from the rest of the crane and catapulted onto the roof of a four-story brownstone on East 50th Street. Howard, quoted in The New York Post stated;
“It really cries of desperation,” says Bleidner’s lawyer Howard Hershenhorn, who is handling the family’s suit against Rapetti’s company.
“There have been four separate entities that have looked at this accident objectively — OSHA, the Department of Buildings, an engineering firm hired by the Department of Buildings, and Lehigh University, where the slings were sent,” Hershenhorn said.
Robert Conason is the Chair of The New York State Trial Lawyers Seminar; Mediation and Arbitration to be held on June 21, 2010 from 6:00PM -9:00PM. For more information click here.
Our Partner, Howard Hershenhorn, who is leading our representation of the family of the crane operator Wayne Bleidner, who was killed when a 200-foot-tall rig crashed down on a dense New York City block, killing seven people, leaving a gash of destruction near the United Nations and raising questions about the safety of the steel spindles that build skyscrapers, responded to the absurd claim by the rigger’s attorney who is being prosecuted for manslaughter, that some responsibility may lie with a crane operator who was killed in the collapse stating;
“Instead of Rapetti stepping up and taking responsibility for what multiple agencies and multiple independent parties have determined to be his fault, he now, in the most cowardly way, is going to blame the victim.” Read More.
Howard is recognized as one of the leading Construction Accident Lawyers in New York having tried numerous construction accident cases as well as speaking on them for The New York State Bar Association.
New York Personal Injury Attorneys Blog
