One of my colleagues brought this Appellate Division, First Department case — Vicenty v. Cincinnati Inc. –to my attention.  It concerns an injured worker’s fingers that were completely amputated but subsequently reattached.  The injured worker had some use of those reattached fingers. 

The First Department held that a third-party plaintiff could not commence a third-party action for indemnity against the injured worker’s employer based on the "grave injury" part of Workers’ Compensation Law sec. 11 because the statute required the total loss of fingers to be permanent.  This decision might appear silly, but is actually consistent with the New York Court of Appeals’ strict interpretation of sec. 11.