PETITIONER SUBMITTED SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE THE SCHOOL DISTRICT WAS NOT PREJUDICED BY THE DELAY IN FILING A NOTICE OF CLAIM, THE SCHOOL DISTRICT PROVIDED NO EVIDENCE OF PREJUDICE, MOTION FOR LEAVE TO FILE A LATE NOTICE OF CLAIM SHOULD HAVE BEEN GRANTED.

The Third Department determined petitioner’s motion for leave to file a late notice of claim should have been granted. Petitioner injured his knee when he stepped into a depression in the school’s parking lot. The delay in filing the notice was due to his not being aware of the nature of the injury until he underwent an MRI months after the incident. Supreme Court deemed the excuse for the delay adequate but held plaintiff did not demonstrate the school district was not prejudiced by the delay. The Third Department found that petitioner’s proof that the defect in the parking lot was essentially unchanged was sufficient to shift the burden to the school district to show prejudice, which it did not do:

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A finding that respondent “is substantially prejudiced by a late notice of claim cannot be based solely on speculation and inference; rather, a determination of substantial prejudice must be based on evidence in the record” … . “[T]he burden initially rests on the petitioner to show that the late notice will not substantially prejudice the [respondent]. Such a showing need not be extensive, but the petitioner must present some evidence or plausible argument that supports a finding of no substantial prejudice” … . Here, petitioner identified the precise location of the incident during his General Municipal Law § 50-h examination by marking a map with a box showing where the bus was parked as he stepped off into the depression, and he represented, through his attorney, that the parking lot defect had not changed since the time of the incident. Photographs of the defect, taken within a month of the incident, were not furnished to Supreme Court, although they had been given to the Workers’ Compensation Board in support of petitioner’s workers’ compensation claim. Respondent, despite being “in the best position to know and demonstrate whether it has been substantially prejudiced” … , offered absolutely no response to this contention, although it was required to rebut it “with particularized evidence” … . We note that Supreme Court’s observation that “[s]now plowing, traffic, weather, or even repairs performed in the interim could have altered the condition” is not based on any evidence in the record and, thus, constitutes the kind of unsupported assertion of prejudice that the Court of Appeals would deem “speculation and inference” … . Thus, the record is devoid of any basis to conclude that the 12-week delay in filing the notice of claim caused substantial prejudice to respondent. Matter of Kranick v Niskayuna Cent. Sch. Dist., 2017 NY Slip Op 04529, 3rd Dept 6-8-17

EDUCATION-SCHOOL LAW (NEGLIGENCE, NOTICE OF CLAIM, PETITIONER SUBMITTED SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE THE SCHOOL DISTRICT WAS NOT PREJUDICED BY THE DELAY IN FILING A NOTICE OF CLAIM, THE SCHOOL DISTRICT PROVIDED NO EVIDENCE OF PREJUDICE, MOTION FOR LEAVE TO FILE A LATE NOTICE OF CLAIM SHOULD HAVE BEEN GRANTED)/NEGLIGENCE (EDUCATION-SCHOOL LAW, NOTICE OF CLAIM, PETITIONER SUBMITTED SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE THE SCHOOL DISTRICT WAS NOT PREJUDICED BY THE DELAY IN FILING A NOTICE OF CLAIM, THE SCHOOL DISTRICT PROVIDED NO EVIDENCE OF PREJUDICE, MOTION FOR LEAVE TO FILE A LATE NOTICE OF CLAIM SHOULD HAVE BEEN GRANTED/NOTICE OF CLAIM (NEGLIGENCE, EDUCATION-SCHOOL LAW, PETITIONER SUBMITTED SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE THE SCHOOL DISTRICT WAS NOT PREJUDICED BY THE DELAY IN FILING A NOTICE OF CLAIM, THE SCHOOL DISTRICT PROVIDED NO EVIDENCE OF PREJUDICE, MOTION FOR LEAVE TO FILE A LATE NOTICE OF CLAIM SHOULD HAVE BEEN GRANTED)