O'Connor v. Loesch

Headnote

O’Connor v. Loesch, 171 App. Div. 947 , affirmed.

Appeal from a judgment of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the first judicial department, entered December 30, 1915, affirming a judgment in favor of plaintiff entered upon a verdict in an action

to recover for personal injuries alleged to have been sustained by plaintiff through the negligence of defendants. Plaintiff was in the employ of defendant, appellant, who was a general contractor engaged in altering and repairing a building. In the performance of the work a sub-contractor removed a portion of the floor of a room leaving the remaining part propped up. Plaintiff entered the room for the purpose of getting his coat which he had left hanging therein, walked across the propped-up floor which fell and thereby received the injuries complained of. He contended that it was the duty of his employer to warn him of the dangerous condition of the floor. Appellant contended that the place where the accident happened was under the control of the subcontractor; that it was not a place furnished by the appellant to. his men for the performance of any of their work; that the plaintiff could have gone directly from the place where he had been working to the room below where he should have hung his coat in the place provided by his master and where his fellow-workmen and himself ate their lunch without having to go upon this floor or leave the scaffolding which remained after the removal of the floor; that consequently there was no duty on the part of the appellant to warn the plaintiff or to have inspected this floor, nor would any inspection made have disclosed the condition which brought about the accident unless it was made within the few minutes which intervened between the time when the workmen loosened the last section and a half and propped it up and went to dinner and the time when the plaintiff stepped upon these sections. . •