Hand crushed by a grocery store's sliding door in New York: who answers for it, and what the store's missing incident report means

Q: Nothing was broken on the day of the accident. Does that mean I do not have a claim in New York?

No. Whether a claim exists turns on whether someone was negligent and whether that negligence caused an injury, not on what the first x-ray showed. Hand injuries in particular often develop a clearer picture over the following weeks, which is why a treating doctor may order additional imaging and watch for fractures that were not visible at first. What matters for the claim is that the treatment is documented from the beginning and that the records connect the injury to the incident. Under CPLR 1411(a) the amount recovered is reduced by any share of the responsibility assigned to the injured person rather than being barred, so an incomplete or evolving medical picture is a reason to keep treating and keep records, not a reason to assume there is nothing to pursue.

Q: A store promised me a copy of its incident report and never sent it. What can I do about that?

A business is not obliged to hand a customer its internal report on request, and many do not. What you can do is create a record: write to the store and to its insurer asking for the report, and ask in the same letter that the store preserve the door's maintenance and repair history and any surveillance video of the entrance for that day. Video is often overwritten within weeks, so the letter is worth sending immediately. If a claim is later brought, an attorney can seek those materials through the court's disclosure process, and a written preservation request sent early is what makes it possible to argue the material should still exist. Keep proof of when you sent it.

Q: How long does someone have to bring a personal injury claim in New York?

CPLR 214(5) requires an action to recover damages for a personal injury to be commenced within three years, measured from the date the injury occurred, and the section itself names exceptions that route certain claims to different periods. The clock is much shorter when the responsible party is a public corporation — a city, county, town, village, fire district or school district: General Municipal Law § 50-e(1)(a) requires a notice of claim within ninety days after the claim arises, and General Municipal Law § 50-i(1)(c) requires the action itself to be commenced within one year and ninety days after the event. 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. Because the right period depends on who the defendant turns out to be, and because other rules can extend or shorten it, a New York attorney should key the date rather than anyone calculating it from a general page.

Question

My hand was rolled over and then crushed by a sliding door in a grocery store. I had to yank my own hand out of the door, and then let four employees know, before I finally had to request a bag of ice and an ambulance. At that time they gave me a bag of ice, did not tell their manager, and did not call 911. I called 911, and an accident report was made by the police. The manager said that he was at that time making one and that he would send me a copy that day. They took my information. I was not contacted. Nothing is broken at the moment, but I have to go for more imaging, and the doctor is concerned about other fractures and other issues with my hand now.

A. Jason Velez · Accepted Answer

A grocery store can be answerable for a hand crushed by its powered sliding door, and in New York any share of the blame the store tries to put on you reduces what you recover rather than ending the claim — but the store's own paperwork is the piece most likely to disappear while you wait for it. A claim like this one is ordinary negligence against the business that controls the premises. The questions that decide it are whether the door was working as it should, whether the store knew or should have known it was not, what it did about that, and how the staff responded when four employees were told a customer's hand had been caught. New York's rules on a property owner's duty to people it invites in come from decided cases rather than from a statute, and their application is a question for a New York attorney who can read the maintenance and service records for that door. Your own conduct does not end a claim in New York. CPLR 1411(a) provides: "(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 is pure comparative fault: if a share of the responsibility were assigned to you, the award is reduced by that share instead of being lost, and it is the store that has to prove any such share. Two records matter more than anything else you can do right now. The police made an accident report, which fixes the date, the place and the fact that an ambulance was requested. The manager said he was making a store incident report and would send it; you were not contacted. That internal report, the door's service and repair history, and any camera footage of the doorway are in the store's hands, and footage in particular is routinely recorded over in a matter of weeks. A written request that the store preserve them changes what is available later. The medical picture is still open, and that is normal. An initial reading that nothing is broken is not the end of the story when the treating doctor has ordered more imaging and is concerned about fractures in the hand. A hand injury is valued on the treatment course and on what function returns, so the record you build over the coming months is the record the claim rests on. What you can do 1. Ask the store in writing — to the manager and to its claims department — for the incident report, and keep a dated copy of the request and of any answer. 2. In the same letter, ask the store to preserve the door's maintenance and repair records and any video of the entrance for the day of the incident. 3. Obtain the police accident report from the responding agency and check that your description of what happened is recorded accurately. 4. Go to every imaging appointment and follow-up, and make sure the records describe what your hand can and cannot do, not just the diagnosis. 5. Photograph the door, the entrance and your hand, and write down the names or descriptions of the four employees you told while you still remember them. 6. Do not give a recorded statement, sign a release, or accept a gift card or store credit in exchange for closing the matter before an attorney has reviewed it. 7. Take the police report, your photographs and your medical records to a New York attorney who handles premises claims. ⏱ Time limits apply. CPLR 214(5) sets three years to commence an action "to recover damages for a personal injury except as provided in sections 214-b, 214-c, 214-i and 215," and that period runs from the date of the incident in the store. A shorter schedule applies if the property turns out to be owned or operated by a public corporation, and other facts can change the period in an individual case. Whether any deadline has run on your facts is not something to compute from a page like this one — have a New York attorney key it to your own date.

Hand crushed by a grocery store's sliding door in New York: who answers for it, and what the store's missing incident report means

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