The Scaffold Law (Labor Law §240): extra recovery for construction injuries

If you're a construction worker hurt in a fall or by a falling object in New York, you may have far more than a workers' comp claim. The "Scaffold Law" lets you sue the property owner and general contractor for full damages — on top of your workers' comp benefits — and it's uniquely powerful.

Key facts

Labor Law §240(1) puts absolute liability on owners and general contractors for gravity-related injuries (falls, falling objects) when proper safety devices weren't provided.
Your own carelessness is generally not a defense under §240(1) — unlike an ordinary injury case.
This is a separate civil lawsuit in addition to workers' comp — you keep your comp benefits and can sue for pain and suffering and full lost earnings.
New York is essentially the only state with a law like this.

What the Scaffold Law does

Labor Law §240(1) requires owners and contractors to furnish proper protection — scaffolds, ladders, hoists, harnesses — for elevation-related work. If they don't, and that failure causes a gravity-related injury, liability attaches by operation of law. The duty is "nondelegable," so an owner or general contractor is liable even if it didn't personally supervise the work. Because it's strict liability, the worker's comparative negligence doesn't reduce the recovery.

The limitsThe law reaches only elevation/gravity hazards (falls from height, or being struck by falling/hoisted objects) — not every jobsite injury (Rocovich, Ross). And if the worker's own conduct was the sole cause (e.g., ignoring available, adequate safety devices — the "recalcitrant worker" defense), there's no §240 liability (Blake).

Who it covers — and who's exempt

Who owes the duty: property owners, contractors, and their agents (including construction managers with control).
Covered work: erection, demolition, repair, alteration, painting, cleaning, or pointing of a building or structure.
Exempt: owners of one- and two-family homes who don't direct or control the work; design professionals (architects/engineers) who only design; and purely routine maintenance unrelated to construction (Soto).

The key: comp AND a lawsuit

Workers' comp is your only remedy against your direct employer (WCL §11). But on a typical job you work for a subcontractor, while the Scaffold Law defendants — the owner and general contractor — are usually not your employer. So you can do both at once:

Track 1

Workers' comp

Medical care and wage benefits from your employer's carrier — no fault required, starts right away.

Track 2

A §240 lawsuit

Against the owner/GC for full tort damages — pain and suffering, full past and future lost earnings, future medical — far beyond what comp pays.

Two related statutes§241(6) covers violations of specific Industrial Code safety rules — but there, comparative negligence does apply, so your own fault reduces the award. §200 codifies ordinary negligence. Lawyers usually plead all three, with §240 the strongest.

The comp carrier's lien

If you win the third-party case, your workers' comp carrier has a lien (WCL §29) to be repaid for what it paid you — but that lien is reduced by its share of your legal costs (the "Kelly" reduction). And under §29(5), if you settle the lawsuit for less than your comp exposure, you generally need the carrier's written consent or you can lose future benefits. Coordinate the two cases carefully — this is where experienced construction-injury counsel earns their fee.

New York is widely described as the only state that still imposes this kind of absolute liability; there's an active reform debate, with industry groups citing higher construction-insurance costs and labor/plaintiff advocates defending it as a worker-safety protection. Those cost figures come from advocacy sources on both sides.

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