The court found the defendants were owners of a construction site where a fatal accident occurred, and could not use a provision of the workers compensation law to bar the decedent estates claims. Halmar International owned a construction site located in Maybrook, New York. The site was being used for the construction of a concrete mockup of an aqueduct in preparation for construction work on an aqueduct in Gardiner, New York. On December 2, 2013, Scott Winkler, a concrete pump operator was transferring concrete into the forms of a model aqueduct at the Maybrook site. The operator was standing atop a scaffold that was part of the form. Without warning the form and scaffold collapsed throwing the operator to the ground. The scaffolding, contents of the form, and wet cement fell on top of the operator resulting in his death. (more…)