Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf is a New York Plaintiff's personal injury law firm specializing in automobile accidents, construction accidents, medical malpractice, products liability, police misconduct and all types of New York personal injury litigation.

Articles Posted in Premises Liability

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The NYC Department of Health is urging New Yorkers with respiratory symptoms such as cough, chills, fever and difficulty breathing to seek immediate medical attention after 7 people from Morris Park in the Bronx were hospitalized for Legionnaire’s disease. This outbreak is different from the one that occurred this summer in the South Bronx (see previous blog) and that was attributed to Legionella found in the cooling tower of the Opera House Hotel.

The Department of Health is actively investigating this new outbreak. Health alerts have been disseminated and hospital ER’s in Morris park are checking for higher than usual cases of pneumonia. Nursing homes and senior centers are being visited to educate staff and patients about the disease.

Scientists are taking samples of all cooling towers and lab tests are being conducted. So far 7 cooling towers in the area of Morris Park have tested positive and 10 people have been hospitalized. 9 of them are still in the hospital and one has been treated and released. Read more here

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Death or personal injuries such as burns, smoke inhalation and wounds from falling merchandise are among the risks faced every day by New York High end store Idea Nuova’s employees. According to OSHA, the aisles are clogged with merchandise and, at the time of the inspection, an emergency exit was blocked by disco balls, desks and lamps preventing a quick evacuation in case of a fire. Additionally many stairwell exit doors that must remain closed to prevent the fire from spreading were propped open, haphazardly stacked merchandise was  threatening to fall on  anyone passing to close to it and exposed electrical outlets were a risk for electric shock.

This is the second time in two years that OSHA found unsafe conditions at the high end store located on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The company was cited in 2013 for similar hazards at the Manhattan location as well as the Brooklyn location.

Read the OSHA press release

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Stone_Retaining_wallIn a busy city like New York retaining walls that are not proprely maintained can cause serious damages to the public and to adjacent properties. Retaining walls are built to retain soil on steep slopes.  They are designed to resist the lateral pressure of the soil’ however hot weather conditions such as those experienced this summer in New York City can accelerate their deterioration.

After a 75 foot-high stone retaining wall that was built in 1908 collapsed on the Henry Hudson Parkway in Upper Manhattan in May 2005, the NYC department of Buildings launched an Annual no penalty retaining wall inspection program that allows property owners to request an inspection of their property by an NYC Buildings Inspector without incurring violations.  This free service is available until September 18th. For more info click here

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A famous Broadway actor died this week-end after falling from the fire escape of an apartment in Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, NYC. Kyle Jean-Baptiste was the youngest and the first African-American actor to play the role of Jean Valjean in the Broadway Musical “Les Miserables”. According to the New York Times, Kyle was sitting on the fourth floor fire escape with a 23 year old female friend when he stood up, slipped and fell backwards to the street below.

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86 cases of Legionnaire’s disease have been confirmed in the South Bronx during the last three weeks. This is the largest and deadliest outbreak of Legionnaires’disease in New York City. The disease which is a severe form of pneumonia is spread through a bacteria that grows in the water. This bacteria has been plaguing New York City cooling towers  for years and there are between 200 and 300 cases reported every year in New York City. New York City residents contract the disease when they inhale the mist of cooling water contaminated with the bacteria. According to the CDC, the number of Legionnaire’s disease cases in NYC increased by 230% between 2002 and 2009. The city’s rate of Legionnaire’s disease is twice the National average. The outbreaks have been happening all around the city for decades especially in poor neighborhoods but so far the city has been neglecting the deadly problem and has no regulations in regards to cooling tower safety.

It took seven people’s deaths in the last three weeks for the City to finally take action and propose legislation to identify, regulate and inspect all  New York City buildings using a cooling tower.  Mayor de Blasio held a press conference yesterday at Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx. He provided an update on the recent outbreak of the disease and said the new laws will be introduced to the City Council this week.

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3 people were injured after a building collapsed at 1438 Fulton St. near Brooklyn Ave in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, NYC yesterday afternoon. The building was set to be demolished and was vacant except for a beauty supply store at the bottom floor. Thankfully no one was inside at the time of the accident. 55 year old Terry Charles who was riding his bike near the building at the time of the collapse was injured after he fell off his bike. Two other pedestrians were also injured.  Read more and see Surveillance video obtained exclusively by NBC 4 New York

 

 

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CO55 year old Nilda Sing was found dead in her apartment after she was apparently poisoned by  carbon monoxide fumes coming from a defective boiler. The woman was living in a basement apartment of a four-story building on Fort Hamilton Parkway near 55th St. in Borough Park, Brooklyn in New York City. She was discovered dead by her brother early Saturday morning. When the police and the firefighters arrived they detected a high level of CO in the basement and the 16 apartments of the building were temporarily evacuated. Nilda Sing’s sister who was also in the apartment but in another room with AC survived and only suffered personal injury. The origin of the deadly gas leak seemed to come from the boiler that was located just below the appartment of the victim. The boiler was not working proprely and a repair crew had been working on fixing it for the last two weeks. One of the workers didn’t comply with safety guidelines and secured the exhaust pipe with tape. The pipe burst on Friday.

Read more in the NY Daily News  and see video on New York CBS Local

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Greta GreeneA 2 year old girl who suffered severe personal injury yesterday after being hit by falling debris, died Today at the hospital. Greta Greene (facebook picture on the left) was sitting outside with her grand mother when they were both struck by terra-cotta bricks from a window ledge that fell from the 8th floor of  the Esplanade Manhattan nursing home at 305 West End Ave in Manhattan.

The toddler lost consciousness and nurses from the nursing home tried to resuscitate her. Her grandmother, 60 year old Susan Frierson, suffered severe leg injuries. They were both transported to the hospital where Greta passed away Today.

A protective scaffolding was erected last night on orders on the Department Of Buildings. The DOB is investigating what caused the ledge to fall. It also issued a violation to the Esplanade Manhattan nursing home for failure to maintain a property in a safe and compliant manner.

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window blindsSince 1981, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has identified window blind cords as a cause of strangulation deaths among children under five but not much has been done by the industry to develop safety measures to mitigate this risk.

Recently Parents for Window Blind Safety, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Kids in Danger, Public Citizen, U.S. PIRG, Independent Safety Consulting, Safety Behavior Analysis, Inc. and Onder, Shelton, O’Leary & Peterson joined together to petition the CPSC to create a rule that would ban new blinds with cords if the cords can’t be kept away from children.

Read more in FairWarning

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Carbon monoxide is suspected to have caused the death of 4 elderly people in a house in Queens, NYC on Friday.  83 year old Jerry Hugel and his 80 year old wife Marie as well as their tenant 70 year old Gloria Greco and Walter Von Thadden a 70 year old friend were all found dead in their house on 86th street Avenue in Floral Park. According to the authorities the house filled with gas after a car was left running in the basement. The house didn’t have any carbon monoxide detectors even though it is required by Amanda’s law in New York since 2009.

Amanda’s Law  is named after a 16 year old girl who died of carbon monoxide poisoning while sleeping over at a friend’s house. This law requires that  every one or two-family dwelling, condominium, cooperative and each unit of a multiple dwelling shall have an operable carbon monoxide (CO) detector.  The use of a battery operated detector is allowed for homes built before 2008. All homes built after this date must have the alarm hard-wired in the building.  Amanda’s Law also requires contractors to install a CO alarm when replacing a hot water tank or furnace if the home is not equipped with an alarm. CO detectors are required only if the dwelling unit has appliances, devices or systems that may emit carbon monoxide or there is an attached garage.

Read more in the New York Times