Victory for Nursing and Rehabilitation Facility

Congratulations to our Associate Hara Prager, who working closely with Partner Juan Gonzalez, recently secured a significant victory for our client, a nursing and rehabilitation facility, who was sued by one of its employees for a serious accident that occurred on the facility’s premises.  Plaintiff had sue another entity, and then was granted leave to amend his complaint to add his employer as a direct defendant, this despite the Court being made fully aware that the entity sought to be named in the amended complaint was plaintiff’s employer.  The accident and injuries arose when the employee had been tasked with a site maintenance task that resulted in plaintiff falling approximately 15 or so feet, sustaining significant orthopedic and other injuries.  Despite the clear provisions of the Workers’ Compensation Law barring employees from suing their employers, and despite applying for and receiving workers’ compensation benefits, plaintiff nonetheless elected to sue his employer, convincing Supreme Court to allow joinder of his employer in the suit.  Despite repeated pre-answer attempts to secure a voluntary discontinuance, plaintiff forced the issue of the Workers’ Compensation exclusivity bar and, accordingly, Hara Prager meticulously culled the available documentation and other evidence firmly establishing plaintiff’s employee-employer relationship to our client, and thereafter moved pre-answer pursuant to CPLR 3211 to dismiss the case as a matter of law.  On the eve of arguments on the motion, and without any opposition by the plaintiff, plaintiff then voluntarily agreed to discontinue the action against our client.  Fantastic win on a catastrophic case with potential multi-million dollar exposure, where the same judge to whom the motion was made had previously allowed plaintiff to amend the complaint to add our client – plaintiff’s employer – despite being alerted to the Workers’ Compensation bar.  Congratulations Hara.  Another success for RPGRK!