WHO PAYS FOR LIVES LOST IN RECENT NYC APARTMENT BUIDLING FIRES?

Noted New York Building Accident Lawyer Richard Gurfein Singles Out No One, Yet!

NEW YORK, NY (Oct. 20) -- Two apartment building fires in New York City on the same weekend; seven people killed, including four young children and one child in critical condition; authorities trying to place blame for one of the fires on a 10-year-old boy who they claim was playing with matches; plus claims that fire detectors had been deliberately disabled by tenants of the buildings. Who’s to blame?

According to Richard Gurfein, the noted New York City building accident attorney, establishing liability in horrific situations like these usually cannot be determined until after fire investigators, who are trained to gather and interpret data at the scene of a blaze, have completed their investigation.

“Very often, “Gurfein said, “ when Gurfein Douglas, my personal injury law firm, is hired to represent a plaintiff in a premises liability matter like an apartment fire, we begin the preparation of the case by gathering all of the earlier claims made by the fire department, or by building inspectors, or the press. Our first step is to hire an expert in building and construction code compliance, and instruct the expert to check if there were any violations against the building at the time of the fire, or if the landlord had failed to maintain smoke detectors, or failed to install or maintain sprinklers, or if emergency fire exits were blocked or locked, or if the landlord did anything else that might have contributed to the blaze.

“Until the facts surrounding the cause of the fire have been confirmed scientifically, and until it has been established what, if any, building code violations had been ignored, determining who is at fault, and the degree of their liability, remains an open question.

“For this reason,” he said, “I advise anyone who has been injured in a building accident to cooperate with the authorities and call a lawyer as soon as possible.”

Gurfein explained that in the case of a building fire where people are injured, or killed, as was the case in the recent apartment house fires in Manhattan and in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, the cause of the fire is always important in the eyes of the law.

“If the fire,” Gurfein said, “was caused by a defect that should have been spotted and corrected, then the landlord may be at fault. If there was defective wiring in the building that could have caused the blaze in Chelsea, then the fact that that 10-year-old boy might have been playing with matches in his kitchen might have nothing to do with the fire.”

Furthermore, when a firefighter is injured on the job, General Municipal Law 205-a provides the special right for the firefighter to file a claim if the injury, or death, is a result of willful neglect or omission by any person, or persons, who failed to comply with any of the statutes, ordinances, rules, orders and requirements of the federal, state, county, village, town or city governments, or of any and all of their departments, divisions and bureaus.

“If the cause of the fire is a landlord’s neglect, or worse, as in situations where landlords terrorize tenants by creating unsafe, unlivable conditions to get them out of the building, then a plaintiff has a pretty good case,” Gurfein said.

“On the other hand,” he added, “while innocent victims of a fire are not responsible for the outcome, anyone who causes a fire can be at least partly responsible for any injuries, or death, or property damage caused by the blaze. We call it ‘comparative fault.’

“In New York State,” he said, “if a defendant is found to be less than fifty percent at fault, they only pay the percentage assigned by the jury. On the other hand, if the defendant is more than fifty percent at fault, they are liable for one hundred percent of the judgment amount.”

Gurfein warned that if the cause of the Chelsea fire can be linked back to the 10-year-old boy only, it could dramatically impact the outcome of any personal injury claim that might arise out of this incident.

“The way the law reads in New York State,” he pointed out, “infants under the age of four years old are “non sui juris,” which means they are incapable of fault or negligence. On the other hand, a 10-year-old can be held accountable for his, or her, own actions.”

NOTED LABOR LAW ATTORNEY IN NEW YORK DEFENDS STATUTE AT ISSUE IN RECENT DEATH OF CRANE RIGGER ANTHONY ESPOSITO

NEW YORK, NY (Sept. 17) -- Labor laws in New York State, under constant assault by contractors and developers to weaken them further or repeal them altogether, already provide for limits on owner and general contractor liability under the statute and have been interpreted by appellate courts in favor of employers on numerous occasions recently, according to Richard Gurfein, a noted construction worker injury lawyer in New York and past president of The New York State Trial Lawyers Association.

To further compromise the law, which is the only such law remaining on the books in the United States, opponents of sections 240 and 241 of The New York State Labor Law, commonly referred to as the “Safe Place to Work Law,” or the “Scaffolding Law,” are claiming that these statutes establish an absolute liability standard on any contractor or property owner for a fall from any height by an employee, regardless of fault, and that the law deprives owners and contractors of their right to defend themselves against such claims.

“I know what they’ve been saying, but it just ain’t so,” Gurfein fired back. “Despite significant pressure on the state legislature to repeal the "absolute liability" section of Labor Law 240, an owner or contractor can be held responsible only when the failure to provide proper safety equipment was the cause of the injury, and not when the worker’s own action was the sole cause of the injury.”

The debate over the status of Labor Law 240 heated up recently when a construction worker fell about 400 feet to his death while he and others worked to lower a crane at a building site on the West Side of Manhattan. The worker, Anthony Esposito, 48, a crane rigger, was wearing a safety harness, but it was not attached to anything, according to the New York Buildings Department.

“Construction is a dangerous job,” Gurfein said. “State and local governments try to regulate construction sites, but when a worker’s choice is between working in unsafe conditions or refusing and getting fired, regulations get ignored.

“With proper safety equipment,” he added, workers should not fall off the 48th floor of a building under construction.”

Recognized by his peers as a leading personal injury lawyer in New York and an outspoken advocate for workers’ rights and safety, Gurfein has seen his share of serious worker injuries in his 30-plus years of private legal practice.

“We are relentless in our pursuit of justice for clients who have been seriously injured as a result of a fall at the work site, especially if the accident was caused by inappropriate or defective equipment, or took place at work site lacking the proper equipment,” Gurfein said.

In a recent case, Gurfein represented a union electrician who was assigned the task of drawing wire though a hole in the top of a wall, out of reach of the worker.

“To access the location,” Gurfein explained, “our client had to climb on top of existing ductwork. His employer didn’t have a ladder so he was told to ask the building custodian for a ladder. The ladder he was given lacked the required non-slip feet and slipped out from under him as he was coming down from the ductwork. He fell 10 feet to the floor, seriously injuring his knee.

“Without the necessary laws in place to protect workers who are injured due to the negligence of their employer, Gurfein added, “our client might not have gotten the relief he needed from the courts, without which he would not have been able to pay his bills, and care for his family, until he was well enough to return to work.”

For more information about Labor Law 240 & 241, and for information on what you can do to support laws in New York State that protect worker safety at construction sites visit: LAWYERS WITH AN EDGE.COM, and/or NYSTLA.org, the web site of the New York State Trail Lawyers Association.

In The Wake of Recent Drownings at New York Area Beaches Noted Personal Injury Lawyer Issues Warning to Owners, Operators and Bathers

NEW YORK, August 18 -- Sadly, the death of 10-year old Akira Johnson, who was swept out to sea early this month while paddling in the water at Coney Island – one day after four other bathers went missing in riptides at weather ravaged local beaches -- will likely not sound enough of an alarm to convince municipal authorities to redouble efforts to protect bathers’ lives, warned Richard Gurfein, a noted New York personal injury lawyer and former president of The New York State Trial Lawyers Association. Mr. Gurfein has represented and won numerous liability claims on behalf of clients against the City of New York in his more than three decades in private practice.

Gurfein noted that his safety warning extends to recreational bathers as well, who despite the inherent risks and unpredictable nature of ocean currents, will continue flocking to city beaches seeking relief from the heat and humidity in the few peak vacation weeks that remain of summer of 2008.

“The city and other beach owners,” Gurfein said, “have a responsibility to operate their bathing areas in a reasonable manner. If lifeguards are aware of a situation, be it an unforeseen current making swimming unusually dangerous, or a hidden problem such as a sudden drop-off under water because of dredging activities, they have a responsibility to warn bathers by every reasonable means at their disposal.”

But keeping New York area beaches safe for swimmers is not only the responsibility of the public authorities.

“It’s a two-way street,” Gurfein stressed,” “and swimmers have responsibilities too. I have seen situations in my 30-plus years in personal injury practice where bathers, or their families, have sued municipalities for injuries, or drownings at a city beach only to discover that the injured parties ignored warnings and acted irresponsibly.”

Gurfein cited a recent appellate case against Suffolk County where the courts dismissed the lawsuit because the swimmers ignored the fact that the beach was closed and the lifeguards had gone home. “They swam even though they were told swimming was prohibited after the beach closed,” Gurfein said.

“People have a right to expect that local municipalities will anticipate the likelihood of a strong undertow or current, or any other unsafe condition at a public beach, and limit or prohibit bathing in that area until conditions improve,” Gurfein added. All five incidents on New York’s South Shore, in Long Beach and on Coney Island, were tied to strong rip currents that were due to a powerful storm system that brought 8-foot waves to the area earlier in the week.

“How many drownings is it going to take,” Gurfein lamented, “before the city will apply appropriate standards of safety in places where large crowds of inexperienced bathers gather to play and cool off?”

“On the other hand,” he added, “bathers should always think safety first. The law says that people are expected to act reasonably. I would much rather see people disappointed but safe and alive, then see someone take a foolish risk and then try to bring a lawsuit because they got injured or worse.”

The Death Of Esmin Greene At Kings County Hospital Invokes Pleas For Legal Reform From Noted New York City Medical Malpractice Lawyer

NEW YORK, N.Y. (July 8, 2008) -- Vows by New York City health officials to institute new reforms – including checks on waiting-room patients every 15 minutes – at troubled Kings Country Hospital in Brooklyn where staff were caught on video tape ignoring Esmin Greene as she lay on the floor dying, are too little too late and will have little, if any, real impact on the deplorable management and care of patients at Kings County Hospital, said an angered Richard Gurfein, a New York City medical malpractice lawyer and a leading advocate for civil justice in the State of New York.

“Despite being caught red-handed on a surveillance video, Gurfein said, “nothing of any substance is likely to happen to protect patients from the appalling conditions at Kings County Hospital until legislators are willing to reform an arcane statute on the books in New York State called the Wrongful Death Law.”

According to Gurfein, a partner in the New York City personal injury law firm of Gurfein Douglas, The Wrongful Death Law, enacted before The Civil War, prevents families of loved ones who die as a result of neglect and abuse from suing for the heartbreak of losing a loved one by negligence. Ignoring an ill patient in the waiting room of a major hospital in New York City is the most egregious type of neglect.

“I, and other members of the Trial Bar in New York State,” Gurfein said, “have been knocking ourselves out for years trying to convince legislators in Albany to toughen this very arcane, 170-year-old statute.
“We have been blocked at every turn by the powerful health insurance lobby,” Gurfein added.

“Under our system of laws,” Gurfein explained, “wrongful death is a civil wrong (tort) that is remedied by the courts with payment of the lost income the decedent would have contributed to support the family. But under the existing statute (Estates Powers and Trust Law section 5-4-3), the right of action by a family member, or other personal representative, to damages for pain and suffering or for the heartache of losing your mother (Esmin Greene had 6 children she was supporting) is not recoverable. The awards for pecuniary loss require a showing of income earned and typically represent only a small portion of the real loss of a mother’s love, guidance, child rearing, etc.”

According to Gurfein, the existing statute does allow an estate to seek punitive damages where the wrongful conduct was so wanton or reckless as to show a conscious indifference and utter disregard of its effect on the health, safety and rights of others. Punitive damages are used to punish the defendant and to eliminate such reckless conduct in the future by the defendant and others. However, punitive damages cannot be claimed against the City of New York because it is a municipality and lives under the state’s umbrella of immunity.Gurfein, a past president of The New York State Trial Lawyers Association, is one of only two lawyers in New York State to have ever successfully recovered punitive damages on behalf of a client in a medical malpractice case.

“The way the law is now,” Gurfein said, “if a city-run hospital is so wanton, and reckless that it puts the health, safety and rights of others at risk, as Kings County Hospital did in the case of Esmin Greene, they just shrug their shoulders and move on because they cannot be charged with punitive damages and they’ll never have to pay the children for the true value of losing their mother. There is something very wrong with this picture that must be changed.”

Gurfein 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.

Bloomberg's Proposed Budget Cuts Could Cost The City Millions

NEW YORK MEDICAL MALPRACTICE LAWYER PROFFERS WARNING FOR NEW YORK CITY MAYOR

NEW YORK, NY (May 26 2008) -- It could end up costing, not saving, the City of New York hundreds of millions of dollars if Mayor Bloomberg’s proposed plans to cut funds from city services includes hospitals and other city-run healthcare agencies, warned Richard Gurfein, a New York City personal injury lawyer who has tried dozens of serious medical malpractice cases against the City in his thirty-six plus years in legal practice.

“When budget cuts effect City hospitals,” Gurfein explained, “smaller City hospitals take a bigger hit and often outsource, or reduce paid staff, and replace them with part-time and ‘on-call’ attending doctors who are paid by the hour. The result is a decrease in the number and quality of healthcare providers in city hospitals, and a dramatic increase in the number of medical malpractice claims filed against the city by injured parties.”

Gurfein, a partner in the New York personal injury law firm of Gurfein Douglas, noted that properly funded hospitals usually have enough doctors on any given day or night to insure that every shift is covered. In tight budget times, Gurfein noted, it is not unusual for city hospitals to save money by reducing the ranks of the house staff or the full time doctors employed at the hospital.

“New York City has careened from budget crisis to budget crisis for decades,” Gurfein reflected. “In the 1980s,there was a significant push to save money by having women deliver their babies with the aid of midwives instead of full-time staff obstetricians.

“For most simple deliveries,” he explained, “the use of a midwife would present no increase in risk to either the mother or the child. But in a significant number of cases an obstetrician is absolutely necessary, especially in emergency situations where the midwife or nurse monitoring labor is not sufficiently trained or lacks the ability to recognize an emergency.”

One case Gurfein handled back in the 80s involved a midwife who was monitoring a patient’s labor using an electronic fetal monitor. Based on her assessment of the strips, she determined the baby was doing well and that labor was progressing normally.

“Disaster struck,” Gurfein said, “when it was discovered that the strips, which should have been used to monitor the baby’s heart, were actually monitoring the mother's heartbeat and not the baby's, which concealed the fact that the baby was in significant distress. The baby suffered permanent brain damage as a result.”

"Saving a thousand dollars in provider fees," he added, "wound up costing the City five and a half million dollars in legal claims."

Gurfein points out that the average malpractice payment by the city in 2005 was $445,000 (compared to the nationwide average of $298,000 and the NY statewide average of $405,000); and, that one out of every six New Yorkers receives healthcare services from the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation, the agency that owns and operates the city's municipal hospitals.

“Reducing the payouts by only 10% of the $145 million paid out in 2005,” Gurfein calculated, “would yield an additional $14.5 million dollars to keep doctors on-call. You do the math.”

Medical Malpractice Settlement, Brooklyn, NY

$5,493,000.00 Settlement

Medical Malpractice: Midwife mismanaged labor causing brain damage and Cerebral Palsy.

The baby’s mother, a lawyer, was in labor for 48 hours following rupture of membranes (bag of waters). During the last 10 hours of labor the baby suffered continuous fetal distress as recorded on the fetal monitoring strips. Despite these ominous signs, the midwife never called for the assistance of an Obstetrician as she was required to do. The midwife and nursing records showed they misinterpreted the fetal monitor tracing, which actually showed the heart beat of the mother and not the infant.

Compounding that malpractice, following the birth of the baby, the child was placed on the mother’s stomach for “bonding” until a family member yelled out that the baby wasn’t breathing. The baby’s Apgar scores were 1 at 1 minute and 4 at 5 minutes. These scores, which measure the well being of a newborn, were devastatingly low. No pediatrician was in the delivery room, despite the fact that the midwife and nurse “lost” the baby’s heart beat. The child was finally admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) with respiratory distress, intubated and on a respirator.

This unfortunate child suffered multi-organ failure. She is severely retarded with quadraspastic quadriplegia. She is feed through a feeding tube that enters her stomach through a “port” in her belly. She has seizures on almost a daily basis. The settlement will provide for a lifetime of proper care.

Medical Malpractice Verdict in Fulton County, NY

$5,750,000.00 Verdict

Medical Malpractice: Twenty year old wife and mother developed a life threatening infection following the birth of her second child. The obstetricians and nurses failed to recognize the symptoms of infection and discharged her without treatment leading to emergency surgery to remove all of her infected female organs and to create a colostomy.

This 20 year old married lady was cared for by her obstetricians, Dr. Nguyen and Dr. Kaufman, at the Nathan Littauer Community Hospital and Nursing Home in Gloversville, New York (Fulton County). Her delivery was routine and the baby was delivered normal and healthy at 8:25 PM. By 2:00 AM the following morning the mother was experiencing unusual pain. During the next 36 hours her blood tests showed an increasing infection, her pain increased, her entire abdomen became tender and her heart rate became very fast (tachycardia). The doctors and nurses dismissed her complaints as post partum discomfort. Nevertheless, they administered increasing amounts of pain killers including intravenous morphine.

She was again admitted to the hospital the day after her discharge when her husband brought her to Dr. Kaufman because her pain was not being controlled even with the stronger pain killer. It was finally recognized that she had a very aggressive Strep “A” infection and was in septic shock. This young lady was transferred to the Albany Medical Center where surgeons had to remove her uterus, ovaries and fallopian tubes in order to save her life. She was given a colostomy (a tube through which feces exits the body) and remained in a coma for two weeks.

Before her discharge, she was started on hormone replacement therapy. However, within 48 hours she developed life threatening blood clots that traveled to her lungs, and she needed to be readmitted to Albany Medical Center for intravenous blood thinners. She remained on medication for one year to make sure the clots didn’t return. As a result, she can no longer take hormone replacement therapy and at age twenty is in menopause. The colostomy was reversed two months later, during her third hospitalization.

This was the largest verdict ever recorded in Fulton County, New York and one of the rare plaintiff’s wins ever in this upstate rural county.