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

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 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.

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.

New York is in a minority of states in America that has a wrongful death statute that does not allow the decedent’s family to be compensated for their emotional grief over their loss.  So when a family recently came to see me about the completely unexpected loss of their son who was in his 20’s they were shocked to learn that the law prohibited them from recovering for their “pain and suffering” - only the decedent’s pain and suffering is recoverable.   New York law does allow for the awarding of interest from the date of death, and the Court of Appeals recently expanded the amount of interest recoverable when it decided that interest from the date of death to the date of verdict should be added to the recovery for future wrongful death damages in Toledo v. Christo, 2012 WL 42906 (Jan. 10, 2012).

The driver of the tour bus that crashed into a highway sign post on I-95 in the Bronx, killing 15 people and injuring seven others on March 12, 2011, has been charged with 15 counts each of second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, plus reckless driving, assault and third-degree unlicensed driving. Ophadell Williams, Jr. plead not guilty, and his bail was set at $250,000. Alsolast Thursday, New York State Inspector General Ellen Biben today released an investigative report that found the bus driver was able to exploit weaknesses in the state regulatory system and obtain a commercial bus driver license and employment with tour operators despite

In Edwards v. Erie Coach Lines Company, 131, NYLJ 1202499068316 (Decided June 30, 2011), New York States highest court was called upon to answer a choice-of-law question regarding a motor vehicleaccident wherein a charter bus carrying members of an Ontario women's hockey team plowed into the rear-end of a tractor-trailer parked on the shoulder of the highway near Geneseo, New York on January 19, 2005. Four bus passengers and the trailer's driver died; several bus passengers were seriously hurt. The charter bus's driver, his employer, and the company that leased the bus are Ontario domiciliaries, as are (or were) all the injured and deceased passengers. The tractor-trailer driver was a Pennsylvania domiciliary, as are his employer and the

Theres much talk these days about the proposed $250,000.00 cap on recoveries for pain and suffering in medical malpractice cases. Ive seen a television advertisement crowing how medical malpractice reform will enhance patient safety (without mentioning the proposed cap), when common sense fails to explain how reducing a doctors or hospitals potential liability will make them act with more care towards the patient. At the same time, the proponents of the cap show no interest in fixing one of the most unfair aspects of current law - the absence of an extension of the 2-1/2 year statute of limitations that applies to medical malpractice when the victim of medical malpractice did not discover that there had been malpractice until after the 2-1/2 year period has elapsed. Two

In 2009, the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) released the Motor Coach Safety Action Plan setting forth concrete steps for improving motorcoach safety. The action plan addresses major safety issues such as driver fatigue and inattention, vehicle rollover, occupant ejections and oversight of unsafe carriers. With the two recent fatal charter bus accidents, efforts are being speed up the implementation of the safety improvements. Available technology includes collision warning systems that alert drivers to obstacles in their paths and tell them when they are swerving from their lanes, strengthening bus roofs so that they aren't sheared off, as happened to the New York bus when it hit a signpost, and using anti-ejection glazing windows to prevent passengers from being

Hoping to protect emergency responders on highways from themselves becoming involved in a motor vehicle accident, effective January 1, 2011, a new law in New York State, the Ambrose-Searles Move Over Act requires drivers to exercise due care to avoid colliding with an authorized emergency vehicle which is parked, stopped or standing on the shoulder of a road or highway with its emergency lights activated. Drivers must reduce speed on all roads when encountering such vehicles. Importantly, on parkways, interstates, and other controlled access highways with multiple lanes, drivers are further required to move from the lane immediately adjacent to the emergency vehicle, unless traffic or other hazards exist to prevent doing so safely. Unfortunately last night provided a vivid example of the importance of the new law. A veteran Nassau County police officer died early Saturday af

The plaintiffs in DeRiggi v. Krischen, 20753/08, NYLJ 1202476938011, at *1 (Sup., Nassau Decided December 17, 2010) sought to recover for the wrongful death of Patricia DeRiggi, who died at the age of 30 during percutaneous disk decompression surgery, an out-patient procedure used to treat lower back pain. Plaintiffs allege that Mrs. DeRiggi's left common iliac vein was perforated twice during the surgery resulting in an intra-abdominal hemorrhage and death. They also allege that the defendants HydroCision and/or New York Spinal Implants, the manufacturer and/or distributor of the Spine Jet HydroDisectomy System used in the procedure, were negligent in their design, manufacturer and dist