A sanitation truck hit my parked car in New York: the ninety-day clock that applies if the truck is a city truck

Attorney Answer

The first thing to settle is who owns the truck, because it decides your deadline. If the sanitation truck belongs to a city, county, town or village, a written notice has to be served within ninety days — and that is true for damage to a parked car, not only for injuries. If it belongs to a private carting company, the ordinary three-year period applies.

Sanitation trucks come from both places. Municipal fleets are marked with the city or department name; private carters run their own trucks under company names, often for the same buildings on the same routes. The plate, the markings on the door, the police accident report and any incident number the driver gave are what answer the question, and they are worth chasing down this week rather than next month.

If the vehicle is a public one, two short clocks start at once. General Municipal Law § 50-e(1)(a) requires that "the notice of claim shall comply with and be served in accordance with the provisions of this section within ninety days after the claim arises; except that in wrongful death actions, the ninety days shall run from the appointment of a representative of the decedent". That requirement is not limited to injury claims: the statute governing suits against a city, county, town, village, fire district or school district covers personal injury, wrongful death and damage to real or personal property alike, so a struck parked car is inside it. Then General Municipal Law § 50-i(1)(c) adds a second and separate deadline: "the action or special proceeding shall be commenced within one year and ninety days after the happening of the event upon which the claim is based; except that wrongful death actions shall be commenced within two years after the happening of the death." A claimant who serves the notice and then waits the ordinary three years has waited too long.

Missing ninety days is not automatically the end. General Municipal Law § 50-e(5) allows a court to extend the time to serve the notice, weighing among other things whether the public corporation acquired actual knowledge of the essential facts of the claim within ninety days or a reasonable time afterward, along with infancy or incapacity and other excuses the statute lists. It is discretionary relief, which is why the question belongs with an attorney rather than with a decision to give up. And if the truck turns out to belong to a State agency instead of a municipal one, the General Municipal Law is the wrong statute entirely: a claim against New York State runs under the Court of Claims Act §§ 10 and 11 and is brought in the Court of Claims.

If a private carter owns the truck, none of that applies — the claim is an ordinary one against the company and its insurer, on the three-year period below.

Your message gives the date as January 27 without a year, so nothing on this page can tell you where you stand; the clocks run from your own accident date and only you and your attorney know it.

What you can do

1. Identify the truck's owner: the markings, the plate number, the police report, and any card or incident number the driver or a supervisor gave you.

2. Get the police accident report if one was made, and the responding officer's report number.

3. Photograph the damage and the position of your car, and keep any photographs taken on the day.

4. Get two written repair estimates, and keep receipts for towing, storage and any transportation you have paid for.

5. Report the loss to your own insurer promptly, whether or not you intend to claim under your own coverage.

6. Take everything to a New York attorney straight away if the truck is municipal — the ninety-day period is the one that is easiest to lose.

⏱ Time limits apply. Against a city, county, town, village, fire district or school district, General Municipal Law § 50-e(1)(a) requires the notice within ninety days after the claim arises, and General Municipal Law § 50-i(1)(c) requires the action to be commenced within one year and ninety days after the event; a court may extend the notice period under General Municipal Law § 50-e(5). Against a private company, CPLR 214(4) gives three years to commence "an action to recover damages for an injury to property except as provided in section 214-c." Every one of these runs from the date your car was struck. Do not calculate your own deadline from this page — give a New York attorney the date and the owner of the truck.