New York’s Scaffold Law is the strictest worker-protection rule in American construction — and, builders argue, the most expensive. Enacted in 1885 as Labor Law §240, it makes property owners and general contractors absolutely liable for gravity-related injuries on a job site: a fall from a scaffold or ladder, or a worker struck by a falling object. The worker’s own negligence is no defense, and no other state has anything like it. The Insurance Bill That absolute liability is what insurers price. A single serious-injury verdict under the law can exceed $5 million to $10 million in New York City, … Continued
