New York, NY 

Counsel Cheryl Fuchs and associate Georgia Stagias were awarded summary judgment in a Queens County, Labor Law case.  In the case of Guaman v. Viewest Owners, LTD., the plaintiff alleged he was injured as he attempted to descend from a hanging scaffold onto a sidewalk bridge that our client, Everest Scaffolding, Inc., installed.  Plaintiff alleged that his accident was caused in part by the fact that a portion of the sidewalk bridge was approximately 4 feet or 5 feet away from the wall of the building.  We moved for summary judgment seeking to dismiss the Labor Law claims on the basis that Everest was not an “employer,” “owner” or “general contractor,” to which the Labor Law applied.  In addition, we argued that Everest did not supervise or control the plaintiff’s work.  The court agreed and dismissed the Labor Law claims as against Everest.  In addition, we moved to dismiss the common law negligence claims against Everest on the basis that the fact that the bridge was not built directly abutting the facade failed to present an issue of fact regarding Everest’s negligence because either OSHA, the New York City Building Code, nor the New York City Administrative Code require that sidewalk bridges be placed directly against the building’s facade.  The court also agreed with this argument and dismissed all common law negligence claims against our client.