Overview: Elevator and Escalator Safety According to statistics released by that National Elevator Industry in 2007, 210 billion riders in the United States use elevators and escalators each year; 325 million riders use elevators every day; 245 million riders use escalators each day. Because there are 700,000 elevators and 35,000 escalators in the United States, […]
Miscellaneous
Two Wrongfully Convicted Men Awarded $18 Million Each by Jury
Two men who were exonerated of raping and murdering a 16-year-old Nassau County girl in 1984 were awarded $18 million each by a federal jury in April 2014. After a four-week trial in the U.S. District Court in Central Islip, New York, jurors determined that John Restivo and Dennis Halstead, who each served 18 years in prison […]
Nassau DA: Ballistic Evidence in 45 Cases to be Retested after Lab Technician Admits Error
In a letter sent out to multiple defense attorneys in April 2014, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice stated that her office is sending out ballistic evidence in 45 cases to be retested after a lab technician in an out-of-state lab admitted that he made an error in testing evidence for one case. The letter […]
Report: Mandatory Managed Care in New York May Lead to Poor Care in Nursing Homes
According to a 2013 study conducted by The Long Term Care Community Coalition (LTCCC), an organization dedicated to improving nursing home care in New York, the state’s new Managed Long Term Care (MLTC) policy may reduce the overall quality of care in nursing homes. The report, titled “Mandatory Managed Care in New York State Nursing […]
Attorney General: NYPD’s Stop and Frisk Policy Has Conviction Rate of Three Percent
According to a November 2013 report released by the New York State Attorney General’s office, only three percent of people arrested as a result of stop and frisk pled guilty or were convicted of a crime. The study, titled “A Report on Arrests Arising from the New York City Police Department’s Stop-and-Frisk Policies,” analyzed stop […]
Syracuse Nursing home with Long History of Substandard Care to be Converted into Apartments
Rosewood Heights, a Syracuse nursing home that houses 242 beds in a six story building, is slated to be shut down and converted into an apartment building in 2014. In March 2012, the nursing home was placed on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service’s (CMS) Special Focus Facility (SFF) list for providing poor care […]
Martin Tankleff Receives Over $3.3 Million from New York in Wrongful Imprisonment Settlement
Martin Tankleff received a $3.375 million settlement in January 2014 as a result of a wrongful imprisonment lawsuit he filed against New York State. Tankleff spent 17 years in prison after being convicted of the brutal murders of his parents in 1988 in the Belle Terre home on Long Island. Tankleff was released from prison […]
NJ Jury Awards Man $8 Million for Elevator Accident
A New Jersey jury awarded a Sussex County man in February 2014 $8 million for an elevator accident that occurred in Morristown in 2005. According to court documents, Richard Tufaro of Branchville, who was 48 at the time of the accident, was working as a carpenter on a remodeling project in the lobby of Headquarters […]
Four Workers from Long Island Group Home Arrested for Forcing Developmentally Disabled Residents to Fight Each Other
Four workers from the Independent Group Home Living facility in Hampton Bays, New York were arrested in February 2014 for allegedly forcing and encouraging two developmentally disabled adults to fight each other. One of the workers recorded the incident with a cellphone, which shows the two disabled men fighting as workers encourage them and laugh […]
Former Nurse Aide of Rochester Nursing Home Accused of Posting Video of Patient Being Abused on Facebook
A former nurse aid at the St. Anne’s Home in Rochester, New York was arrested and charged in July 2013 for allegedly posting a video on Facebook of a resident being harassed. If convicted, the former aide, Ericha Brown, 23, faces up to one year in prison. According to Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, Brown […]
Second Department Reverses Summary Judgment in Nassau County Car Accident Case
Last week, the Supreme Court Appellate Division, Second Department reversed a Nassau County Supreme Court finding of summary judgment for a defendant driver in an accident involving a pedestrian. The appellate Court found that the defendant had not established a baseline prima facie case for entitlement to summary judgment, rendering the plaintiff’s opposition to the […]
First Department Rules Defendant Failed to Meet Burden for Summary Judgment in Bronx Slip and Fall
Earlier this week the Supreme Court Appellate Division, First Department ruled that the defendant had not met its prima facie burden for an award of summary judgment in a Bronx slip and fall case. The fall occurred at the Bronx Zoo, where the plaintiff allegedly slipped on a patch of ice outside a restaurant within […]
Plaintiff Injured When Dog Obeys Its Owner
In a report published earlier today, the Supreme Court Appellate Division, First Department, reversed a lower court’s ruling of summary judgment for the defendant in a case involving the negligent handling of a dog by its owners. The plaintiff in the case was riding a bicycle near the southern boundary of Central Park when he […]
Proposed Bronx Group Home Hits Snag
The development of a proposed group home for mentally disabled senior citizens in the Bronx hit a set-back this week when one of the potential investors pulled out of the project. The developer had been slated to operate many of the apartments in the group home. Its decision not to move forward with the project […]
Driver Facing Numerous Charges after Brooklyn Car Accident
The driver responsible for a multi-car accident in Brooklyn that injured several people will face a variety of charges, according to ABC News. The accident occurred as the driver was attempting to evade police early Wednesday morning. The police car that had been chasing the suspect was also involved in the crash, as was another […]
NY Car Accident Lawyer Report: Accident Case Reinstated
On August 21, 2013, the Supreme Court Appellate Division, Second Department reversed an Order of the Supreme Court, which had granted summary judgment to the defendant in a Queens car accident case. The original granting of summary judgment for the defendant, and its subsequent denial on appeal, centered around the failure of the plaintiff’s lawyer […]
First Department Upholds Damages, Reduces Past Medical Expenses in New York Slip and Fall Case
On August 20, the Supreme Court Appellate Division, First Department upheld a jury verdict of over $700,000 in a New York slip and fall case. The defendants had appealed the amount of the damages. Although the Court did uphold the jury’s award for past and future pain and suffering, it did reduce the award for […]
Plaintiff Granted Partial Summary Judgment in New York Labor Law Claim
Partial summary judgment was granted for the plaintiff in an April labor law suit in Manhattan. The plaintiff’s husband had been working on a lift fixing the ceiling of the defendant property owner when he fell to his death. The First Department granted the plaintiff summary judgment on her Labor Law 240 claim. Pursuant to […]
First Department Reverses Summary Judgment in Medical Malpractice Action
In April, the Supreme Court Appellate Division, First Department reversed the lower court’s ruling of summary judgment in favor of the defendant in a medical malpractice action. Originally, the Bronx Supreme Court granted summary judgment for doctor and hospital, finding that the defendants’ failure to diagnose cancer was not a proximate cause of the plaintiff’s […]
Victim of Hit and Run Dies, Body Transported Adjacent to Refuse by ME
Late last week, an Irish national, Kevin Bell, was struck and killed by a Bronx hit and run driver as he was returning to his home for the summer in Woodlawn. According to the NY Post, the young man had been drinking in Manhattan prior to the accident. A witness claimed that the victim had […]
N.Y. Slip & Fall Attorney Report: Second Department Upholds Summary Judgment for Plaintiff in Slip and Fall Case
An April order by the Appellate Division, Second Department upheld a Suffolk County Supreme Court’s finding of summary judgment for the plaintiffs in a Long Island personal injury case. In February of 2007, the plaintiff, a Nassau County police officer, was responding to an alarm at the defendant’s summer house. At the time that the […]
Estate of Former Nursing Home Owner to Repay $2.5 Million to Medicaid
The estate of a deceased Bronx nursing home owner has agreed to return over $2.5 Million to Medicaid in a deal reached within the past few weeks. The deceased, Helen Sieger, is the former owner of Kingsbridge Heights Rehabilitation and Care Center, located in the Bronx. She was indicted in 2009 on counts of criminal […]
Bronx Autistic Man’s Family Alleges Physical Abuse
An autistic man’s family is alleging abuse at a Bronx group home, according to NY1. The name of the home is not provided in the report, but NY1 does say that the home is run by Leake and Watts, a not-for-profit group that provides services such as foster care, community residences, and juvenile justice services. […]
Summary Judgment Affirmed for NYC Transit in Personal Injury Action
On May 1st, the Second Department affirmed a summary judgment ruling in favor of a defendant NYC bus in a personal injury case involving a fall. The plaintiff had sued for personal injury after falling inside the bus when the driver stopped short. The defendant, New York City Transit Authority, was granted summary judgment by […]
Brooklyn Nursing Home Seeking Funding to Continue Therapy Dog Visits
The Menorah Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing Care located in Brooklyn’s Manhattan Beach neighborhood, was hit hard when Hurricane Sandy struck the east coast. In the months that followed, residents were able to find comfort in the visits of Shadow, a therapy dog who has been visiting the residents in the months since the storm. […]