Jay A. Potter

Jay Potter (Partner-New York, NY) and Inderjit Dhami (Associate-New York, NY) represented the premises owner and general contractor in this Labor Law 240(1) case. The plaintiff electrician was knocked off a ladder when a ceiling grid collapsed, and suffered bilateral wrist fractures resulting in three surgeries to each wrist. The exposure presented in excess of $3.5 million, including the economic claims relating to plaintiff’s union employment/benefits. Relevant sub-contractors denied our clients’ tenders and Jay and Inderjit asserted third-party claims against them. A pre-note of Issue Mediation failed because one sub-contractor took a no-pay position on the grounds that they did not owe indemnification, then moved to dismiss the third-party claims asserting the same arguments. On our Motion to Reargue, the judge reversed himself and adopted Jay and Inderjit’s language holding that the court erroneously conflated the facts and awarded full contractual indemnification to the clients as against the moving third-party subcontractor, upon which the moving and non-moving third-party defendant subcontractors agreed to reimburse the insurer for the full amount of our attorneys’ fees ($250,000+ to date) and to settle the claim with the plaintiff without our clients’ contribution to the final settlement figure