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

In The Matter Of New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation vs. New York State Commission Of Correction (May 8, 2012), the Court of Appeals enforced a subpoena issued by the Medical Review Board ("Board") of the New York State Commission (“Commission”) to Elmhurst Hospital of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (“HHC”) for records of a prison inmate who died subsequent to transfers from the New York City facility where he was incarcerated to Elmhurst Hospital and then to Bellevue Hospital.  HHC refused to turn over the records on the grounds that Mr. Frazier had been treated at Elmhurst in a non-prison unit, and that his records were shielded from disclosure by the physician-patient privilege. The Court of Appeals held that the Board's authority to “investigate and review the cause and circumstances surrounding the death of any inmate of a correctional facility” trumped HIPPA medical privacy laws.

Your first reaction may be, “You mean right now they’re not?!”  After three accidents, two of them fatal, in six months, the City Council is considering licensing elevator mechanics for the first time. The council is also considering a bill to require safety devices in some residential buildings to prevent elevators from skyrocketing to the ceiling.  New York is among just 14 states that do not require that elevator technicians be licensed.  Three-dozen other states already license elevator mechanics.  According to the International Union of Elevator Constructors, 25 percent fewer elevator accidents occur in states where licensing and mandatory inspections are required.  There are about 60,000 elevators in the city, and about four elevator fatalities a year.  In 2011 in the city there were 43 elevator accidents, compared with 105 in 2007.

In 1975 New York enacted a “no-fault” insurance plan that in theory was designed to keep small cases involving motor vehicle accidents out of court in exchange for relatively immediate payment of expenses for hospital and medical bills and reimbursement of lost earnings without the injured party having to prove that the other party was at fault for the accident.  One would think that needing to undergo surgery to repair injuries sustained in an accident would not be considered too small of a case to be allowed to proceed, particularly where the surgeon states that the injuries he observed during the surgery would result in a permanent limitation of motion and other problems.  Wrong.  In Ramkumar v. Grand Style Transportation Enterprises Inc., 2012 WL 1164882 (April 10, 2012), the Appellate Division, Second Department in Brooklyn dismissed just such a case.

Whether or not to get out of your car is a big question, maybe a life-determining one.  With cars, trucks and buses speeding by so closely, you feel that if your vehicle is hit your will defineitely be injured, if not killed.  And you worry about everyone else in your vehicle.  But if you get out, you lose the protection the vehicle's metal provides to you, especially if your vehicle is struck and debris flies.

In Dahar v. Holland Ladder & Manufacturing Company, the plaintiff was injured when he fell from a ladder in a factory while cleaning a product manufactured by his employer.  The product was a steel wall module that was at least seven feet high. After the module was fabricated, it had to be cleaned before it was shipped. Plaintiff was cleaning the unit while standing on a ladder when it broke and he fell to the ground. Plaintiff claimed that the ladder failed to provide “proper protection”; and liability should be imposed under Labor Law 240(1). The Court of Appeals rejected the plaintiff’s contention that the product was a structure within the meaning of the statute and held that his activity was not protected by Labor Law 240(1). The decision is important for plaintiff’s personal injury lawyers because it contains helpful language that should be cited in every motion, brief or legal writing involving a Labor Law 240(1) claim.

A study by Newsday of pedestrian accidents reports from 2005 through 2010 published in today’s paper finds that pedestrians are killed an average of more than five times a year on Hempstead Turnpike’s 16 miles through Nassau County, making it Long Island’s most dangerous road.  Thirty-two people were killed and at least 427 injured in 457 pedestrian accidents.  Three more people have died since last July.  Even crossing at intersections is not safe.  More than half of the incidents examined occurred at intersections.  Pedestrians were struck far more often by drivers turning left than turning right.  Seventy percent of the pedestrians killed were not at intersections.

The products liability lawsuit brought by Ronald Ball alleges he became violently ill when he opened a can of Mountain Dew and found a dead mouse inside.  The maker of Mountain Dew, PepsiCo, has brought on a motion to dismiss the lawsuit with the unique defense that their product is so destructively acidic that any mouse would have completely disintegrated by acids that would have turned the mouse's body into a “jelly-like” substance.  PepsiCo has submitted to the court an affidavit from a veterinary pathologist explaining their defense in morbid step-by-step detail.  Can't wait to pop open my next soft drink.

Effective February 12, 2012, a new law goes into effect in New York that expands the list of convictions that disqualify a school bus driver from either permanently or temporarily operating a school bus.  The law adds to the list of convictions that would either permanently disqualify an applicant from being a bus driver or disqualify the candidate for five years. The law also changes from a temporary five-year prohibition to a permanent prohibition vehicular manslaughter in the first degree, aggravated vehicular homicide, and promoting prostitution in the first, second, or third degree. Additionally, added to the list of crimes which would result in a five-year prohibition are forcible touching and criminal sale of a prescription for a controlled substance.

The NYC Buildings Department brought National Elevator Safety Awareness Week the the city last month.  There are 62,000 elevators and escalators  in the city, and children use them on a daily basis. Since 2004, more than 100 children have been injured in by an elevator or escalator in New York City. 

The program’s safety slogan is “Ring, Relax, Wait,” which reminds children to ring the elevator’s safety bell in an emergency and wait patiently for help instead of trying to pry the doors open. Many accidents occur when elevator passengers attempt to jump out of the elevator cab just before the doors unexpectedly close or the elevator moves.Many accidents occur when elevator passengers attempt to jump out of the elevator cab just before the doors unexpectedly close or the elevator moves.  

Initially recalled in December of 2009, yesterday LG Electronics Tianjin Appliance Co., in cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), urged consumers to check if they have Goldstar or Comfort-Aire dehumidifiers. The firm is re-announcing the recall of these dangerous products because only two percent of the 98,000 consumers who purchased these units have received a free repair, which means that consumers and their property remain at serious risk. The power connector for the dehumidifiers compressor can short circuit, posing fire and burn hazards to consumers and their property. The initial recall followed eleven incidents, including four significant fires. Since that time, the company has received sixteen additional incident reports of arcing, smoke and fire a