158 YEAR OLD LAW COULD PREVENT CHILD’S FAMILY FROM RECEIVING FAIR COMPENSATION IN ELEVATOR ACCIDENT TRAGEDY
NEW YORK, NY (Dec. 8) -- Despite the horrifying death of 5-year old Jacob Neuman, who fell 120 feet down an elevator shaft on his way to school in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn, one wonders whether anything of substance will be done to correct the hazardous conditions in city-owned apartment buildings until legislators are willing to reform an arcane statute in effect in New York State known as the Wrongful Death Law, said David Perecman, a New York construction and elevator accident lawyer and a chair of the Labor Law Committee of The New York State Trial Lawyers Association.
“The problems with the New York City Housing Authority,” Perecman said, “were made public the other day in The New York Times with the release of a 52-page report by City inspectors that revealed for the first time that the elevator malfunction that led to little Jacob Neuman’s death on Aug. 19, was linked to faulty maintenance by the NYCHA, the city’s public housing agency.”
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Perecman pointed out that while the boy’s death is tragic and perhaps the result of negligence, it is unlikely his family will ever be compensated in a manner that most people would consider to be fair for the death of a child.
“The existence of the 158-year-old law in New York,” Perecman explained, “prevents families of loved ones who die as a result of negligence from receiving what I consider to be proper compensation from the courts for their sorrow and mental anguish, injury to feelings or for loss of companionship.
“The death of a child due to faulty elevator maintenance,” he exclaimed “is certainly one of most egregious results of neglect.”
Perecman explained that under New York State’s current law, wrongful death is a civil matter remedied by the courts with payment for quantifiable loses such as income contribution to support a family. The right of the family members to damages for pain and suffering, or for the heartache of losing a son, is not recoverable.
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“This law,” Perecman continued, “also affects the right to compensation for the death of elderly persons, non working mothers and fathers and any other person who does not contribute substantial financial support to others. In that regard, the law has a discriminatory effect.
“The New York State Trial Lawyers Association and I,” he added, “have been working very hard with legislators to try and change the Wrongful Death Law. Forty-two other states have rejected this cruel and unfair rule.”
Bills sponsored by Helene Weinstein in the New York State Assembly, and by Senator John De Franciso in the New York State Senate, seek to remedy these inequities. But so far the conservatives in state government and pro-business groups have managed to stave off reform efforts.
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“Given the way the law is now,” Perecman said, “if the management of a building, owners of trucking companies, drug companies, doctors, or any other party that could potentially be responsible for their negligence, put the life of a child, elderly person, or any other person who does not contribute financial support to others at risk, they can rest assured in the knowledge that they will never have to pay the family for the true value of the loss of that person, even if it is the precious life of a child.”
Perecman suggests that concerned citizens write to their legislators in Albany demanding passage of The Grieving Families Act to allow the true measure of damages for the death of a loved one.
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