COMPLAINT IN PUTATIVE CLASS ACTION ALLEGING DISCRIMINATION AGAINST PERSONS WHO CANNOT USE STAIRS PROPERLY SURVIVED MOTIONS TO DISMISS; 360 OF 427 NYC SUBWAY STATIONS ARE ACCESSIBLE ONLY BY STAIRS (FIRST DEPT).
The First Department, in a full-fledged opinion by Justice Gische, determined that the transit authority’s and the city’s motions to dismsiss the complaint in this putative class action were properly denied. The complaint, brought pursuant to the NYC Human Rights Law (NYCHRL), alleged discrimination against persons with disabilities which prevent them from using stairs. 360 of the 427 subway stations in NYC are accessible only by stairs. The First Department held: (1) the action was not time-barred because the continuous violation doctrine applied; (2) the action was not preempted by either Transportation Law 15-b or Public Authorities Law 1266 (8); (3) the controversy is justiciable; and (4) the city, which owns the stations, was not entitled to pre-discovery dismissal. With respect to the continuous violation doctrine, the court wrote:
… [T]he reach of the continuous violation doctrine under NYCHRL is broader than under either federal or state law. A broad interpretation is consistent with a “rule that neither penalizes workers who hesitate to bring an action at the first sign of what they suspect could be discriminatory trouble, nor rewards covered entities that discriminate by insulating them[selves] from challenges to their unlawful conduct that continues into the limitation period” … . Thus, defendants’ claimed failure to provide an accessible subway system is a continuous wrong for purposes of tolling the statute of limitations under the NYCHRL Center for Independence of the Disabled v Metropolitan Transp. Auth., 2020 NY Slip Op 03203, First Dept 6-4-20