Articles Posted in Wrongful Death

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In New York, when a person dies due to another party’s wrongful actions, the law provides for two distinct types of legal claims: (1) a wrongful death claim and (2) a conscious pain and suffering claim, also known as a survivor’s or survivorship claim. These two claims each seek wholly different damages. Both the wrongful death and the conscious pain and suffering claims are brought by the administrator of the estate or executor of the Will, and for both claims you must prove that the death was caused by another party’s negligence, recklessness, or intentional wrongful act.  But here is how they differ:

Wrongful Death Claim

The Statute of Limitations: It is usually (but not always!) two years from the date of death.  

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In recent years, the ubiquity of Amazon delivery trucks has become a symbol of modern convenience. However, amidst the rush to meet demands and fulfill orders swiftly, a darker reality has emerged. These vehicles, while efficient in delivering packages at breakneck speed, have also been implicated in a rising number of accidents. The negligence associated with Amazon delivery trucks has posed significant risks to road safety.

Believe me, I know.  I am a Syracuse NY car accident lawyer currently representing, in a wrongful death case, the family of man killed by an amazon delivery truck. The amazon delivery truck driver was too busy looking at mailbox addresses on a rural road to bother looking ahead before he started turning left into a driveway.   The Amazon driver never saw my client’s vehicle because he never looked.  Instead of delivering an amazon package, the Amazon driver delivered death to my clients’ father/husband by turning directly into his path.

One of the primary issues contributing to these accidents is the immense pressure on drivers to meet demanding delivery schedules. Amazon, known for its commitment to fast delivery, often sets stringent deadlines, compelling drivers to navigate congested streets and highways with little room for error. This rush frequently results in speeding, reckless maneuvers, and fatigue-driven errors among drivers striving to fulfill their delivery quotas.

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At midnight on January 30 a clock ran out. That was the deadline by which our Governor had to sign the Grieving Families Act bill – S74A into law.  Her failure to sign the bill into law is what is known as a “pocket veto”. The Governor’s deliberate failure to put pen to paper by that date and time was the death knell to the bill, which both the New York Senate and Assembly had overwhelmingly supported.

This was a tragedy for those in New York who care about civil justice. Why?

Let’s start by explaining what the now-expired “Grieving Families Act” was:  A proposed law to allow recovery for “emotional loss” (grief) for families who loved ones die because of someone else’s negligence or wrongdoing. The law would have rewritten one of the most unfair laws New York has ever known.  Most other States in the Union allow families of those who are killed through wrongdoing seek compensation for their emotional loss. New York’s law’s antiquated Wrongful Death law (N.Y. Est. Powers & Trusts Law § 5-4.1), which was written way back in 1847, does not.  The Grieving Families Act was meant to right this wrong. Instead, the Governor let the bill die.

This law firm recently settled a wrongful death case for $5,500,000!  Although I am not at liberty to discuss the details of the settlement, nor any of the specifics regarding the injury (we signed a non-disclosure agreement with the insurance company), I can say that , once again, our lawyers did an outstanding job.

Such a large settlement for a motor vehicle accident case is unusual.  There are two reasons why:

First, a negligent driver who causes an accident is extremely unlikely to have enough insurance (or personal assets) to cover such a large settlement. The minimal liability insurance for motor vehicles in New York is only $25,000, and a good chunk of New York auto owners carry only this bare minimum in coverage.  Even well-off folks rarely carry more than $1,000,000 in coverage.  Greater coverage is usually only available when the at-fault vehicle is owned by, or the driver of the vehicle was in the scope of his employment for, a large corporation.  Personal injury lawyers refer to this as a “deep-pocket defendant”. In car accidents, “deep pocket” defendants are rare.

Since this blog post is about death, I have decided to feature one of the oldest and most famous icons in history:  The grim reaper.  Throughout history, this imaginary figure has personified death.  And what a powerful image!  Wielding his sickle, he “reaps” his harvest of human beings, cutting us all down (eventually) like blades of grass.

Before the modern area, which ushered in antibiotics and modern medicine, the grim reaper was ever-present, cutting down humans of all ages.  You were as likely to be his victim if you were young as old.  Most parents lost a few young children to his insatiable appetite for fresh crops.

In the modern era, we have gotten use to the idea that death (usually) befalls only the old.  The grim reaper today prefers mature crops, and leaves the young, green shoots to grow.

Most New York State counties, including Monroe, Onondaga, and all the counties in between, have a law on their books which allows the county public health commissioner to issue an order for involuntary isolation if an individual disobeys a quarantine request and is believed to be an immediate threat to public health.  And the counties are not shy to enforce the law.  Example:  One of my brothers, who lives in Auburn, New York, developed Coronavirus symptoms a few weeks ago.  The Onondaga County Health Department ordered him to get the test (which he willingly did) and then ordered him quarantined in his home until the test results came back (7 days later).  Fortunately, he tested negative, but a County Health Inspector stopped by his house two times a day to make sure he was not leaving the home.  If they had found he had “flown the coop”, they likely would have issued an order for his arrest.

Here’s an even better example:  A Monroe County resident with Covid-19 symptoms, who refused testing, and then disobeyed a Monroe County Department of Public Health civil order to quarantine himself, was arrested and jailed recently in a County jail in Brighton, New York.   He has been isolated from other inmates to prevent COVID-19 spread.

Assuming this selfish and anti-social person passed the virus onto others, who got very sick or died, can his victims or their families sue him for money damages in New York?  That’s our New York personal injury law question for today.

Fraternity hazing stories are legendary for their outrageous silliness and, unfortunately, their sometimes tragic outcomes. Pledges are sometimes required to consume large quantities of alcohol, do embarrassing and humiliating things in public, face harsh deprivations, weather inclemency, or paddle beatings.

This topic is of interest to me now that my own kid is off to college this year. And he wants to join a fraternity. Am I worried about hazing? You bet.

I don’t have too look far to find stories that make me lose sleep. Cornell University, right down the road from my office in Auburn, New York, has had its share of hazing tragedies. In 2011, for example, some pledges were blindfolded and bound at the wrists and ankles. They were then driven to a town house somewhere on campus where they were drilled with Fraternity’s history trivia questions. A wrong answer triggered forced shots of vodka. One of the pledges – who seems to have been a poor Fraternity historian — passed out, was loaded into the back seat of a car, and brought back to the Frat house where he was dumped on a couch to “sleep it off”. The next morning the cleaning crew found him dead, choked on his own vomit.

Warning: This is a sad story.

A man’s 16-year old daughter was killed when her car veered off a bridge, overturned, and flipped into a creek. After the accident, the authorities agreed to install a guardrail on the bridge to prevent similar tragedies.

Thirty days went by and still no guardrail. The grieving father – who could not stand the sight of the unprotected bridge – decided to take matters into his own hands. He began to build a temporary guardrail. As he was in the act of doing so, the authorities asked him to stop. He refused. He just could not stand to see another car go by unprotected.

New York, unlike many other States, does not allow the family of a wrongful death victim to recover for emotional grief. All they can really recover is “economic loss” (medical and funeral bills, loss of financial support, etc.) and compensation for the decedent’s “conscious pain and suffering”. In many cases, however, the death is so quick there is no real “pain and suffering”, only a short period of fear or anxiety about the impending death.

No matter how short, however, any New York personal injury lawyer worth his or her salt won’t underestimate the value of pre-death terror compensation. In terms of dollar-per-second of suffering, no claim is worth more. Why? Because the jury wants to do something for the family and, if the death came on quickly, there is often no other way to compensate the family.

For example, let’s say your loved one was hit head on my a negligent truck driver who crossed over into her lane. The force of the collision instantly killed her. The jury thus won’t be able to give you – the family – anything for her “pain and suffering” after the collision. But it is pretty obvious that, at least for a few seconds before impact, your loved one “saw death coming” and was probably very fearful of what was about to transpire. In New York, those few seconds of anguish are compensable as “pre-impact terror”. Most juries will make those few seconds of anguish very expensive for the negligent truck driver’s insurance.

There has been much ado recently about a Nascar incident in my neck of the woods (Ontario County, New York State) in which Tony Stewart struck and killed Kevin Ward Jr. (See video of the incident above). An Ontario County Grand Jury recently declined to indict Steward. The Grand Jury determined that there was simply no probable cause to believe that Stewart intentionally or even recklessly killed Ward. Ontario County District Attorney Tantillo also announced for the first time that Kevin Ward had marijuana in his blood at a level that would have “impaired judgment”.

So Stewart has been cleared of criminal wrongdoing. But can Ward’s family nevertheless sue him for damages for wrongful death? Such a lawsuit might be in the works. Ward’s mother was recently quoted as saying that Stewart “intentionally tried to intimidate Kevin by accelerating and sliding his car towards him” and that she was considering “other remedies” since no criminal charges will be filed.

Remember the OJ trial? The jury acquitted him of murder (“if it doesn’t fit, you must acquit”) but then the family of Nicole Simpson sued OJ for wrongful death and got a huge verdict. Can the same thing happen here?

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