Opinion
13794 Index No. 160007/17 Case No. 2020-02701
05-11-2021
Lawrece REID, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. The CITY OF NEW YORK et al., Defendants-Respondents.
Flanzig and Flanzig, LLP, Mineola (Dana E. Heitz and Cathy Flanzig of counsel), for appellant. James E. Johnson, Corporation Counsel, New York (Tahirih M. Sadrieh of counsel), for respondents.
Flanzig and Flanzig, LLP, Mineola (Dana E. Heitz and Cathy Flanzig of counsel), for appellant.
James E. Johnson, Corporation Counsel, New York (Tahirih M. Sadrieh of counsel), for respondents.
Kern, J.P., Gonza´lez, Scarpulla, Mendez, JJ.
Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Lyle E. Frank, J.), entered on or about May 20, 2020, which granted defendants’ motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint and denied plaintiff's cross motion for summary judgment, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
A municipality owes a special duty to a decedent's next of kin to inform them of the decedent's death and notification constitutes a nondiscretionary, ministerial act outside the purview of governmental function immunity; however, the special duty only arises when the municipality has all of the necessary information to identify such next of kin (see Williams v. City of New York, 188 A.D.3d 442, 442–443, 131 N.Y.S.3d 863 [1st Dept. 2020] ; Cansev v. City of New York, 185 A.D.3d 894, 895–896, 128 N.Y.S.3d 229 [2d Dept. 2020] ; Rugova v. City of New York, 132 A.D.3d 220, 227–231, 16 N.Y.S.3d 233 [1st Dept. 2015] ). That was not the case here. Although defendants were able to ascertain the decedent's identity, they had no information regarding the identities of her next of kin until plaintiff contacted them months later.
We have considered and rejected plaintiff's other arguments.