[DOWNLOAD] "John Joyce v. Rumsey Realty Corp." by Court of Appeals of New York ~ eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: John Joyce v. Rumsey Realty Corp.
- Author : Court of Appeals of New York
- Release Date : January 24, 1966
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 55 KB
Description
At the end of the trial there was, between plaintiff and defendant Rumsey, no unresolved issue as to liability and so a verdict was properly directed for plaintiff against Rumsey, leaving to the jury the fixation of the damages. Rumsey had unquestionably violated the unequivocal command of subdivision 1 of former section 241 of the Labor Law that the contractor must complete the flooring as the building progresses. Plaintiff was moving planks on the fourth floor. The first, second and third levels had not been floored over as required by the statute and plaintiff, standing on a plank which broke, fell through the openings into the basement. The duty imposed by the statute and violated by defendant Rumsey was ""a flat and unvarying"" one (Koenig v. Patrick Constr. Corp., 298 N. Y. 313, 318) and again as we said in Koenig : ""For breach of that duty, thus absolutely imposed, the wrongdoer is rendered liable without regard to his care or lack of it."" Or, as we put it in Major v. Waverly & Ogden (7 N.Y.2d 332, 334), a violation of such a statute is ""conclusive evidence of negligence"". Conclusive evidence of negligence calls for a directed verdict. It is, of course, undeniable that the statute is for the protection of workers situated as was plaintiff (see Bergen v. East 84th St. Constr. Corp., 16 N.Y.2d 644).