Kelley Kronenberg Partner Marc Pottak secured the voluntary discontinuance of all third-party claims against the firm’s client, Quality Building Services Corp., in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Queens County. The claims were withdrawn before discovery began, in a case in which the plaintiff had made an eight-figure demand.

The underlying case arose from a February 2025 incident at a commercial building in lower Manhattan. A Quality Building Services porter was collecting garbage using the freight elevators when he tripped on an unsecured sheet of hardboard at the entrance to the second-floor freight elevator. Otis Elevator Company was performing maintenance and repair work on the elevators at the time. The porter sued Otis and the building owner, alleging that the hardboard was left unsecured and that its raised edges caused his fall. He alleged a fractured right kneecap that required surgery and demanded damages in the eight figures.

Otis then brought Quality Building Services into the case as a third-party defendant, seeking common law indemnification, contribution, contractual indemnification, and damages for breach of an alleged contract. Because the injured plaintiff was Quality’s own employee, the exposure ran through those claims even though Quality was not a direct defendant. If Otis had succeeded, Quality’s exposure could have exceeded the plaintiff’s demand.

Marc recognized early that the claims were barred by Section 11 of New York’s Workers’ Compensation Law. Under that statute, an employer generally cannot be sued for contribution or indemnification on account of an employee’s injury unless the employee suffered a statutorily defined “grave injury” or the employer signed a written contract, before the accident, expressly agreeing to indemnify the party seeking it. Neither exception applied. The injury alleged, a fractured kneecap requiring surgical repair, is not among the injuries the statute defines as grave, and there was no applicable contractual agreement.

Marc pressed that position at the outset, before the parties had incurred the cost of discovery. Otis agreed to discontinue its claims, removing Quality Building Services from the case.

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