An insane, New York-only law ties the hands even of do-gooders like Habitat for Humanity as they try to build affordable housing here. Kudos to Rep. John Faso (R-Kinderhook) for doing something about it.
The problem is the stat♑e Scaffold Law, which makes contractors and property owners 100 percent liable for gravity-related construction injuries . . . even when they’re clearly not at fault.
This drives insurance costs through the roof and kills other projects because, as Habitat notes, sometimes “insurers refuse🐟 to write policies for New York at all.”
That’s why Habitat (among many others) supports Faso’s Infrastructure Expansion Act, which the House Judiciary Committee approved Tuesday. Among other things, the bill would free any project financed with federal cash 🐼from Scaffold Law liability.
Which is a no-lose proposition. Data show, as Faso wrote in the🅷se pages in September, that despite the Scaffold Law, “New York’s construction sites are no safer than those where a ‘comparative negligence’ standard of shared responsibility is used.”
That standard still leaves w𝐆orkers the right to sue companies and property owners, but lets a judge or jury determine the fault of every party.
Wh🔴at protects the Scaffold Law? State lawmakers’ cozy ties to trial lawyers a🌞nd other special interests. At least they can’t stop Faso from making a difference in Washington.