Lodato v. Greyhawk North America, LLC

• Decision Date: 03 April 2007
• Docket Number: 2005-03116.
• Citation: 2007 NY Slip Op 02901,39 A.D.3d 494,834 N.Y.S.2d 239
• Parties: CHARLES LODATO, Respondent, v. GREYHAWK NORTH AMERICA, LLC, Defendant and Third-Party Plaintiff-Appellant, et al., Defendant. NAGAN CONSTRUCTION, INC., Third-Party Defendant and Second Third-Party Plaintiff-Appellant; MAGARA CONSTRUCTION, INC., et al., Second Third-Party Defendants.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

39 A.D.3d 494

834 N.Y.S.2d 239

2007 NY Slip Op 02901

CHARLES LODATO, Respondent, v. GREYHAWK NORTH AMERICA, LLC, Defendant and Third-Party Plaintiff-Appellant, et al., Defendant NAGAN CONSTRUCTION, INC., Third-Party Defendant and Second Third-Party Plaintiff-Appellant MAGARA CONSTRUCTION, INC., et al., Second Third-Party Defendants.

2005-03116.

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Second Department.

Decided April 3, 2007.

In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, the defendant Greyhawk North America, LLC, appeals, as limited by its brief, from stated portions of a judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Knipel, J.), dated March 9, 2005, which, upon a jury verdict on the issue of damages finding that the plaintiff sustained damages in the principal sums of $74,500 for past pain and suffering, $442,583.33 for future pain and suffering, $131,330 for past lost earnings, $1,000,000 for future lost earnings, and $130,000 for future medical expenses, and upon a stipulation in which the parties agreed that the plaintiff sustained damages in the sum of $23,605 for past medical expenses, is in favor of the plaintiff and against it in the principal sum of $1,802,018.33, and the third-party defendant/second third-party plaintiff separately appeals, as limited by its brief, from stated portions of the same judgment.

Ordered that the judgment is modified, on the law, by deleting the provision thereof awarding the plaintiff damages for past and future lost earnings in the principal sum of $1,131,330 and substituting therefor a provision dismissing those claims; as so modified, the judgment is affirmed insofar as appealed from, with one bill of costs payable by the plaintiff to the defendant Greyhawk North America, LLC.

The plaintiff allegedly was injured while performing work on a school renovation project when he received an electrical shock, causing him to fall from a scaffold. The plaintiff was employed by the second third-party defendant, Magara Construction, Inc. (hereinafter Magara), which had been hired for the renovation project by the third-party defendant/second third-party plaintiff, Nagan Construction, Inc. (hereinafter Nagan), which, in turn, had been hired by the owner of the premises, the Valley Stream Central High School District (hereinafter the school district). The plaintiff commenced this action against, inter alia, the defendant Greyhawk North America, LLC (hereinafter Greyhawk), the construction manager for the renovation project, and was awarded summary judgment on the issue of Greyhawk's liability pursuant to Labor Law § 240 (1) and § 241 (6) (see Lodato v Greyhawk N. Am., LLC, 39 AD3d 491 [2007] [decided herewith]).

At the trial on the issue of damages, the plaintiff, in an effort to establish his damages for past and future lost earnings, sought to introduce, through the testimony of a school district employee, certain payroll records allegedly prepared by Magara. Magara's principal had submitted the records to Nagan, which had then submitted them for approval to the school district's architect, who, in turn, had submitted them to the school district. The testifying school district...