$2,000,000 Settlement

Sometimes in life, we decide that we are entitled to relax and enjoy an afternoon, and sometimes, with the natural aging process, we have some aches and pains. Our client, who was in his middle 60s, decided one day to relax and get a massage to alleviate some of his aches and pains. He had worked hard in his life and was entitled to a little bit of luxury. Anytime we enter a building in New York City, we have a right to expect that the statutes and codes that are in place for our protection are being followed and adhered to. If they are not, the very harm that they are designed to protect against can fall upon us. Our client, with his eyes closed enjoying a hard-earned luxury massage, was simply trying to escape life’s difficulties for a short period of time when he was overcome by smoke from a fire that broke out in the massage parlor. Our firm alleged that the mandated smoke detectors were not functioning as they should have, thereby reducing our client’s time to escape the fire. As a result, he never made it out of the building alive.

The defense argued that the landlord had no obligation to check the smoke detectors after it leased the property to the tenant with a working smoke detector. The defense said that it was the tenant’s duty and obligation to ensure that the fire safety laws of New York City were being complied with. Here, the tenant had no insurance, and therefore it became critical for our firm to establish that the landlord failed to provide the tenant with working smoke detectors at the time the lease was signed. This case was defended aggressively, but after numerous depositions and court appearances, and years of litigation, a long mediation resulted in a settlement of all claims.