In Serra v. Goldman Sachs Group, the Appellate Division, First Department held that the trial court properly granted plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment as to liability on plaintiff’s Labor Law § 240(1) claim:
[P]laintiffs submitted uncontradicted deposition testimony that the unsecured extended ladder upon which plaintiff was working slipped and fell out from underneath him. Plaintiff’s actions were not the sole proximate cause of his accident, since the deposition testimony established that his coworker, unbeknownst to plaintiff and in departure from their normal procedure, stopped footing the base of the ladder while plaintiff was still climbing it, thereby allowing it to slip out from underneath plaintiff.
The court also held that the trial court correctly denied defendants’ motion to compel, “since plaintiff did not seek to recover damages for emotional or psychological injury, or aggravation of a preexisting emotional or mental condition. Plaintiff’s bill of particulars alleged damages for specific physical injuries in his lower back, and his inclusion of general allegations of ‘anxiety and mental anguish’ resulting from his back injuries did not place his entire mental health history into contention.”