New York Public Personnel Law: New York's workplace safety statutes control with respect to work-related injuries suffered working in a building owned by the NY NJ Port Authority

January 21, 2020

New York's workplace safety statutes control with respect to work-related injuries suffered working in a building owned by the NY NJ Port Authority

Supreme Court denied the motion of Port Authority of New York and New Jersey [Authority] to dismiss the New York State's Labor Law §§240(1) and 241(6) claims as against it.

In response to the Authority's appeal, the Appellate Division unanimously affirmed the lower court's ruling, explaining that the lower court had properly rejected the Authority's arguments that as "a bistate entity created by a federally approved compact cannot be held liable under Labor Law §§240(1) or 241(6) for injuries the plaintiff allegedly sustained while working in a building owned by the Authority.

The Compact Clause of the United States Constitution, said the court, is not implicated by the application of such New York workplace safety statutes to the Port Authority work site located in New York, which does not encroach on federal supremacy (see Cuyler v Adams, 449 US 433,

The decision is posted on the Internet at:

http://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2020/2020_00365.htm

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