PLAINTIFFS’ CAUSES OF ACTION ALLEGING EXPOSURE TO TOXIC FUMES ARE TIME-BARRED PURSUANT TO CPLR 214-C (FOURTH DEPT).
The Fourth Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined the causes of action alleging exposure to toxic fumes and hazardous substances were time-barred:
… [T]he … causes of action [alleging] the purported exposure to toxic fumes and hazardous substances (exposure claims) because they are untimely under the applicable three-year statute of limitations (see CPLR 214-c [2]). … [T]hat statute of limitations began to run from the date of discovery of plaintiff’s injury. Discovery occurs “when the injured party discovers the primary condition on which the claim is based” and not “when the connection between . . . symptoms and the injured’s exposure to a toxic substance is recognized” … . By submitting, inter alia, plaintiff’s deposition testimony and a workers’ compensation claim filed by him in 2011, defendants established that the exposure claims accrued in 2003 when he “made repeated visits to [his] treating providers for symptoms described in [his] bill of particulars as caused by the [chemical] exposure” … , and well over three years prior to the commencement of this action in 2014. To the extent that plaintiff relies on the one-year statute of limitations provided by CPLR 214-c (4), plaintiff cannot avail himself of that limitations period because, inter alia, plaintiff explicitly linked his exposure-related symptoms to exposure at Niagara Lubricant in his workers’ compensation claim, i.e., over one year prior to the commencement of this action … . Cotter v Lasco, Inc., 2021 NY Slip Op 04293, Fourth Dept 7-9-21
