$500,000 Settlement – Broken Sidewalk Trip and Fall in Manhattan
Suing New York City is not for the faint of heart. There are strict procedural requirements, short deadlines, and a municipal bureaucracy that does not make it easy to build a case against it. But when the City has received prior complaints about a specific sidewalk condition and done nothing about it, the record exists – if you know how to find it. In 2023, Linden Law found it, and recovered $500,000 for an elderly client who fractured a hip on a broken Manhattan sidewalk.
The Case
Our client was walking on a Manhattan sidewalk near a tree pit when a raised, broken slab caught their foot. They fell, fracturing their hip. For an elderly person, a hip fracture is a potentially life-altering event – the surgery required to repair it carries real risks, and the rehabilitation that follows is measured not in weeks but in months. Our client spent three months in a rehabilitation facility before they could return home. Three months of institutional living, of being away from their apartment, their routines, the texture of their own life.
The Injury
Hip fractures in older adults are among the most serious injuries that fall cases produce. The fracture itself typically requires surgical fixation – often a hemiarthroplasty or open reduction with internal fixation, depending on the location and severity of the break. The surgical risks for elderly patients are elevated compared to younger populations, and the recovery demands a level of sustained effort that is genuinely hard for many patients.
Our client completed the required rehabilitation and ultimately returned home, which was not a guaranteed outcome. But three months away from home is three months away from home – the disruption to their life, independence, and sense of normalcy was severe. And the physical limitations that persisted after discharge, while manageable, were real and ongoing.
How We Established Liability
Sidewalk cases against the City of New York require a specific body of proof. The City is generally protected from liability for sidewalk defects unless it had prior written notice of the specific condition. That notice can come in two forms: formal written notice to the Department of Transportation, or a defect that the City itself created or caused.
We filed a FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) request with the NYC Department of Transportation seeking all complaints, work orders, and inspection records related to the specific block and sidewalk location where our client fell. What came back was significant: there had been prior complaints about the raised slab near the tree pit. The City had received notice of the exact condition that caused our client’s fall and had not corrected it.
We also filed a 90-day Notice of Claim with the City of New York within the statutory deadline – a mandatory procedural step that, if missed, permanently bars any claim against a municipal entity in New York. We filed it promptly, preserved the evidence, and photographed the condition before it could be repaired.
Challenges We Overcame
The City’s Law Department assigned a seasoned attorney to the case, as they typically do in hip fracture claims. Their defense had two main threads: first, that the prior complaint records were ambiguous as to whether they referred to the exact location where our client fell; second, that our client had been comparatively negligent – that they should have been watching where they were walking.
On the location argument, we obtained a licensed surveyor’s report mapping the complaint records to the precise coordinates of the defect. The mapping was conclusive. The complaints referenced the same location.
On comparative fault, we addressed it directly: the sidewalk defect was not visible to a pedestrian exercising reasonable care. It was not a pothole sitting in the middle of an otherwise clean sidewalk. It was a raised slab next to a tree pit – the kind of condition that blends into its surroundings until it catches your foot. We had photographs taken at the same time of day, from the perspective of a pedestrian walking in the direction our client had been walking. The hazard was not obvious. The City’s failure to repair it was.
The Outcome
The case settled for $500,000. For our client, who had spent three months in rehabilitation and endured a recovery that tested every part of their resilience, the settlement meant security. It covered the medical costs, the rehabilitation facility, and the ongoing care needs that resulted from the fall. The City had notice of that broken sidewalk. It chose to do nothing. Our client should not have had to pay for that choice.
If you’ve been injured on a broken or defective sidewalk in Manhattan, time is critical – you have only 90 days to file a Notice of Claim. Visit our slip and fall practice area page or our Manhattan personal injury page to learn more.
Injured in a similar accident? Call (212) 804-8440 for a free consultation. No fee unless we win.