Opinion
January 6, 1994
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Bronx County (Barry Salman, J.).
In this action for personal injuries arising from an incident in which plaintiff was trapped in an elevator in defendant's building, plaintiff timely served a notice of claim on defendant New York City Housing Authority ("NYCHA"), indicating an incorrect address. The building had two different street addresses and plaintiff apparently combined the number of one address with the street name of the other. At the hearing pursuant to General Municipal Law § 50-h, nearly 10 months after the accident and nearly 7 months after the notice was served, plaintiff's counsel brought the error to the attention of NYCHA, which refused to stipulate to the correction.
An insufficient notice of claim may be corrected absent bad faith on the part of the plaintiff or prejudice to the defendants (Hoffman v. New York City Hous. Auth., 187 A.D.2d 334, 336-337). It is not disputed that plaintiff's mistake was inadvertent and not calculated to mislead or confuse defendant (Lord v. New York City Hous. Auth., 184 A.D.2d 406, 408). Defendant has not demonstrated that it was prejudiced by plaintiff's mistake; its police officer was at the scene of the incident and made a written report, detailing the circumstances of the incident, and thus defendant had knowledge sufficient to allow it to investigate (see, Matter of Harrison v. New York City Hous. Auth., 188 A.D.2d 367).
Concur — Sullivan, J.P., Carro, Rosenberger and Wallach, JJ.