Prior Notice In SoHo

”Justice is the greatest concern of man on earth.”

— Daniel Webster

Read these few lines and keep in mind that this is the concept that New York City and the agencies hide behind if you have the bad fortune of being hurt on a defective sidewalk, dangerous street, hit by a car, or otherwise damaged. Agencies like Con Edison routinely hide behind a legal concept and too bad for you if you’re hurt.

Here’s the brief outline of what Prior Notice is about:

“In New York, the prior written notice requirement often applies to claims involving injuries or damages caused by defective streets, sidewalks, or other public property. The specific notice requirements can vary depending on the local laws of the municipality or public entity involved. Generally, the notice must:

Be in writing.
Describe the location and nature of the defect or hazardous condition.
Be served on the appropriate public entity within a specified time frame, which is usually a short period, such as 30 or 90 days from the date of the incident.
Comply with any additional requirements set forth in the local laws or regulations of the public entity.”

Think about that. Con Ed shows up and starts jackhammering the street at midnight, leaves a hole in the street open, the crosswalk is now blocked with debris and materials and you fall on your ass — or your face. Guess whose fault it is. Yours.

All of us downtown have been there. Cars and trucks routinely hit us while Traffic cops wave them on even though you have the right of way as a pedestrian. Cars hit us but we weren’t able to pull out our phones and get the plate number — NYPD does nothing. It’s a HIt & Run for chrisakes! Too bad, buddy. In one of the funniest vists to the 1st Precinct I was told that the Detectives would not be abe to help me since they only work on murders. It hadn’t gotten that far when I was crossing the street in SoHo so I Ieft the precinct station. No doubt my landlord had a few murders in his history but the cops probably wouldn’t even start investigating that — what chance did I have?

Okay, so let’s take Con Edison. They pull up with subcontractor trucks, dig up the streets, take over a neighborhood, and destroy safe access, crosswalks, or anything else in their path. You can’t question them about what they’re doing and you know they don’t give a shit about you or your inconvenience. If you’re in a car you’ve got metal around you, if you’re a pedestrian — in conditions that change daily — Prior Notice is a joke so you don’t even bother. But, let’s say that you suffer from OCD and walk around with a camera photographing every crack, chip, hole, blockage, pit, crevice or impediment on your street in your neighborhod. Daily.

So you get hurt and go to court, having passed the mediator (a guy who decides if your lawsuit is allowed to go to trial) and the question on the witness stand is, “Well, sir, you’ve walked around taking photos of all of these dangerous spots for 6 months. How coincidental is it that you just happened to have photographed the spot where you fell?”

Let’s take a street downtown where Trinity Real Estate owns billions in real estate. And pays no taxes, mind you, since King George deeded the property to Trinity Church back in the 1600s. But Trinity has a cast of thousands and is very rich — and very powerful. Con Edison does what they are told. And, they’re putting up another building on Grand Street. Con Edison has been digging, jackhammering, paving, then digging up the street again, preparing for the new building that’s going up on Varick/Grand/Canal. Photographing the damage and danger in this location would be a full time job — so no one has.

Ergo, no Prior Notice.

None of the seniors, disabled, pedestrians, residents will likely see a dime for having the privilege of caring for their broken legs, wrists, ribs, heads — causing pain, dementia and loss of income.

I was lucky. It only took 3 years for me to find out that I hadn’t taken photos for Prior Notice. It didn’t matter that Con Edison’s lawyer chased down my ambulance driver in his attempt to perjure my explanation of what happened — even though two people saw it happen..

This has now led several Downtown people to consider bringing a class-action lawsuit against Con Edison — since our politicians only work for reelection — who basically do not give a shit about their slipshod, almost criminal behavior emphasized by the disinterest of the DOT in protecting our lives.