For 140 years, New York has been shackled by an outdated law found nowhere else in America: the scaffold law.
Enacted in 1885, this statute imposes “absolute liability” on property owners and contractors for elevation-related accidents, even when worker negligence is the true cause. Every other state in the nation has reformed or repealed laws like this. New York is the last one left clinging to it — and the damage is obvious.
