Governmental Liability

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You may have heard that Al Sharpton’s daughter Dominique has sued the City of New York for $5 million to recover for injuries allegedly sustained in a trip-and-fall accident. Here’s her April 29, 2015 lawsuit. An article in yesterday’s NY Post noted that Ms. Sharpton “was a no-show [on Dec. 2, 2015] for the first court…

Read More Dominique Sharpton’s “No Show” in Her $5M Personal Injury Case Against the City of New York
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Teaching is hard work. In addition to the typical stresses of any job – rude co-workers, overbearing bosses, long hours – teachers are forced to deal with unique challenges, such as physical violence in the classroom. This has been in the news lately; the search results from a Google query for “student attack teacher” are disheartening, to…

Read More Absence of “Special Duty” Results in Dismissal of Injured Teacher’s Lawsuit
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In Postell v. Rochester City Sch. Dist., No. 11-CV-6550L, 2015 WL 5882287 (W.D.N.Y. Oct. 8, 2015), the court denied defendants’ motion for summary judgment on plaintiff’s race discrimination claim under 42 USC 1981. Plaintiff, an African American school counselor for John Marshall High School, alleged (among other things) that the defendant subjected her to race…

Read More African American School Counselor Survives Summary Judgment on Race Discrimination and Retaliation Claims
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In Wynn v. New York City Hous. Auth., No. 14-CV-2818 SAS, 2015 WL 4578684 (S.D.N.Y. July 29, 2015), the court held that a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) did not foreclose plaintiffs from pressing their employment discrimination claims. In this case, plaintiffs allege that NYCHA systematically undercompensated them due to a policy of race discrimination. Defendant argued…

Read More Collective Bargaining Agreement Does Not Deprive Court of Subject Matter Jurisdiction Over Employment Discrimination Claims
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In Cooney v. City of New York Dept. of Sanitation, 2015 NY Slip Op 03465 (App. Div. 1st Dept. Apr. 28, 2015), the Appellate Division, First Department reversed a lower court decision to dismiss plaintiff’s failure-to-hire disability discrimination claims for failure to state causes of action under the New York State and New York City Human…

Read More Psoriasis-Suffering Plaintiff Suffiiently Pleads Disability Discrimination
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Last year, a Times Square Spiderman, Junior Bishop, was criminally charged with punching a police officer. Following the dismissal of his criminal case, he has taken steps to sue the City for, among other things, his alleged false arrest. Here are the petition in support of his request to file a late “notice of claim” and…

Read More Spiderman, Plaintiff
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In Bednark v. City of New York (decided April 2, 2015), a bus-related personal injury case, the Appellate Division, First Department modified a lower court’s order granting summary judgment to the the defendant City of New York to deny that motion. The facts: Plaintiff was injured when, while disembarking from the rear doors of a…

Read More “Bus Stop” Includes Sidewalk; Summary Judgment to City Denied
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In Margerum v. City of Buffalo, 2015 NY Slip Op 01378 [24 NY3d 721] (N.Y. Ct. App. Feb. 17, 2015), the New York Court of Appeals held that a notice of claim need not be filed for a Human Rights Law claim against a municipality. In this case, plaintiffs – 12 white firefighters – alleged that…

Read More Discrimination Claims Under the Human Rights Law Are Not Subject to New York’s Notice of Claim Requirement, Court of Appeals Holds
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A lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York, captioned Lampley et al v. Alexander Rojas and the City of New York, SDNY 14-cv-8832 (Nov. 6, 2014), alleges that a NYPD lieutenant, Alexander Rojas, subjected plaintiffs, 3 NYPD officers, to “egregious sexual harassment”, including groping the intimate areas of plaintiffs’ bodies; displaying to plaintiffs…

Read More NYPD Sexual Harassment Lawsuit Includes Allegations of Groping, Masturbation, and Penis Exposure
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In Delva v. New York City Tr. Auth., the Appellate Division, Second Department explained the “emergency doctrine” in the context of a pedestrian knockdown case. A jury found in favor of plaintiff, and defendants moved to set aside the verdict pursuant to CPLR 4404(a). The trial court denied defendants’ motion, and the appellate court affirmed. Specifically,…

Read More Trial Court Properly Declined to Charge Jury with the “Emergency Doctrine” in Bus Accident/Pedestrian Knockdown Personal Injury Case
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