$5.0 Million Verdict** - 12 year-old boy was run over by a city bus after exiting from another city bus in the middle of the street, causing crush injuries to his left foot and closed head injury.

$2.0 Million - a delayed diagnosis of a partial small bowel obstruction in a 29 year-old pregnant woman resulted in a total small bowel obstruction, peritonitis, surgery, an ileostomy and loss of the pregnancy at 20 weeks.

$2.0 Million - wrongful death of a 55 year-old woman who presented for a biopsy of a left breast lump and was not informed that the results revealed cancer until 9 months following the biopsy.

$1.75 Million - 54 year-old female who sustained multiple injuries, including pelvic fractures that resulted in foot drop, after a car she was a passenger in was struck in the rear.

$1.2 Million - 55 year-old woman who suffered a 16-month delay in diagnosis of anal cancer which advanced to Stage 3 as a result of misdiagnosing a mass as a hemorrhoid. 

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* Prior results do not guarantee a similar result.

** On appeal.

The Best Lawyers in America© 2015, a publication of U.S. News & World Report, has named Frank V. Floriani "Lawyer of the Year" in the field of Plaintiffs Product Liability Litigation for the New York City Metropolitan Area and David J. Dean "Lawyer of the Year" in the field of Personal Injury Litigation for the New York City Metropolitan Area.  Only a single lawyer in each practice area, in each community, is honored as a "Lawyer of the Year."

This publication, which for three decades, has been regarded by both the profession and the public as the most credible and definitive guide to legal excellence in the United States has, once again, named Robert Sullivan, Nicholas Papain, Michael Block, Chris McGrath, Vito Cannavo, John Nash, Frank Floriani, Marie Ng, Eleni Coffinas, David Dean, Al Aquila, Mary Walling and Brian Shoot as being among America's finest in their field.

By John F. Nash, Esq.

New York State's highest court recently held that a municipality's acts of highway maintenance and repair, and the issuance of appropriate warnings for roadway hazards, are subject to claims of negligence.  The Court of Appeals deemed that such acts are proprietary functions and, therefore, the municipality is not entitled to governmental immunity.

A proprietary function is one which a municipality undertakes to "essentially substitute for or supplement traditionally private enterprises."  A municipality is subject to ordinary negligence principles arising out of proprietary functions.  By contrast, a governmental function is one which a municipality undertakes "for the protection and safety of the public pursuant to the general police powers."   It entitles a municipality to governmental immunity. 

SPBMC represented the plaintiff on appeal.  The plaintiff was injured when the bicycle she was riding hit a large pothole in a darkened tunnel in Central Park.  Immediately prior to the accident, a Department of Transportation crew had closed the road to vehicular traffic in order to repair a series of potholes.  When the plaintiff and her boyfriend asked the Department of Transportation supervisor if they could use the blocked-off roadway, he told them it was "okay to go through," without providing any warning of the potholes that his crew had been tasked with repairing. 

At trial, a jury found that defendant was negligent in permitting plaintiff to enter the roadway and that such negligence was a substantial factor in causing her injuries.  Nevertheless, the trial court granted defendant's motion to set aside the verdict, finding that defendant was entitled to governmental immunity insofar as the Department of Transportation supervisor was performing a governmental function when he closed the roadway.

The intermediate appellate court affirmed, concluding that the underlying negligent omission occurred during the performance of a governmental rather than a proprietary function. 

New York State's highest court reversed and remitted the case to the trial court for further proceedings.  After explaining that highway maintenance and repair, and the issuance of appropriate warnings for roadway hazards, were historically proprietary functions, the Court concluded that the Department of Transportation supervisor was engaged in a proprietary function insofar as "his act of closing the entry to vehicular travel was integral to the repair job - a proprietary function."  The Court further distinguished highway maintenance and repair from "traffic control" by police officers, which the Court had previously held in an earlier decision to be a governmental function. 

If you believe you have been the victim of municipal negligence, please contact our firm to discuss your potential case. 

The first line of testing routinely done when a person has an annual exam at their doctor's office is a blood test called a Complete Blood Count ("CBC").  This test provides physicians a wealth of information about a person's state of health.  Physicians are trained to read the results and identify changes in their patient's results from past CBCs, and to identify abnormal results that can be a sign of a serious medical condition.  When these numbers are either too high or too low, a medical investigation is necessary to arrive at a diagnosis.  Physicians are aware of the importance of these numbers when they order, receive and review a patient's laboratory results. 

The red blood cell count is a very important part of a CBC.  The red blood cells carry oxygen throughout the body to the tissues and organs.  A low red blood count means that a person is suffering from anemia.  Anemia is a medical condition that may be caused by a number of medical conditions.  Physicians are obligated to seek out a diagnosis for why a patient is anemic.  

The investigation, in a patient with a new diagnosis of anemia, can include more blood tests, radiology studies, referrals to specialists, and even tests targeted to specific organs and systems in the body.  The reason for all this is simple. A new diagnosis of anemia has the potential to be due to cancer.  Obviously, since cancer is a serious condition that requires immediate medical attention and also may be life threatening, time is of the essence.  

If there is a delay in reviewing blood counts, or a delay in reaching a cause for a person's anemia that leads to a diagnosis of cancer, a patient may have a claim for medical malpractice.  This law office has vast experience representing clients who have suffered substantial delays in diagnosis of various forms of cancer that should have been diagnosed earlier, and afforded them an opportunity for an earlier stage of cancer, less surgery, less treatment and a better chance for survival from the cancer. 

Recently, I represented the family of a deceased 73 year-old woman who passed away from advanced and metastatic colon cancer.  Tragically, this woman had been seeing her primary care physician and gastroenterologist for several years with gastrointestinal complaints.  During this period of time, she developed anemia that was detected in the results of a CBC.  Neither physician pursued an investigation or considered that her problems and low blood counts could be due to cancer. 

A lawsuit was filed by this office against her physicians, which was successfully concluded with a settlement before trial of $1.02 million for her wrongful death. 

If you believe you have been the victim of medical malpractice, please contact our firm to discuss your potential case.  

On July 3, 2014, Justice Bernice D. Siegal of the New York State Supreme Court, Queens County, issued rulings allowing Rockaway Peninsula home and business owners, whose properties were destroyed by fires during Superstorm Sandy, to proceed with lawsuits against the Long Island Power Authority and National Grid.  These plaintiffs, many of whom are represented by our firm, claim that despite numerous warnings and advisories, the power companies negligently failed to shut off power to the Rockaway Peninsula in anticipation of Superstorm Sandy.  As a result of their failure, the plaintiffs claim that fires ignited when salt water made contact with live electrical systems, causing widespread devastation throughout the Rockaways, including Breezy Point. 

Last Fall, the power companies filed motions to dismiss the plaintiffs' lawsuits, claiming that because they are government entities, or government contractors, they were immune from civil suits.  Judge Siegal disagreed; denying the power companies' motions in their entireties, finding that although LIPA is a public authority, "providing electricity to consumers is a proprietary act . . .[thus] depriving defendants the protection of the cloak of governmental immunity."  In addition, the Court held that National Grid, LIPA's contractor, was also not entitled to the protections of governmental immunity, as "a governmental contractor defense to negligence does not exist" in New York.  The Court found that the power companies' arguments did not have "any merit" and as a result, discovery will now commence in these actions. 

The Court also noted that although the power companies failed to de-energize the Rockaway Peninsula, which was issued an emergency evacuation order by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, "other utilities shut down power to flood zones to avoid fires which could arise from salt water touching power lines."  This is among the claims that our firm has made on behalf of our clients who lost their homes and businesses in these fires - that not only was it possible for the power companies to have de-energized the Rockaway Peninsula, but that other utility companies shut down the power to nearby areas to prevent fires.  

For those suffering from a cancer related to their work at the WTC disaster site, the deadline to register with the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund may be as early as October 12, 2014. The deadline to register depends on the type of cancer being claimed and the date of diagnosis. Calculating the deadline can be complicated and depends on an individual claimant's facts. Thus, it is strongly recommended that anyone who is thinking of filing a claim consult with a lawyer as soon as possible. SPBMC has been at the forefront of successfully filing claims under the Zadroga Act, with over $165 million in awards won for its clients to date.

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