A lawsuit filed recently in Queens places the blame on the city for the death of an elderly Forest Park grandmother during the blizzard of 2010.
Queens residents Faith Radvin and Robin Martucci, the daughters of late Forest Park resident Gail Radvin, 73, have named the city, the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) and the city’s Fire Department (FDNY) as defendants in a civil suit alleging they were responsible for the death of Gail Radvin through their failure to maintain roadways during the Dec. 2010 snowstorm, according to a nine-page document filed in Queens Supreme Court earlier this month.
While Faith Radvin declined to comment on the suit, the lawsuit itself, filed by their Forest Park-based attorney William Brecht, states that at 4:10 p.m. on Dec. 27, 2010, Faith, who was with her mother at Faith’s Forest Hills apartment on Burns Street at the time, called 911 asking for medical assistance for her mother—who was having a heart attack.
The lawsuit further states that both Faith and Martucci made several 911 calls for help, but EMS crews did not arrive until roughly 5:05 p.m. that day. Their mother was taken to a local hospital shortly after, but was pronounced dead nearly a half-hour later at 5:34 p.m.
The claim points the finger at both the city and DSNY for failing to remove the snowfall from nearby roads within a reasonable time.
“As a result of the foregoing, Gail Radvin sustained severe injuries, suffered great pain and anguish and eventually death,” the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit further states that the city failed to take proper precautions in order to prepare for the Dec. 25 and 26, 2010 snowstorm—which covered the city with roughly 15 to 18 inches of snow.
At the time of Gail Radvin’s death, the docket reads, there was no further snowfall expected, but EMS personnel were delayed due to their inability to get through snow-covered streets on the way to the apartment.
The lawsuit faults the defendants for not providing enough workers to handle the situation, not implementing a proper snow removal plan, and failing to direct and supervise their employees or provide adequate equipment to handle the storm.
In one graph, the lawsuit points to the city sending out snow removal vehicles “which either had none or one chain per tire or said chains were defective or were otherwise not properly maintained which resulted in the snow removal vehicles becoming stuck in the snow or otherwise becoming inoperable.”
This claim is one of nearly 1,200 claims—620 of which were settled, costing the city $1.855 million—that were filed against the city as a direct result of the 2010 snowstorm.
Figures released in December by the city comptroller’s office showed that of the five boroughs, Queens had the highest amount of claims settled at 224, which meant that Queens residents who filed against the city for snow-
related claims such as personal injury or property damage, such as city plow trucks denting cars, ended up getting $567,780 in damages.
DSNY officials had promised in December to take stronger measures to prepare for this winter by adding phones and GPS devices inside snow plows and trucks and potentially hiring private contractors to clear non-primary streets, such as the one leading to Radvin’s apartment.
Brecht, who was reached by The Forum for comment, confirmed that the case was pending, and city lawyers had not reached out to his office yet regarding the case, which they have 30 days to respond to.
However, Brecht declined to get into specifics regarding the case—including how much Radvin’s daughters were seeking in
damages—stating only, “I don’t like to fight out legal cases in the press…but I think the [lawsuit’s] details speak for themselves.”
In a statement released Wednesday, Kate O’Brien Ahlers, media & communications director at the New York City Law Department —which represents the city in legal cases—said “The city empathizes with the family over its loss. We just received the legal papers, and will be evaluating them thoroughly.”
By Jean-Paul Salamanca
jp.salamanca@theforumnewsgroup.com
