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.
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NY Personal Injury Lawyers Rubinowitz and SaghirOur partners, NYC auto accident attorneys Ben Rubinowitz, and Peter Saghir just settled a case for a  44 year old father who suffered serious injury when he was struck by a car at an improperly marked New York City roadway construction project.

Following an appeal in Gregware v City of New York, the Appellate Division First Department ordered that a retrial on apportionment between the defendants be held. During the retrial held last week in New York Supreme Court the parties were able to settle the case for $8,500,000.00.   Our partner Ben  Rubinowitz, assisted by Peter Saghir, obtained a verdict of $7,125,000 against the City of New York and its construction company, Burtis Construction Co., Inc. following a 17 day trial.  The reason that the case settled for an amount far greater than the verdict was due to the fact that interest on the judgment was running   The City contributed $2,000,000.00 and Burtis Construction paid $6,500,000.00 toward the settlement.

The plaintiff, a 41-year-old man and father of three young children, was returning home from work in the early morning hours of May 20, 2006. Six weeks earlier his wife had given birth to a baby girl via C section. His other two children included a four-year-old boy and a two-year-old boy. He worked as a film editor and was self employed. On the night of the accident the plaintiff left his midtown Manhattan workplace at around 3 o’clock in the morning. Unbeknownst to the plaintiff, the City of New York and its construction company (Burtis Construction Co., Inc.) were performing road repair work on the West Side Highway. They were involved in a short term construction project to repair expansion joints along the West Side Highway in the vicinity of 72nd to 79th Streets. As part of its contract with the City, the construction company was required to properly notify drivers that the roadway was being shut down from three lanes to one lane of travel. This closure of the roadway was supposed to be performed in conformance with the dictates of the Manual for Uniform Traffic Control Devices and with the Maintenance and Protection of Traffic Plan spelled out by the City of New York in the contract. Specifically, appropriate signs should have been placed along the highway south of the roadwork along with tapers and transitions of barrels fitted with lights to notify and warn drivers that the left two lanes were being shut down. When the plaintiff left his office to drive home he drove northbound on the Westside Highway. As he reached the area of 79th St. he was involved in a fender bender with another car. He got out to check to make sure that everyone was alright. He then returned to his car to put on his hazard lights on and to obtain his insurance information to exchange with the other driver. Shortly after getting his insurance information and while he was out of his car he was struck from behind by another driver, Abelardo Da-Silva.

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Three people were injured in a truck accident in New York City on Monday afternoon. The truck was driving on the Cross Bronx Expressway when it crashed though a guardrail on the westbound lane. The truck was driving in the middle lane of the highway when a black car which was trying to pass it hit the front wheel of the truck. The impact caused the truck driver to loose control of the vehicle. The truck hit another car before flipping over the guardrail. It ended dangling off the overpass on the top of the Sheridan Expressway. The driver was able to extricate himself out of the cabin after the accident. He suffered head injuries and was transported to the hospital where he received 7 stitches to the top of his head. Two other people were also transported to the hospital with minor injuries. Both the Cross Bronx Expressway and the Sheridan Expressway were closed to traffic for hours. A crane had to be brought to the scene of the accident to lift the truck back to the highway. The police are still investigating the exact cause of the accident.

Read more here

 

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6th ave between 53rd and 54th streetA man died in a car accident in New York and another one was injured in the same accident. The two men in their thirties  were riding in the same car this morning around 4:30 am in Midtown Manhattan when the accident happened.  They were heading north on Sixth Ave between 53rd and 54th street when the driver lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a fire hydrant. The impact was so strong that the driver died. The passenger survived the accident. He suffered serious injury but was listed in stable condition. A witness told CBS New York that the car was speeding just before the accident.

Read more in the NY Daily News

Picture: courtesy of Google Map

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FDNY_Ambulance_048A woman died and her husband was injured in a car accident in New York City on Sunday. 86 year old Andrew Huang was driving his car with Amy Huang, his 83 year old wife on 34th Ave near 91st Street in Elmhurst, Queens. All of a sudden the car accelerated and crashed into a parked car on the side of the road. The impact was so strong that the parked car jumped the curb and careened into  scaffolding. According to the police, Mr Huang may have stepped on the gas pedal instead of the brake pedal. The couple were taken to the hospital. The wife who suffered severe head and body trauma was pronounced dead upon her arrival to the hospital. The husband only suffered a cut to his arm.

Read more in DNA and NY Daily News

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Too many workers especially in the construction industry are still being injured or killed at the work place because their boss ignores safety rules. When such tragedy happens we call it an accident. However when a boss ignores safety rules and an employee is being injured or killed because of it, shouldn’t the boss be criminally prosecuted? When a construction worker dies in a trench collapse because the developer or the contractor ignored safety rules isn’t it a crime?

In a recent article in Fair Warning Rena Steinzor,  a Law Professor at the University of Maryland and a Member Scholar at the Center for Progressive Reform and Katherine Tracy a Policy Analyst at the Center for Progressive Reform are advocating for the criminal prosecution of CEOs who are putting profit ahead of safety and treat employees injuries and deaths as a cost of doing business.

Read the complete article here.

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50 BroadwayAn elevator worker was seriously injured in an elevator accident in New York. The man was working on an elevator in a building in downtown Manhattan when the accident happened. Witnesses said they heard the desperate man screaming for help. The man was working on a newly installed elevator at 50 Broadway in the Financial Distrcit. He was employed by  Centennial Elevator Industries. Firefighters who were called to the rescue were seen transporting the arm in ice in an attempt to preserve it. The worker was transported to the hospital in critical condition.  According to the Post doctors have been trying to reattach his arm.

Read more in the New York Post

Picture of the location of the accident courtesy of Google Map

 

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New York Car AccidentTwo women were seriously injured in a car accident in New York City around 6:00 am on Tuesday morning.  One of the women was driving a livery cab and the other one was her passenger. As the driver approached the intersection of Ocean Parkway and Neptune Ave in Coney Island she lost control of the vehicle and slammed into a utility pole.

According to News12 Brooklyn a surveillance camera shows the car speeding just before the accident. The impact was so strong that the utility pole fell on the street. The front of the car was totally destroyed. The driver was badly injured and transported to the hospital in critical condition. The passenger was also inured and transported to the hospital in stable condition.

Picture: Eugene Skorodinsky‎ on Facebook

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Park Slope Garage CondominiumA 4 year old boy died after falling in an elevator shaft inside a luxury NYC garage. According to the police, Jack Roberts slipped through a 10 inch gap between a freight elevator and the shaft at the Park Slope Garage Condominium in Brooklyn, NYC. For some unknown reason, the toddler and his parents were allowed to use a freight elevator that was meant for vehicles to get to the third floor of the garage. Other owners of parking spaces who learned about the elevator accident were in shock.  They said it was very unusual for the staff to allow anyone in the freight elevator.  Car owners usually pick up and drop their car in a designated area at the entrance of the garage. Then the staff takes care of taking them in and out of their respective parking spaces using the freight elevators.

After the accident happened, The Department of Buildings filed a complaint requesting an investigation.

The luxury garage was one the first “condominiums for cars” in New York State with more than 100 parking spaces. The actual price of a parking space there is estimated at $300,000.  The initial price for a parking space at the garage when it opened in 1986 was $29,000. At the time it was already considered a very high price. It went up over the years as Park Slope  developed into a trendy neighborhood.  It recently shot up after another similar condominium garage located nearby closed.

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jbOur partner, New York Medical Malpractice Attorney Jeff Bloom is helping our client Elissa McMahon in her crusade to get Lavern’s law passed (see previous post).  After she discovered that doctors in a New York hospital failed to diagnose cancer, Elissa McMahon was unable to bring a lawsuit because the statute of limitations had passed. In New York the statute of limitations for victims of medical malpractice starts at the time of the occurrence of the medical error. Lavern’s Law is a proposal to have the statute of limitations start at the time of the discovery of the error. This law would allow patients like our client, Elissa McMahon, to bring a lawsuit against the hospital which failed to diagnose her cancer. Most States in the US have similar laws. New York State is one of only six States to start the statute of limitations at the time of the occurrence of the error. Talking about Elissa McMahon’s case, Jeffrey Bloom told the NY Daily News “How could she possibly not have a right to bring a lawsuit when the statute of limitations ran (out) before she even knew she was sick?”

In 2012 Elissa McMahon went to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City for a fibroid removal. At the time of the surgery, pathology slides from Lenox Hill Hospital clearly indicated that the patient had cancer but doctors failed to diagnose it. Two years later she went to a doctor after suffering from severe back pain. She was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. 6 months later she consulted with our firm and discovered that the statute of limitations had passed and that she was unable to sue. Our partner Jeffrey Bloom is now helping Elissa McMahon in her battle to change the law and get justice. If the law goes through in the next session Elissa McMahon, a 46 year old single mother of a teenage son, will be able to bring a lawsuit. If it doesn’t pass this session she will have to wait until next year. She has stage 4 metastatic cancer and told the News “Even if my son can’t benefit from this, there are other people in similar situations.”

Below is a video of Elissa McMahon in which she discusses her tragic situation with Jeffrey Bloom. Jeff traveled to Albany in support of Elissa and others in her situation to push for the passage of Lavern’s Law. It is a travesty that the Republican’s in the legislature have been blocking this law.

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32 year old Michelle Mignott was killed in a car accident in New York City in 2014. The two reckless drivers who were indicted in the accident will be tried in August if they don’t accept a plea deal. Richard Roman-Santos and Gerard Herbert both charged with vehicular manslaughter appeared yesterday in front of Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Vincent Del Giudice. The judge told then that if no plea agreement was reached the case would go to trial on August 1st. The two men were previously offered 3 to 9 years in jail if they pleaded guilty but they both refused.

On August 17th 2014, Herbert was driving in Brooklyn with two female passengers. One of them, Michelle Mignott was lying on the back seat. As he was making a left turn, Roman-Santos who was driving at a speed of 94 miles per hours crashed into him. Mignott was killed in the accident. Herbert who first refused to take a breathalyzer was later tested with .20.  Roman Santos accepted the breathalyzer and was found to be at the limit of .08.

The two men are expected to be back in front of the judge on June 7th and will have to say if they accept the plea deal or not.

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