NEW SCOTLAND — Albany County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Eric Burns lost his injury lawsuit against the State of New York. Court of Claims Judge Judith A. Hard issued a summary judgement on April 18, stating that Burns could not claim a violation of Labor Law for injuries he sustained during rock removal from a John Boyd Thacher State Park cliff that coincided with a search-and-rescue exercise.

Burns was injured on April 5, 2012 when a rock hit his face as he was rappelling down the Helderberg Escarpment to reach and remove loose rocks, an activity that was not part of his search-and-rescue exercise but was agreed to by the sheriff’s office to help park staff eliminate hazards on the popular hiking trails, according to the case summary.

Rescue volunteers were asked to move across the cliff laterally, removing loose rocks before moving to other levels, according to the case summary.

Burns claimed that a park volunteer’s physical movement of Burns across the cliff face to areas that needed attention could have resulted in the loosening of rocks caught by Burns’s rappel line, the summary says.

Burns “also states that at no time prior to the accident had he been provided any training on how to loosen or dislodge the shale from the cliff, how to use the pike or how to perform those tasks in a safe manner,” the summary says.

Burns also claimed that the rock removal had nothing to do with search-and-rescue operations, but that he felt the assignment was not optional, the summary says.

“The court found that Burns was struck by one of the rocks that he was hired to remove. Accordingly, the Court concludes that he was injured doing the work he was required to perform,” Hard said.

Burns also claimed “that the Indian Ladder Trail at Thacher Park has been altered and improved upon with the addition of artificial enhancements for the enjoyment of park visitors, including metal and stone stairways, ladders, and enhanced trails with wooden borders…[and argued] that the cliff face and Indian Ladder Trail area where he was working should be treated similar to a mine or a pit which have previously been found to be ‘structures’ within the meaning of the Labor Law,” the summary says.

“The Court agrees with [the state] that the cliff face of the Helderberg Escarpment is a natural feature. From the papers submitted, it appears to this Court that the area in which claimant was working was not part of the man-made enhancements [Burns] references, and the work [Burns] was performing was not incidental to work on a covered building or structure. Accordingly, it is excluded from protection under Labor Law,” Hard stated in her decision.