1992 Third Realty Win Featured in Law.com
A win for client 1992 Third Realty LLC, represented by Infrastructure partners Carol Sigmond and Joshua Deal, was featured on Law.com in its case wrap-up column. Law.com wrote of 1992 Third Realty LLC v. Third Avenue NY Realty LLC:
The First Department ruled that an adjoining property owner cannot be held liable for a developer’s construction delays and related economic losses arising from a stop work order issued during excavation work. Reversing a trial court, the panel dismissed a negligence counterclaim brought by a Manhattan developer that alleged a neighboring building’s defective design, code violations and poor maintenance caused structural instability and delayed a project by forcing remedial measures.
The court held that New York City Building Code §3309.4 places the duty to protect adjacent structures squarely on the party performing excavation or foundation work, regardless of the neighboring building’s condition. Imposing a reciprocal duty on adjoining owners to proactively safeguard future construction projects would conflict with the code’s allocation of responsibility and expose landowners to unpredictable, ‘insurer-like’ liability, the court said.
The panel also found the developer’s-claimed $16 million in delay-related losses were unrecoverable as New York negligence law generally bars recovery for purely economic damages absent personal injury or property damage.
