CLAIMANT INITIALLY BELIEVED THE ROAD WHERE HE STEPPED IN A POTHOLE AND FELL WAS OWNED BY THE VILLAGE, BUT IN FACT IT WAS OWNED BY THE STATE; CLAIMANT’S LATE NOTICE OF CLAIM SHOULD HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED BY THE COURT OF CLAIMS (THIRD DEPT).
The Third Department, reversing the Court of Claims, determined claimant’s late notice of claim in this roadway defect case should not have been rejected. Plaintiff alleged he stepped in a depression in the road and fell. Plaintiff initially believed the road was owned by the village, when, in fact, it was owned by the state. The defect in the road was patched within a week of plaintiff’s fall:
The delay here was minimal, with defendant having received notice approximately three weeks after the 90-day deadline lapsed … . It is significant that when [claimant] returned to the accident scene … , he discovered that the pothole had been patched with blacktop, as shown in the photographs taken that day. Claimant further averred that the depression was “almost a foot wide and around ten feet long,” specifying that it was “about three to four inches deep where [his] foot ended up.” Given this postaccident development, claimant’s attorney argued that “[w]hile [defendant] may not have obtained notice of the . . . accident within 90 days of its occurrence, it is highly likely that it had notice of the condition of the pavement that caused the accident as it patched it within a week of when the accident happened,” emphasizing that defendant’s “records should indicate precisely when it was patched as well as when the decision to patch it occurred and why.” * * *
“A claim has the appearance of merit so long as it is not patently groundless, frivolous or legally defective, and the record as a whole gives reasonable cause to believe that a valid cause of action exists” … . To hold defendant liable for his injuries, claimant will need to prove that defendant either created the condition itself by affirmative acts of negligence, or had actual or constructive notice of a dangerous condition and failed to remedy such condition, thereby causing claimant’s injuries … . Constructive notice exists where a depression in the roadway was “visible and apparent and existed for a sufficient length of time prior to the accident to permit defendant’s employees to discover and remedy it” … . Grasse v State of New York, 2024 NY Slip Op 03110, Third Dept 6-6-24
Practice Point: The criteria for acceptance or rejection of a late notice of claim in the Court of Claims is explained.