DECISION ORDER
ORDERED that the order is affirmed, with costs.
The plaintiff's decedent sustained fatal injuries when an unsecured ladder upon which he was working collapsed beneath him. The decedent's co-worker heard the crash and found the decedent and the ladder on the floor, with three broken balusters from the wooden banister against which the ladder had been leaning.
The plaintiff established prima facie that the appellants violated their statutory duty pursuant to Labor Law § 240 Lab.(1), and that the violation was a proximate cause of the injuries (see, Gordon v. Eastern Ry. Supply, 82 N.Y.2d 555 ; Zimmer v. Chemung County Performing Arts, Inc., 65 N.Y.2d 513 ; Bryan v. City of New York, 206 A.D.2d 448 ; Whalen v. Sciame Constr. Co., 198 A.D.2d 501 ). The appellants failed to submit evidence in admissible form to rebut this prima facie showing (see, Zuckerman v. City of New York, 49 N.Y.2d 557, 560 ).
Contrary to the appellants' contention, the facts surrounding this accident were not within the exclusive knowledge of the plaintiff (see, Masiello v. Belcastro, 237 A.D.2d 335 ; Bryan v. City of New York, 206 A.D.2d 448 , supra; Bras v. Atlas Constr. Corp., 166 A.D.2d 401 ;Pritchard v. Murray Walter, Inc., 157 A.D.2d 1012 ). Furthermore, the appellants' mere hope that further discovery will reveal something helpful to their case provides no basis for postponing the determination of the plaintiff's motion (see, Bryan v. City of New York, supra; Plotkin v. Franklin, 179 A.D.2d 746 ).