Richard Mirra Prevails On Appeal

On October 7, 2014, Richard Mirra won an appeal decision in Andrews v. Jerud, a matter involving the injury of the Plaintiff Andrews at a construction site, alleging negligence against the Defendants, Dr. David Jerud and LORAV Construction.  Defendant Dr. Jerud maintained that at all times he acted only as a property owner albeit he had had prior experience in  building homes. Plaintiffs alleged that Dr. Jerud acted as a  de facto general contractor who should be held liable for job site safety pursuant to Alloway v. Bradless, Inc., 157 N.J. 221 (1999) and Costa v. Gaccione, 408 N.J. Super. 362 (App. Div. 2009)   The Appellate Division agreed with defendant’s position that Alloway and Costa are distinguishable even assuming that Dr. Jerud could be considered a general contractor. The Court  affirmed the lower courts’ summary judgment in the defendants’ favor because  there was no evidence that the general contractor had removed from the “subcontractors the responsibility for ensuring the safety of their own workers”, knew of the dangerous method used by the subcontractor’s employee or “affirmatively contributed to create harm”.