ALBANY, NY (WTEN) — A New York State Court of Appeals ruling could have sweeping impacts across the state when it comes to liability for potholes and bumps in the road. It came from the case of Henry E. Calabrese v. City of Albany.
Court documents state in July 2019, Henry Calabrese was injured when he drove his motorcycle over a depression on Lark Street. He sued the City claiming it knew about the problem.
“So that pothole where he was injured that had been a prior report through the SeeClick and Report website and nothing had been done. They had received notice electronically but failed to make that area safe,” said Paul Harding, Managing Partner at Harding Mazzotti, LLP.
The City argued that its website does not send written notices to its Commissioner of General Services. Before the accident, written notices had to be sent to the Commissioner of Public Works but that department closed in 1988. The wording of City Code was not updated from Public Works to General Services until months after the accident.
“Well, the City itself is the one that set up and allowed the app, SeeClickFix, and that’s how they got notice of these defects and then they were claiming, ‘Well, that’s not the prior written notice that we wanted.’ They can’t have it both ways,” described Harding.
The New York Court of Appeals agreed with Calabrese. Not only allowing his case to go forward but potentially setting a new standard for other cities that use similar types of websites.
