Monaghan v 540 Inv. Land Co. LLC

Monaghan v 540 Inv. Land Co. LLC 2009 NY Slip Op 07759 [66 AD3d 605] October 29, 2009 Appellate Division, First Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. As corrected through Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Patrick Monaghan, Respondent,
v
540 Investment Land Company LLC et al., Appellants.

—[*1] Thomas D. Hughes, New York (David D. Hess of counsel), for appellants.

Hach & Rose, LLP, New York (Philip S. Abate of counsel), for respondent.

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Edward H. Lehner, J.), entered June 9, 2009, which, to the extent appealed from as limited by the brief, denied defendants' motion for summary judgment dismissing the Labor Law § 240 (1) cause of action, unanimously reversed, on the law, without costs, and the motion granted. The Clerk is directed to enter judgment in defendants' favor dismissing the complaint.

Plaintiff was engaged in routine maintenance when he fell from a ladder while attempting the limited task of removing a ballast from a fluorescent light fixture (compare Piccione v 1165 Park Ave., 258 AD2d 357, 357 [1999] [the plaintiff's work "entailed much more than merely changing a lightbulb"], lv dismissed 93 NY2d 957 [1999], and Caban v Maria Estela Houses I Assoc., L.P., 63 AD3d 639, 640 [2009] [same]). Plaintiff routinely replaced the ballasts to the light fixtures, drawing on the building's supply of ballasts kept for that purpose.

Motion seeking leave to strike portions of reply brief denied. Concur—Sweeny, J.P., Buckley, DeGrasse, Freedman and Abdus-Salaam, JJ. [See 2009 NY Slip Op 31232(U).]