Harzewski v. Centennial Development, Ltd.

Appeal from an order of Supreme Court, Niagara County (Fricano, J.), entered February 12, 2002, which granted the motion of defendant Centennial Development, Ltd. for partial summary judgment seeking common-law indemnification from defendant Robert Zulick, individually and doing business as J & W Cleaning. It is hereby ordered that the order so appealed from be and the same hereby is unanimously reversed on the law without costs and the motion is denied. Memorandum: Supreme Court erred in granting the motion of defendant Centennial Development, Ltd. (Centennial) for partial summary judgment seeking common-law indemnification from defendant Robert Zulick, individually and doing business as J & W Cleaning. We previously held that Centennial, the owner of the building where plaintiff was injured when he fell while cleaning exterior windows, is liable to plaintiff under Labor Law § 240 (1) (see Harzewski v Centennial Dev., 270 AD2d 888 [2000]). However, Centennial failed to establish as a matter of law that Zulick, a subcontractor, actually supervised, directed or controlled plaintiff’s work (see Delaney v Spiegel Assoc., 225 AD2d 1102, 1103 [1996]). Consequently, we reverse the order and deny Centennial’s motion. Present — Green, J.P., Hurlbutt, Gorski, Lawton and Hayes, JJ.