easy-footnotes domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /var/www/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6121google-document-embedder domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /var/www/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6121ninja-tables-pro domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /var/www/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6121spam-free-wordpress domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /var/www/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6121themelia domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /var/www/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6121__construct() instead. in /var/www/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6121__construct() instead. in /var/www/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6121Well, that didn’t take long. Barely two weeks after the March 26, 2015 East Village explosion that leveled several buildings on Second Avenue, the first (to my knowledge) lawsuit arising out of the incident has been filed. The lawsuit, captioned Bauermeister et al v. Con Edison et al (Bx. Supreme Ct. # 21868/2015E), was filed initially in…
Read More $40M East Village Explosion/Collapse LawsuitThe Southern District recently reiterated, in Bermudez v. City of New York, that a plaintiff asserting a hostile work environment claim must show, among other things, “that she found the environment offensive, and that a reasonable person also would have found the environment to be hostile or abusive.” The test, as such, has both subjective and…
Read More Court Explains Why Female NYPD Plaintiff Presented Sufficient Evidence as to the “Subjective” Prong of Her Hostile Work Environment Sexual Harassment ClaimIn a recent gender discrimination lawsuit captioned Consing v. NYC Health & Hospitals Corp. and Zenaida Magnaye-Banzon, EDNY 15-cv-01548 (March 25, 2015), plaintiff, a man, asserts that the defendants failed to hire him because he is male. He asserts, for example (at paragraph 19) that Magnaye-Banzon told him that the position would “not work” for him because…
Read More Anti-Male Gender Discrimination Lawsuit Against NYC Health & Hospitals Corp.A federal court recently allowed plaintiff Michael Picarella, a now former HSBC senior vice president, to amend his complaint in his lawsuit against HSBC. The action, currently pending in the Southern District of New York, is captioned Picarella v. HSBC Securities (USA) Inc., 14-cv-04463. In his first amended complaint, filed 8/27/14, plaintiff alleged (among other…
Read More Fired HSBC Executive May Amend Complaint to Assert Retaliatory TerminationThe law relating to the use of social media in litigation continues to evolve. A recent decision issued by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Caputi v. Topper Realty Corp. (decided Feb. 25, 2015), provides additional insight into how judges deal with this increasingly important issue. In Caputi, a wage-and-hour case, defendants…
Read More Court Allows Partial Access to Plaintiff’s Facebook AccountA recent Second Department decision, Messana v. Long Is. R.R. Co., 2015 NY Slip Op 01787 (decided March 4, 2015) illustrates the breadth of the New York City Human Rights Law – namely, the relatively high standard that a defendant must meet to secure summary judgment dismissing a claim for disability discrimination and retaliation. In…
Read More Decision Illustrates Breadth of NYC Human Rights LawA recent Appellate Division decision, Valverde v. Great Expectations, LLC (decided March 31, 2015) is an example of a defense failure to make a prima facie showing to summary judgment in a personal injury premises liability case. The court affirmed the lower court’s denial of defendants’ motion, without considering plaintiff’s responsive papers. From the opinion: Defendants…
Read More Questions re Notice Result in Denial of Summary Judgment in Golf Path Trip/Fall CaseIn Graham v. Macy’s, Inc., SDNY 14-cv-3192 (March 23, 2015), Southern District Judge Paul Engelmayer granted defendant Macys’ motion to dismiss the pro se plaintiff’s claims of discrimination based on disability (here, arthritis and bipolar disorder) under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Although Judge Engelmayer determined that plaintiff’s complaint was deficient – citing, for example,…
Read More Disability Discrimination RoadmapIn a short opinion, the First Department in Santo-Perez v. Enterprise Leasing Co. (decided March 26, 2015) reversed summary judgment for defendant driver, even though the pedestrian they hit was outside the crosswalk at the time. The court wrote: While the fact that plaintiff was crossing the street on foot outside of the crosswalk, in…
Read More Outside-the-Crosswalk Pedestrian Knockdown Case ContinuesOne of the so-called “rules of the road”, New York Vehicle and Traffic Law (VTL) § 1142[a], provides: Vehicle entering stop or yield intersection (a) Except when directed to proceed by a police officer, every driver of a vehicle approaching a stop sign shall stop as required by [VTL § 1172] and after having stopped shall yield the…
Read More Defendant’s Failure to Yield at Intersection Results in Summary Judgment for Plaintiff in Car Accident Case