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 Tagged with brooklyn premises liability

Published on:

By

The recent heartbreaking incident in Midwood, Brooklyn, where a baby tragically lost their life due to a steam radiator malfunction, has raised numerous concerns regarding premises liability and the safety standards in residential buildings.

A baby in Midwood, Brooklyn, suffered fatal injuries after being exposed to steam from a malfunctioning radiator. According to the Department of Buildings, the radiator exploded due to a separation in the part that connected the pipe feeding steam to the radiator. The mother, attending to another child in a different room, found the room filled with steam, likely exceeding 200 degrees.

Duty of Care

Continue reading →
Published on:

By

A decorative stone arch on the top of the front door of a residential brownstone in Brooklyn collapsed on the stoop and destroyed it, prompting the Department of Buildings to evacuate the building. Luckily nobody was around when the accident occurred. Three families living in the building were evacuated and temporarily relocated by the Red Cross. The owner of the building located on Carlton Avenue in Prospect Heights was issued a ticket for failure to maintain the building.  The owner was also ordered to immediately install a sidewalk shed to protect pedestrians from further potential collapse and to repair the building.

Building owners in New York City have a duty to maintain their property so they are safe inside and outside

Continue reading →
Published on:

By

location of the falling debris accidentA man suffered a skull fracture after a facade collapsed on him as he was walking on a New York City sidewalk.  39 year-old Oumar Ba, a father of two, was walking  on the sidewalk on St. Johns Place in Crown Heights yesterday afternoon around 3:00 pm. when a chunk of bricks and debris fell on him.  His friend Abdouramane Thiam whom he was visiting, as well as other local vendors who witnessed the accident ran to rescue the man as he was lying unconscious on the ground. They called 911 and applied pressure on the back of his head to contain the bleeding until the EMS arrived.  Oumar Ba was rushed to the hospital where he was diagnosed with a skull fracture and injuries to his ribs and shoulder. He is now in stable condition.

Violation for for failure to maintain exterior building wall open since 2004!

The building is an old movie theater that has been reconverted into commercial use. Several complaints dating from as far as 2004 have been logged with the DOB about the illegal  occupancy of the second floor. The building received a total of 37 DOB violations including 28 still open and dating as far as 1991.  The building also has OATH/ECB violations for failure to maintain the exterior building walls open since 2004! The violation mentions “brick work cracked and mortar joints missing with missing bricks at second floor front of building also defective brick work with missing mortar joint”.

Continue reading →
Published on:

By

church fails to maintain buildingA man scavenging for construction material in a half demolished building was seriously injured after he fell through the floor. The accident occurred at a dilapidated Brooklyn building located at the intersection of Rutland Road and Brooklyn Ave in Prospect Lefferts Gardens.  The floor gave way under the weight of the 33 year old man and he got trapped. It took an hour for the paramedics and the firefighters to shore up the basement to take him out. The man was then rushed to the hospital where he was listed in serious condition.

Before being bought by the church next door, the building was a lounge. The church received a violation from the city Environmental Control Board for failure to maintain the building  after it partially collapsed. Concerned neighbors told the DOB at the end of January that the structure “was leaning”. The owner was supposed to raze the entire building but only half of it was demolished.

After the accident the DOB issued 3 violations to the church:

Continue reading →
Published on:

By

A 14 year old cyclist died after being struck by a car in NYC Saturday a little before 6:pm. Edwin Ajacalon from Guatemala was working as a delivery boy for a local restaurant. He was crossing Fifth Ave in Greenwood when he was hit by a BMW. According to the NY Daily News, the BMW had the green light.

A surveillance video shows the car slamming into the bicyclist at full speed. A witness said he saw the cyclist going up in the air and falling onto the windshield. The witness also said the car then continued on its way dragging the boy down the block. An off duty cop saw the scene and was able to block the BMW with his own car forcing the driver to stop. Both the cyclist and the BMW driver were transported to the hospital.Edwin Ajacalon died from his injuries. He arrived in Brooklyn a year ago. His parents are too poor to come to the US to reclaim his body. Edwin was sharing a bedroom with five other delivery boys and was sending money to his parents in Guatemala. The driver of the BMW was cooperating with the police.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN4lGT-Ghis

Continue reading →
Published on:

By

A young man broke both his legs after he fell through a skylight at a rooftop party in Brooklyn, NYC. The man was hanging out with friends on the rooftop when  he stood on a skylight. The skylight made of  glass broke under the weight of the 25-year-old man. He fell 5 stories down on to the concrete. He was  rescued by the EMS with two broken legs.  According to residents, party goes may have walked from  one rooftop to another however being on the rooftop wasn’t allowed because of safety concerns. The building has no prior violations according to the DOB website.

Published on:

By

Fire escapeA 23 year old man suffered critical injury after he stepped on a defective fire escape and fell 4 stories to the ground. 23 year old Chad Miller was about to move to a new apartment on Bedford Ave near Lefferts Boulevard in Brooklyn, NYC. He was hanging out with a friend on the fire escape outside his new place when the railing broke. Chad fell 4 stories and was critically injured. According to his dad, his son is still in a coma.

The owner of the building  received a violation for failure to maintain the fire escape. It could cost him up to a $5000 penalty. There is also a good chance that the family of the victim files a premises liability lawsuit against him. In 2011 we settled a case for $5,000,000.00 when a fire escape landing on which a man was standing on collapsed causing him to fall approximately 30 feet to the ground. Discussion of case here.

Read more in the NY Daily News and here 

Continue reading →
Published on:

By

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.

Badges
Super Lawyers Best Lawyers Martindale-Hubbell
SEE NEW JERSEY DISCLAIMER PAGE- AWARD METHODOLOGY