High-Rise Owner Is Liable for Injuries to Tenant's Workman

ALBANY ­— New York's highest court ruled yesterday that a Manhattan high-rise owner is liable for injuries to a tenant's workman, even though the worker was hired without the landlord's consent in violation of the lease.

The 5-2 court majority concluded that allowing a lease provision to insulate the owner would "eviscerate the strict liability protection" state Labor Law provides workers.

"Our precedents make clear that so long as a violation of the statute proximately results in injury, the owner's lack of notice or control over the work is not conclusive — this is precisely what is meant by absolute or strict liability in this context," Judge Victoria Graffeo wrote. Chief Judge Judith Kaye and Judges Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick, Eugene Pigott, and Theodore Jones concurred.

The suit was filed by the injured workman. The judges took no position on the landlord's third-party claims against the tenant.

According to court documents, an air-conditioner installer was injured in January 2000 on the 11th floor of a midtown building owned by Consolidated Investing Co. Inc. The commercial air-conditioner weighing at least 1,500 pounds fell on Christopher Sanatass, a mechanic employed by JM Haley Corp., when a lift failed. C2 Media LLC occupied that floor and had hired Haley without notifying the landlord.

The law requires owners and contractors to provide adequate safety equipment in building repairs and alterations. The majority said it is up to the Legislature to make "any modification" to the strict liability statute, not the court.