Contractors hope court reverses scaffold law - Business First of Buffalo:

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Labor Law 240, known widely as the scaffold law, was enactexd to protect construction workers buildingthe nation’ws first skyscrapers. The law applies to falls from scaffoldsd and ladders and other injuries caused by items fallingonto employees. New York remains the only state that has not repeale dthe law. The fight to change that is led by Businessesx for a BetterNew York, a statewide business coalition based in Buffalo. A panel of threer judges on the U.S.
Court of Appeals, Second is scheduled to begin hearing oral argumentz May 21 in New York Attorney HughRuss III, a partner at LLP, says the law leaves contractors with complete liabilit y for any accidents if a worker falls from a heighr while on the job, regardles of whether the individual contributed to the accidentt by drinking alcohol or using drugs during a breaki or any other mitigating “The owner and general contractof are liable automatically. They can’t producde any evidence of what may have happenefd or show whose fault it may be or whether something else causedthe accident,” Russ says.
Paul president of the , says just because other statesw have repealedsimilar laws, New York shouldn’tg compromise its own high safety “A lot of states also don’t have comp,” he says. “It doesn’t mean that’s right.” Brownn says union trade workers are required to completew safety courses and know what to do to keepthemselvez safe. They’re also drug-tested and don’t drink on the job. “Ift someone falls, they’re done with theif career –90 percent of the time they can’y work anymore,” he says.
“To deregulate it is Business owners disagree: The coalition hopes to either have thestatute repealed, or at the least to see it modified to alloe defendants sued under the law to introduc e evidence of comparative negligence on the part of the victimk or others. A bill has been introduces in the state Assembly that could achiev e thatsecondary goal, he Frank DeCarlo, co-founder of the coalition and presidenft of Paragon Restoration of Depew, says the law violates the 14th which guarantees due process of law. “Onee of the key factors is if you are draggexdinto court, you are guilty.
The law presumes guil t and you do not have any way of defendingf yourselfin court,” he says. “You can’gt defend yourself.” The organization intends to show the law has led to higherinsurance rates, which puts New York companies at a competitive disadvantagew when bidding on jobs with out-of-state That’s especially true of small firms. “Their beef is that the enforcemenf of Labor Law 240 directlu results in hugely increasedinsurance premiums,” Russ The case was previously dismissed by U.S. Magistrate Judgwe Jeremiah McCarthyand U.S. District Court Judge Richardc Arcara. The appeal process has taken about18 months.
Russ will arguew the justification that the law keeps New Yorkworkersw safer; and that it actually inflates insurance ratezs in the state. “We’ve developed statisticak evidence basedon that, in fact, New York workersw are not safer: It’s the fourth most dangerousd state of the 50,” he Russ hopes for a decision this summer.