The Woodhaven-Richmond Hill Ambulance Corps has filed a $13 million lawsuit against the landlord of this collapsed building at 78-19 Jamaica Ave. in Woodhaven after the group was forced to shut down because of safety concerns and structural damage. File photo
Ten months after a Woodhaven building partially collapsed, forcing the Woodhaven-Richmond Hill Volunteer Ambulance Corps from its building on Jamaica Avenue, the organization has yet to be able to resume its operations and has now slapped the owner of the destroyed site with a $13 million lawsuit.
The April 12 collapse of the building located at 78-19 Jamaica Ave. “destroyed not only their property but the aesthetic property of the community,” said Angelo A. DiGiangi, general counsel of the Community Advocacy Center, which is representing the ambulance corps pro bono in collaboration with the City University of New York Law School.
Following the building’s collapse, which sent a waterfall of bricks crashing onto the sidewalk and street, safety concerns and structural damage prompted the ambulance corps to shut down and the Catholic Charities Woodhaven-Richmond Hill Senior Center, which rented space from the volunteer ambulance group, to relocate to the nearby American Legion Post 118. Both the ambulance corps and senior center were operating out of the same building located next to the collapsed structure.
“The Woodhaven ambulance corps is damaged in the millions and millions of dollars,” DiGiangi said. “They’ve lost rent, they’ve lost their tenants… That building looks like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. There’s something really wrong here.”
The landlord, who could not be reached for comment, has recently paid $3,200 for two Environmental Control Board violations, according to the city Department of Buildings.
There are currently eight open ECB violations and a total of $33,000 in fines owed on the property, according to the DOB. In addition, there are $20,000 due in DOB civil penalties for work without a permit and $7,500 due in DOB civil penalties for failure to correct hazardous violations, according to the city.
A DOB spokeswoman said the department issued a criminal court summons for failure to maintain the building and failure to comply with the DOB commissioner’s order to file plans and commence work to repair the building by Nov. 29, 2013.
While a judge in a criminal court case does not have the power to force a defendant to make repairs, there is incentive for the owner to comply with the summons – and make repairs – because it can lead to a better outcome for them.
Still, while area leaders said they are pleased the landlord is finally attempting to address what they called a dangerous situation, some said it is too little, too late and want the city to demolish the facility.
“The first thing we did with the collaborative law programs was we went in there with a team of interns and a retired housing court judge and walked through the property,” DiGiangi said.
And while the city has said the building is structurally sound, DiGiangi said he believes it is far from it.
“Don’t walk underneath that scaffolding,” he said in reference to the scaffolding that the landlord put up after the collapse.
By Anna Gustafson
