An appellate court in NY in Cohen v. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center has granted summary judgment to a plaintiff on Labor Law 240 even though the ladder he was using was not defective. The plaintiff was using a 6-foot, A-frame ladder. A rod sticking out of a wall blocked his access to the lowest rung so that as he descended the ladder he needed to step from the second rung to the floor. In doing so, he caught his foot on the rod and fell to the floor, injuring his knee. The court ruled 3-2 that the ladder – while not defective – did not provide the plaintiff with proper protection because it did not sufficiently allow the plaintiff to safely complete his job and descend the ladder.