A Look at New York City’s Sidewalk Law

While most people think of slip-and-fall cases as simple, bodily injury claims, in reality many of them are not.  This is especially true when the accident occurs on a New York City street or sidewalk.

To a large extent, this is due to what is commonly known as the New York City Sidewalk Law, which shifted the responsibility for accidents caused by sidewalk defects – such as potholes, cracks, and raised and uneven sidewalks – from the City of New York onto private property owners.  The law, Section 7-210 of the New York City (NYC) Administrative Code, which came about as a result of the City’s budget crisis, became effective September 15, 2003 and applies only accidents that occurred on or after that date.  The intent of the law was to shift the cost of accidents to the adjoining-property owners so that the City would pay fewer settlements and judgments.

Specifically, the regulatory changes not only made property owners responsible for keeping the sidewalks that abut their properties ''in a reasonably safe condition,'' but also required them to carry insurance to cover injuries sustained on those sidewalks and made them legally liable for monetary damages that arise from such injuries.

In the case of uninsured owners, the City Comptroller is authorized to pay the uncompensated medical expenses of an injured person. As a tort reform, the City limits reimbursement to $50,000 per case for uncompensated medical expenses and caps total payments in a single fiscal year at $4 million.  The City can then go after the property owner for reimbursement.

The law has an important exception.  The liability provision does not apply to one-, two- or three-family properties that are at least partially occupied by the owner and used exclusively for residential purposes.  The City Council provided the exception for one-, two-, and three-family homes to provide some financial relief to private homeowners, since the owners had been hit with a record real-estate increase of at least 18.5 percent in 2003. In essence, the shifting of liability was to the owners of commercial property.

Of course, the City is not immune from liability when it is the property owner. The law left unchanged the procedure for bringing an action against the City, including any provisions requiring prior notice to the City of defective conditions.

Under the prior law, the strip of concrete between the curb and the front of most commercial and multifamily residential buildings in New York City was considered the City’s turf.  While property owners had the legal duty to maintain the sidewalks in front of their buildings in ''safe repair'' and ''free of all snow and debris,” all too often, they would just sit back and wait for the City to step in.

For example, under the old law…if there was a tripping hazard in a sidewalk in front of a building, the City would notify the owner by mail to address the problem.  In the event timely repairs were not made by the property owner, the City would hire private construction firms to make the repairs, then bill the property owner for the cost of the repairs.  Not only would the property owner benefit from getting the repair done at a reasonable cost, he would avoid having to deal with private contractors.  And if luck was on the owner’s side, the City would never get around to billing him for the work.  Most noteworthy, when property owners failed to comply with their duties and someone was injured as a result, they didn’t get sued, the City did…even where the City had issued a violation to the owner.  The adjacent-property owner had no liability unless the owner either created the condition or had a special use, such as a driveway that caused the defect.

It is reported that in the three years preceding introduction of the sidewalk legislation, the City of New York was served with more than 10,800 sidewalk-related claims and paid out $189 billion in related verdicts, settlements and expenditures.  The new laws were estimated to promise the City savings of $40 million a year.

According to the City Comptroller’s office, there has been a steady decline in the number of sidewalk-injury claims filed against New York City since the legislation transferring liability for sidewalk accidents from the City to the property owners was passed.  The most recent statistics indicate that in fiscal 2006, 2,729 sidewalk claims were filed against the City, down from 3,482 in 2003. In 2006, the City paid $55.5 million in sidewalk claims, a decrease from the $68 million paid out in 2003.

For more information on the New York City Sidewalk Law, please consult the Professional Insurance Agents’ Resource Kit #31340 or visit http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/sidewalks/sidewalkintro.shtml