The New York Court of Appeals recently held in Walls v. Turner Construction that a construction manager can constitute an "agent" under Labor Law sec. 240(1) where the manager had the ability to control the activity which brought about the injury (see prior post).  In arriving at this conclusion, the Court looked at facts demonstrating that the construction manager was under a contractual obligation to monitor the subcontractor’s work and to protect its employees.  Since the facts of this appeal are so important, I felt it necessary to go behind the actual decision and see what the parties argued.  I have provided copies of the parties’ briefs to the Court of Appeals below.  I will provide selected documents in the Record on Appeal in a subsequent post.

Plaintiff’s Appellate Brief Pt. I (Download SCAN_35300896_000.pdf); Pt. II (Download SCAN_35300897_000.pdf); Pt. III (Download SCAN_35300898_000.pdf); Defendant’s Appellate/Respondent’s Brief Pt. I (Download SCAN_35300900_000.pdf); Pt. II (Download SCAN_35300899_000.pdf); and Plaintiff’s Reply Brief (Download SCAN_35300901_000.pdf).