I slipped on algae on a New York sidewalk and hurt my knee — who is responsible?

Attorney Answer

Who answers for this depends on where that sidewalk is, and the two answers run on very different clocks. In New York City, the duty to keep an abutting sidewalk in a reasonably safe condition sits with the owner of the adjoining property under New York City Administrative Code § 7-210, and a claim against a private owner runs on the ordinary three-year period in CPLR 214(5). If the responsible party is instead a public corporation — a city, county, town 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 suit within one year and ninety days. Identifying the property is therefore the first task, not a detail.

Section 7-210 is a municipal code provision rather than a state statute, so it is named and described here and not quoted. What it does is shift responsibility for the sidewalk from the City onto the owner of the property it adjoins, together with liability for personal injury caused by a failure to maintain it. Its precise reach, and the exceptions it carries, are questions for a New York attorney with the address in front of them. Outside New York City the duty depends on the local code and on what the owner did to the walk, which is why the answer starts with the location rather than with the fall.

What a claim would have to prove is largely judge-made rather than statutory. In general terms, an injured person must show a dangerous condition, and that the owner or possessor either created it or knew or should have known of it with time to correct it. Those standards come from court decisions. Algae that was "all over the sidewalk" is the kind of condition that turns on how long it had been there, whether water discharged onto the walk from the property, whether anyone had complained, and what the walk looked like in the days before — evidence that fades quickly.

If a claim is brought, New York apportions fault rather than cutting recovery off. 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." So an argument that you should have seen it reduces a recovery in proportion; it does not by itself end the claim.

One further point about the ninety days. If it has already passed, General Municipal Law § 50-e(5) allows a court to extend the time to serve a late notice of claim, weighing among other things whether the public corporation acquired actual knowledge of the essential facts within ninety days or a reasonable time after, and whether the failure was an excusable error. That is discretionary and it is not something to rely on, but it means a late claimant is not automatically finished.

What you can do

1. Get the knee examined now, and make sure the records say where and how the fall happened.

2. Photograph the sidewalk, the algae and the surrounding property today, from several distances, including anything that appears to be discharging water onto the walk.

3. Write down the address, the building it fronts, and the names and numbers of anyone who saw the fall or who has complained about that walk before.

4. Keep the shoes and clothing you were wearing, unwashed, and keep every medical record and bill.

5. Ask a New York attorney immediately who owns and abuts that stretch of sidewalk, and whether a notice of claim is required — that question has a ninety-day answer and should not wait.

⏱ Time limits apply. A personal injury action in New York must generally be commenced within three years under CPLR 214(5), measured from the date of the fall, and the section names its own exceptions. Where a public corporation is responsible, the far shorter periods in General Municipal Law § 50-e(1)(a) and § 50-i(1)(c) apply together, with the § 50-e(5) discretion as the only relief from a late notice. Which of these governs depends on facts this page does not have, and none of these dates should be calculated from a general description. A brief consultation with a local New York attorney is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.