Property owner wins indemnification

Property owner sued general contractor and design consultant for indemnification of costs resulting from violations of federal, state, and local disabilities law. CREF 546 owned property located at 546 West 44th Street in Manhattan and hired developers to construct two fourteen-story residential midrise apartment buildings that shared amenities. CREF 546 contracted with Code Consultants to review design and construction documents and Hudson Meridian as their general contractor. The building became occupied in 2016.


The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway: Time is Running Out

One year ago, in January 2020, the Expert Panel assigned by Mayor Bill de Blasio to study the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway issued its Final Report. Mayor de Blasio in 2019 appointed the seventeen-person Expert Panel* of which I was a member, following the angry rejection of New York City DOT’s plan for reconstructing the section of the BQE adjacent to Brooklyn Heights, Dumbo and Downtown Brooklyn. City DOT presented its plan publicly September 2019. The … <Read More>


City defeats highway injury claim

Driver was left paralyzed after collision with a guardrail on Henry Hudson Parkway. Benjamin Yannick worked as a server at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Manhattan. On October 27, 2003, after working from 3:30pm to 11:00pm, Yannick drove home to the Bronx on the Henry Hudson Parkway. Yannick lost control of his vehicle at approximately 12:50 a.m. near the intersection of 96th Street. Yannick veered from the middle lane of traffic to the left, crashed … <Read More>


FDNY’s actions established duty

Williamsburg warehouse burned to the ground just minutes after FDNY left the scene. A Williamsburg warehouse owned by Recall Corporation and located on the Brooklyn waterfront at 5 North 11th Street burned to the ground in the early hours of the morning on January 31, 2015. The New York City Fire Department had responded to a fire alarm at approximately 4:36 a.m. and found a fire ablaze on storage shelves inside the warehouse. The FDNY, … <Read More>


Tort claim against HPD advances

HPD performed an emergency excavation without giving owner time to comply. The Trustee of a family Trust hired three workers to excavate soil on the Trust’s Brooklyn property to fix an emergency condition at 146 Wilson Street, Brooklyn. The three workers were trapped when the excavation collapsed. The City Department of Buildings issued a full stop order to the Trustee for excavations without a permit. The Housing Preservation & Development Department then advised the Trustee … <Read More>


London Terrace case remanded

Landlord classified rental apartments as being destabilized and charged tenants market rate rents despite receiving J-51 tax benefits. London Terrace Gardens, located along West 23rd Street in Manhattan and built in 1930, occupies an entire block and has 1700 apartments. After the enactment of the Rent Regulation Reform Act of 1993, London Terrace Gardens began deregulating rent-stabilized apartments through high-rent vacancy decontrol. London Terrace Gardens subsequently received J-51 tax abatement and exemption benefits after … <Read More>