A television fell on you in a furnished rented room: who is responsible for furniture that came with the room

Attorney Answer

You have identified the right question. When the furniture came with the room, responsibility for a television that fell is not automatically the agency's and not automatically the landlord's — it depends on who supplied the television, who mounted or placed it, and who had the right and the ability to inspect and correct it. The answer is often more than one of them, which is why the claim is usually brought against all of the candidates and sorted out afterwards.

There are three obvious candidates. The agency that furnished and let the room selected and supplied the television and made the room ready to be occupied; if it placed the set on an unsuitable stand, mounted it badly, or knew that it was unstable, that is its own conduct. The owner of the building or the apartment may bear responsibility for the condition of the premises it puts into a tenant's hands and for what its agents do there. And whoever physically mounted or installed the set — a handyman, a contractor, a previous occupant, a furniture supplier — may be responsible for the installation itself. Which of them is answerable turns on facts you can help establish: who chose and installed the television, whether it was wall-mounted or free-standing, what the bracket or stand was, and whether anyone had reported it as loose or unstable before.

New York's fault rule for a claim like this is CPLR 1411(a): "Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, in any action to recover damages for personal injury, injury to property, or wrongful death, the culpable conduct attributable to the claimant or to the decedent, including contributory negligence or assumption of risk, shall not bar recovery. The amount of damages otherwise recoverable shall be diminished in the proportion which the culpable conduct attributable to the claimant or decedent bears to the culpable conduct which caused the damages." That matters because the first thing a defendant will say is that you did something to the television. Even if some share of the fault were attributed to you, it would reduce a recovery in proportion rather than end the claim.

The deadline is CPLR 214, which gives three years for "an action to recover damages for a personal injury except as provided in sections 214-b, 214-c, 214-i and 215," running from the date of the injury. One exception is worth naming: if the building turns out to be owned or operated by a public corporation such as a housing authority, General Municipal Law § 50-e(1)(a) requires a notice of claim within ninety days after the claim arises and § 50-i(1)(c) requires the action to be commenced within one year and ninety days — far shorter than three years. Your description suggests a private building, but the ownership is worth confirming rather than assuming.

What you can do

1. Photograph the television, the bracket or stand, the wall or surface it was on, and any broken hardware — and do not let anyone remove or repair it before you have.

2. Keep the television and the mounting hardware if you can; the hardware is often the single most important piece of evidence about how the set was installed.

3. Get medical attention and keep every record and bill for the leg injury, including any imaging.

4. Report the incident to the agency and to the building in writing, and keep a copy of what you sent and any reply.

5. Collect your rental paperwork — the agreement with the agency, any furniture inventory or condition report, and any message in which the furnishing was described.

6. Ask whether anyone had complained about the television or its mounting before, and write down who told you so.

7. Have a New York attorney identify all of the potentially responsible parties before any of them is left out; a claim can be harder to add later than to include now.

⏱ Time limits apply. CPLR 214 sets three years for a personal injury, running from the date the television fell, and General Municipal Law §§ 50-e(1)(a) and 50-i(1)(c) impose ninety days and one year and ninety days if a public corporation turns out to be responsible. A court can extend the time to serve that notice in some circumstances under General Municipal Law § 50-e(5), so a missed ninety days is not automatically the end of a claim. Which applies depends on facts this page does not have, and no date is calculated here. Have a New York attorney confirm the deadline that governs your claim.