Personal Injury Attorneys - Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island and the Bronx

Many of our clients suffer from intractable neck pain and face difficult risk-laden choices as to how to try to obtain relief from their debilitating symptoms.  Many are given the option of undergoing surgery, which could potentially result in paralysis, or first trying epidural injections.  Patients are usually told that the injections may not work, but now they have something more to fear: fungal meningitis.  The latest report is that there are 119 cases of people who were infected from contaminated steroid injections (preservative-free methylprednisolone acetate (80mg/ml)).  11 people have died and many others have suffered a stroke. Three facilities in New York State received shipments of the contaminated steroid, Action Sports Medicine and Pain Management in Mineola, Obosa Medical Services in Mount Vernon and Rochester Brain and Spine in Rochester.

The claimant’s deceased husband suffered a heart attack and died on Super Bowl Sunday of 2010 while working as acting store manager of a Waldbaum’s supermarket in Roberts v. Waldbaum's, 513795, 2012 WL 4449387 (3d Dept., September 27, 2012).  Claimant applied for workers' compensation death benefits alleging that the heart attack (myocardial infarction) was triggered by the stress and excitement resulting from the responsibility of running the entire store on Super Bowl Sunday, an historically busy day at the store.  Also, several hours earlier decedent was involved in an altercation with an irate customer.  The Appellate Division upheld the determination of the Workers’ Compensation Board that decedent's death was causally related to his employment.

In May of this year the New York State Department of Transportation announced a series of pedestrian safety improvements along Hempstead Turnpike, which bears the unwanted distinction of being Long Island’s most dangerous road.  Much of the work is expected to begin this week.  Engineering improvements include remarking and widening crosswalks, increasing pedestrian crossing times at traffic signals, reprogramming dozens of crosswalks, adding pedestrian countdown timers, relocating bus stops closer to crosswalks, and installing additional no turn on red signs.  Crossing buttons will feature buttons that light up and stay lit when pushed, and raised medians where pedestrians frequently cross mid-block will be built to provide refuge from traffic.

FocusDriven – Advocates for Cell-Free Driving – thinks so, recently calling for automatic license revocation for drivers who text behind the wheel stating texting is a dangerous and deadly behavior that takes drivers' mind off the road, hands off the steering wheel and eyes off the road.  In New York, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo marked the one year anniversary of the state's strict law to prevent distracted driving by announcing this past July that law enforcement officials issued more than 20,000 tickets to motorists for texting-while-driving violations since the law took effect on July 12, 2011, four times as many than the previous year during which New York law enforcement officials issued 4,569 tickets for texting-while-driving violations.

If you want to know, go to the website of the New York City Buildings Department, you can find a list of ten of the top offenders who will be pursued under the Department’s Elevator Enforcement Program.  The list is compiled using complaint data, violations, maintenance filings, and field inspection records.  The list was last updated July 31, 2012.

Famous Long Island and Brooklyn steakhouse Peter Luger lost a bid to have a slip-and-fall case against it dismissed when Nassau County Supreme Court Justice F. Dana Winslow found that circumstantial evidence supported plaintiff’s proposition that the brown oily substance she slipped on was steak juices one of its waiters spilled.  Chang v. Peter Luger of Long Island Inc., decided August 9, 2012.  The plaintiff slipped on a step leading to one of the restaurant’s dining rooms.  Based upon the decision, it seems that all the plaintiff knew about what she slipped on was that it was a dark-brownish oily substance.  But the restaurant's manager testified that its waiters typically carried steak to customers on shallow platters that contain steak juice and butter, and that in serving the many steaks in the dining room that evening waiters must carry the food down the same step on which the plaintiff slipped and fell.

A Massachusetts teen was convicted Wednesday on charges of vehicular homicide, texting while driving and negligent operation of a motor vehicle as a result of texting while driving.  He was the first driver to be charged and convicted of motor vehicle homicide by texting under Massachusetts law.  The accident occurred when his vehicle crossed over a center line and fatally injured the driver of the oncoming vehicle and seriously injured a passenger in that vehicle. He was sentenced to two and a half years on the vehicular homicide charge and two years on the texting and causing injury charge. He will serve one year concurrently on both charges and the balance of both charges is suspended for five years. His license will be suspended for 15 years. Prosecutors say he sent 193 text messages the day of the crash, including some just a minute or so before impact and dozens more after it.

This past Thursday the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration ("FMCSA") shut down 26 discount bus companies declaring them imminent hazards to public safety. The shutdowns affected dozens of routes out of New York City’s Chinatown.  In addition, FMCSA ordered 10 individual bus company owners, managers and employees to cease all passenger transportation operations, which includes selling bus tickets to passengers.  The carriers had multiple safety violations, including using drivers without valid commercial driver's licenses (CDLs), failing to have alcohol and drug testing programs, and operating vehicles that had not been regularly inspected and repaired. Drivers also had serious hours-of-service and driver qualification violations.  Earlier this year, FMCSA released the SaferBus mobile app to give travelers a quick way to view a bus company's safety record before buying an interstate ticket or booking group travel.

In USAA Casualty Insurance Co., as Subrogee v. Permanent Mission Of The Republic Of Namibia, the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Namibia to the United Nations was sued for the $397,730 worth of damage to an adjoining property caused by its alleged failure to comply with Section 3309.8 of the New York City Building Code.   The Mission claimed that it was immune from suit under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.  The Second Circuit for the U.S. Court of Appeals not only rejected the claim of immunity for damages caused by the Mission’s negligence, but also held that the Mission had a nondelegable duty to the adjoining landowner, meaning that it was liable even if the damage was caused by work of the contractor or the subcontractor.  The decision comes during the New York City Buildings Department’s 8th annual No-Penalty Retaining Wall Inspection Program.

In Del Terzo v. The Hospital For Special Surgery the court rebuffed a defendant’s demand for a medical malpractice victim’s HIV-related information, alcohol/drug treatment information and mental health information. The plaintiff successfully argued that Public Health Law § 2785(2) (HIV-related records) and Mental Hygiene Law § 22.05 and § 33.13 (records of chemical dependency) protected her from having to give defendant's attorneys authorizations to obtain those sensitive records.  Hopefully the courts will pay heed to this decision, and not limit it to HIV-related information and chemical dependence situations (or just to medical malpractice cases as opposed to motor vehicle or slip-and-fall- cases).