U.S. District Court
Plaintiffs have challenged New York's infamous labor law 240-241, a.k.a. "ladder law" or "scaffold law”, which provides that contractors assume total liability for employee injuries regardless of fault or work conditions. New York is the only state that still has such a law on the books; most others have a "comparative negligence" statute, which partitions lawsuits according to blame. A business alliance has challenged the law on constitutional grounds and also argued that federal OSHA preempts.
Status: PENDING. Brief in support of BBNY filed July 31, 2007. District court dismissed challenge and appeal filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Brief in support of BBNY filed with appellate court Dec. 21, 2007.
