Category Archives: General Personal Injury
City’s Violation of Trash Ordinance Could Spell Liability for NYPD Officer’s Trip and Fall Injury
A New York City Police Department Sergeant pursued a suspect onto a vacant lot owned by the City. The lot was strewn with debris, including a makeshift structure which the officer thought the suspect may have fled into. When the officer “kind of jumped” on the structure, his foot went through the plywood, causing… Read More »
New York City Car Crash Yields Battle of Summary Judgment Motions: Plaintiff Wins on Liability but Loses on Serious Injury
A rear-end collision at West 40th Street and 12th Avenue in Manhattan back in 2009 led to litigation against the following car by the driver of the rear-ended car, who alleged personal injury. Recently the Supreme Court, New York County, decided summary judgment motions submitted by the plaintiff and defendant drivers. Both parties in… Read More »
New Laws May Lessen Liability for Emergency Responders Who Cause Accidents
New York Vehicle & Traffic Law section 1104 was enacted to authorize emergency responders to violate certain traffic laws when responding to an emergency and to be exempt from liability for any accidents they cause during an emergency, so long as they were not acting with reckless disregard for the safety of others. However,… Read More »
Slip and Fall in Stairwell Raises Questions of Fact for the Jury to Decide
In a slip and fall premises liability case, it is ultimately the responsibility of the injured plaintiff to prove that the defendant property owner either created the danger, or had actual or constructive knowledge of the condition but failed to correct it in a reasonable period of time before the accident happened. However, New… Read More »
Timing of Inspections Can Be Critical to Premises Liability Cases
In order to hold a property owner responsible for a dangerous or defective condition on the property that causes injury, the injured person must be able to show that the owner either created the condition, or knew or had reason to know about the condition but failed to correct it within a reasonable time… Read More »
No Common Law Indemnity from Subcontractor Without a Grave Injury
In the recent case of Mouta v. Essex Mkrt. Dev. LLC, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York ruled on the contractor’s liability for the injuries sustained to a worker in a gravity-related accident. Although the contractor can normally be held liable for a construction worker’s injuries pursuant to various New… Read More »
Contractor Must Actively Supervise Employee or Work Site to be Liable Under Labor Law 200 or Common Law Negligence
Property owners and contractors can be held liable for worksite injuries under several different sections of New York Labor Law, such as sections 200, 240(1) or 241(6). Each section has different requirements to hold the contractor liable, however, and it is crucial for the injured worker to understand the differences among the three in… Read More »
Ladder Fall While Cleaning Creates Liability Under Scaffold Law
In 2010, a worker who was hired to clean the walls and window ledges at the Worldwide Plaza subway station in New York City fell 20 feet to the floor when the ladder he was standing on kicked out from under him while he was hosing down a wall. The injured worker sued the… Read More »
Why is This State Different from Other States? New York is odd man out when it comes to medical malpractice law
In most New York personal injury cases, there is a three-year statute of limitations, meaning that you have three years from the date of the accident to file a lawsuit. If you miss that deadline, you can be prohibited from suing. In medical malpractice cases, however, the statute of limitations is only 2 and… Read More »
Court Reverses Itself Over Cow in Road Could Dog Bites Be Far Behind?
Last April we reported on the case of Doerr v. Goldsmith, where the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court refused to hold a dog owner liable for calling her dog to run across a Central Park road, despite a shouted warning from an oncoming bicyclist, who could not avoid colliding with the… Read More »