December fills emergency rooms across New York City and Long Island with homeowners who fell putting up holiday lights. Most of these falls happen from ladders under ten feet. A fall from that height can break a wrist, fracture a hip, or cause a head injury that changes a family's year.
This article covers two things. First, the practical steps that prevent most ladder and roof falls at home. Second, what the law says when a fall does happen. The answer changes depending on whether you fell, a guest fell, or someone you hired fell.
The Falls We See Every Winter
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that thousands of people are treated in emergency rooms each holiday season for decorating injuries, and ladder falls lead the list. This is often due to homeowners being in a rush and working on cold, wet ground with old and unused ladders.
Most serious injuries come from three mistakes: the ladder is set at the wrong angle or on soft ground; the person overreaches sideways instead of climbing down and moving the ladder; or someone steps onto a pitched roof in sneakers, in the cold, with no one holding the base.
None of these are exotic hazards. They are the same failures that injure professional workers, just without the safety rules a job site requires.
The Rules Professionals Follow, Applied at Home
Set the ladder at a four-to-one angle: for every four feet of height, the base sits one foot from the wall. Place it on firm, level, dry ground. Frozen grass and slate walkways are not firm ground.
Keep three points of contact at all times. Two feet and one hand, or two hands and one foot. Carry lights in a tool belt or hoist them with a rope, not in your hands while climbing.
Do not overreach. Your belt buckle should stay between the side rails. Climb down and move the ladder, even on the tenth trip.
An extension ladder reaching the roofline should extend at least three feet above the point where it rests. Have a second person foot the base. Stay off the roof itself in cold weather. Frost on asphalt shingles is invisible and gives no warning before you slide.
And check the forecast - wind that is harmless on the ground will move a ladder at fifteen feet. If conditions are bad, the lights can wait a day.
If a Guest or Neighbor Falls on Your Property
Now the legal side. If a visitor is hurt helping with your lights, or slips on your walkway while admiring them, New York premises liability law applies. Property owners must keep their premises reasonably safe. They must also warn of hazards they know about or should know about.
These claims typically run through the homeowner's insurance policy, not the homeowner's own pocket. That is one of the things the policy exists for. Premises claims sit outside the motor vehicle rules, so New York's pure comparative negligence statute, CPLR § 1411, applies. An injured visitor who was partly careless can still recover, with damages reduced by their share of fault.
The general deadline to start a personal injury lawsuit in New York is three years under CPLR § 214. Evidence fades much faster than that. Photographs of the ladder, the ground conditions, and the lighting taken the day of the fall are worth more than any testimony a year later.
If You Hire Someone to Hang the Lights
Many families on Long Island hire a handyman or a small installation company instead of climbing themselves. That is often the safer choice, but it raises its own legal questions.
New York's Scaffold Law, Labor Law § 240, places strict responsibility for elevation hazards on property owners and contractors. The statute contains an exemption for owners of one- and two-family dwellings who do not direct or control the work. Hire a company, let them run the job, and stay out of how the ladder gets set. That exemption generally protects you. If you supervise the details of the work yourself, the analysis can change.
A legitimate installation company should carry its own liability insurance and workers' compensation coverage. Ask before anyone climbs. A worker injured on your property without that coverage creates a hard situation for everyone involved. Ladder falls are also the single most litigated hazard in New York construction law. That is why our construction accident practice is built around elevation cases.
If You Are the One Who Falls
A homeowner who falls from his own ladder on his own property usually has no one to sue, but not always. If the ladder itself failed due to a rung that cracked, a locking mechanism that released, or a foot that was defectively designed, a product liability claim against the manufacturer may exist. Do not throw it out or return the ladder - it's your evidence.
If the fall happened while you were doing work for your employer, even informally, workers' compensation questions can arise. Those situations are fact-specific. Whether you can recover beyond comp benefits depends on who else had a hand in the hazard. We explain that analysis in "when you can sue beyond workers' comp."
Whatever the cause, see a doctor the same day. Falls produce injuries that announce themselves slowly; a sore wrist can be a scaphoid fracture and headache after hitting the ground can be a concussion. The medical record created in the first days is the record every later decision rests on.
How Schwartzapfel Holbrook Approaches Fall Cases
Falls from height are a core part of this firm's work, whether from a ladder on a job site or a roof at home. We investigate the equipment, the ground conditions, the insurance coverage in play, and who controlled the work before forming an opinion about a case.
Schwartzapfel Holbrook accepts a limited number of serious injury cases across New York City, Nassau County, and Suffolk County. Every case we take is prepared as if it will be tried. Preparation is what moves carriers to evaluate a claim seriously. We would rather you never need us this season. Set the ladder right, keep three points of contact, and stay off the frosted roof.
