Practice point: Here, the plaintiff was injured while removing a mirror from the ceiling of a
shower stall within a bathroom in a residential cooperative building
owned by the defendant. The trial court erred in failing to charge the jury in connection with
Labor Law § 240(1) as it applies to falling objects, such as the mirror.
Student note: Liability may be imposed where an object was a load that required securing for the
purposes of the undertaking at the time it fell. Whether the statute applies in a falling object case does not depend upon whether the object has hit the worker but whether the harm flows directly from the application of the force of
gravity to the object. The jury should have been charged that the mirror required securing.
Case: Saber v. 69th Tenants Corp., NY Slip Op 04591 (2d Dept. 2013).
Here is the decision.
Tomorrow's issue: Board of Education's liability for an injury at school.
