Aviles v. Crystal Management, Inc.

On a late summer afternoon in 1988, plaintiffs decedent Julio Aviles, a 27-year-old self-employed window washer, began a routine window-washing job for the tenants of apartment 3C at 241-245 West 54th Street in Manhattan. He brought along his own window-cleaning equipment, including a safety belt that was designed to be attached to anchors or hooks embedded in the outside wall of the building. However, only one anchor remained intact outside the living room windows of apartment 3C; the rest were missing.

According to the plaintiff, the top sashes of the apartment’s living room windows, which…