Ahbol v. Harden Contracting Co. Inc

• Decision Date: 23 October 1934
• Citation: 193 N.E. 322,265 N.Y. 564
• Parties: Peter AHBOL, Appellant, v. HARDEN CONTRACTING CO., Inc., Defendant, and Lehigh Construction Co., Inc., Respondent.
• Court: New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

265 N.Y. 564

193 N.E. 322

Peter AHBOL, Appellant,

v.HARDEN CONTRACTING CO., Inc., Defendant, and Lehigh Construction Co., Inc., Respondent.

Court of Appeals of New York.

Oct. 23, 1934.

Appeal from a judgment, entered April 7, 1934, upon an order of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the Second Judicial Department (241 App. Div. 764, 270 N. Y. S. 515) reversing on the law a judgment in favor of plaintiff against both defendants entered on a verdict, and directing a dismissal of the complaint. The defendant Harden Contracting Company, Inc., did not appeal from the judgment of the Trial Term. The action was brought to recover for personal injuries alleged to have been sustained by the plaintiff through the negligence of both defendants, as the result of being struck by a rivet while he was descending a ladder in a building being constructed at Huntington, N. Y., by a contractor, his employer. The defendant-respondent was under contract to furnish, deliver, and erect all of the structural steel used upon the premises, and had contracted with the defendant Harden Constracting Company, Inc., to rivet and bolt the structural steel. In the course of the work, an employee of the Harden Company dropped the rivet that struck the plaintiff. The Appellate Division reversed the judgment and dismissed the complaint as against the defendant-respondent on the ground that such defendant was not liable for the negligence of the defendant Harden Contracting Company, Inc., an independent contractor, over which the former had no control or supervision, except to see that the work was properly done, citing Moore v. Wills, Inc., 250 N. Y. 426, 165 N. E. 835.

Milton Paulson and Emanuel Siegfried, both of Brooklyn, for appellant.

John P. Smith, of New York City, for respondent.

PER CURIAM.

Judgment affirmed, with costs.

POUND, C. J., and CRANE, LEHMAN, O'BRIEN, HUBBS, CROUCH, and LOUGHRAN, JJ., concur.