From Casetext: Smarter Legal Research

St. Jacques v. City of New York

Court of Appeals of the State of New York
Jun 6, 1996
669 N.E.2d 1109 (N.Y. 1996)

Opinion

Argued May 2, 1996

Decided June 6, 1996

Appeal from the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the First Judicial Department, Harold J. Hughes, Jr., J.

Lysaght, Lysaght Kramer, P.C., Lake Success (Joseph L. Decolator, John V. Decolator and Michael Majewski of counsel), for appellants.

Paul A. Crotty, Corporation Counsel of New York City (Barry P. Schwartz, Leonard Koerner, Stephen J. McGrath and Mordecai Newman of counsel), for respondent.

Sullivan Liapakis, P.C., New York City (Michael N. Block, Marshall M. Kolba and Stephen C. Glasser of counsel), for Uniformed Firefighters' Association and another, amici curiae. Edward D. Peace, Corporation Counsel of City of Buffalo ( Susan P. Wheatley of counsel), for State of New York and others, amici curiae.


MEMORANDUM.

The order of the Appellate Division should be affirmed, with costs.

In support of their General Municipal Law § 205-e causes of action against New York City, plaintiffs relied solely on section 2904 of the New York City Charter and section 19-152 of the Administrative Code of the City of New York. Those provisions, however, concern only the duty of adjacent landowners to repair defective sidewalks or flagstones and the procedures that the City may use to enforce that duty. Neither provision imposes an affirmative duty on the City to keep its sidewalks in good repair.

To the extent that the cited provisions authorize the City to act, the authority is couched in permissive rather than mandatory terms. Administrative Code § 19-152, for example, states that the Commissioner of Transportation "may" enter the property to perform sidewalk repairs and "may" place a lien against the property to recoup the cost of its work. Thus, the cited provisions cannot form a basis for a cause of action under General Municipal Law § 205-e ( see also, Desmond v City of New York, 88 N.Y.2d 455 [decided today]).

Chief Judge KAYE and Judges SIMONS, TITONE, BELLACOSA, SMITH, LEVINE and CIPARICK concur.

Order affirmed, with costs, in a memorandum.


Summaries of

St. Jacques v. City of New York

Court of Appeals of the State of New York
Jun 6, 1996
669 N.E.2d 1109 (N.Y. 1996)
Case details for

St. Jacques v. City of New York

Case Details

Full title:DANIEL ST. JACQUES et al., Appellants, v. CITY OF NEW YORK, Respondent…

Court:Court of Appeals of the State of New York

Date published: Jun 6, 1996

Citations

669 N.E.2d 1109 (N.Y. 1996)
669 N.E.2d 1109
646 N.Y.S.2d 787

Citing Cases

Williams v. City of New York

Therefore, the lower court's decision should be reversed and the complaint should be reinstated herein. (…

Simons v. City of New York

That section was enacted to create a right of action for firefighters and police officers whose line-of-duty…