New York's "Scaffold Law," Labor Law,
Sec. 240, imposes liability on contractors and owners who fail to provide proper scaffolding, ladders and related equipment to protect workers involved in the erection or demolition of any "building or structure." In
McCoy v Kirsch, NY App. Div., Sept. 12, 2012), a New York appellate court held that an elaborate Jewish wedding
chuppah (wedding canopy) qualifies as a "structure" so that a catering facility could be liable under Sec, 240 to a florist employee who was injured when an allegedly defective ladder on which he was standing to disassemble the
chuppah slipped. The court said:
the chupah consisted of various interconnected pipes 10 feet long and 3 inches wide, secured to steel metal bases supporting an attached fabric canopy. A ladder plus various hand tools were required to assemble and disassemble the chupah's constituent parts in a process that would take an experienced worker more than a few minutes to complete. The chupah here is more akin to the things and devices which the courts of this state have recognized as structures than to the things and devices that have not been recognized as structures.
This is not to say that every chupah qualifies as a structure under Labor Law § 240(1). Undoubtedly, there are wide variations of chupahs, some involving a series of durable interconnected parts, and others being much more simple and merely decorative in nature.
JTA reports on the decision.
