DELETED MORTGAGE REQUIREMENT THAT HE LIVE IN BUILDING
After a worker was injured on a construction site, owned by 340 West 12 Realty LLC, a personal injury lawsuit was filed with the New York County Supreme Court.
When the owner later moved to dismiss the worker’s Labor Law claims, citing the statute’s “homeowner’s exemption,” the judge assigned to the matter declined to grant that relief.
On appeal, the Appellate Division, First Department, noted that while the owner had initially demonstrated that the property was intended to be occupied as one-family dwelling (for residential purposes), the worker presented a copy of the mortgage which demonstrated that the requirement that the developer live in the property was deleted from that document.
Even though the developer and his family later moved into the home once the work was completed, that wasn’t enough to warrant a different outcome, as the operative “test” was what the owner had intended at the time of the accident’s occurrence. And, apparently, there were “issues of fact” in that regard.
They sure labored over that.
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DECISION