12/8/2008
Hurley v. Best Buy Stores, L.P., et al.
In Hurley v. Best Buy Stores, L.P., et al., Kathleen Mulholland successfully argued that a lower court decision granting summary judgment in favor of a general contractor on the issue of indemnification should be reversed. In Hurley, the plaintiff, an electrician, was injured when a light fixture fell onto him at a construction site. The light fixture had previously been affixed to a pipe that was later cut by a demolition contractor. We argued that the cause of the accident was not the negligence of the electrical subcontractor but the failure of the general contractor to properly coordinate the work. Thus, since there was a question of fact as to the general contractor’s negligence, the general contractor’s motion for summary judgment should have been denied. The Appellate Division agreed and held that it was improper for the lower Court to grant the motion for indemnification in favor of the general contractor.