A New York appeals court overturned a decision granting summary judgment to the Long Island Power Authority and two other defendants in a case involving an electrical lineman who was injured during an explosion while working in an aerial bucket truck.
William Wittenberg, who worked as a journeyman lineman for Haugland Energy Group LLC, sued the power authority, Public Service Enterprise Group and PSEG Long Island for negligence and Labor Law violations over the workplace accident.
The defendants filed a third-party complaint against Haugland Energy for contractual indemnification and other claims.
A lower judge dismissed the case in January 2020.
The New York Supreme Court Appellate Division said the defendants and Haugland all failed to establish they were entitled to summary judgment at this stage of the litigation.
Haugland, the court noted, “failed to eliminate triable issues of fact as to whether its negligence contributed to the accident,” and that the trial judge should have denied that aspect of Haugland’s motion for summary judgment seeking to dismiss the third-party claim for contractual indemnification.
The power authority and other defendants in the initial case were also not entitled to summary judgment at this stage of the lawsuit because of certain procedural errors, the court wrote.