For example, a person who suffers an accident on an improperly maintained civic amenity may think it is owned by New York City, when in fact it could be owned by the Port Authority, or a particular city authority, or by any public corporation. It is usually too late for a party to file a proper notice of claim by the time it takes to navigate through red tape and ultimately find the civic body, authority, or corporation upon which the notice of claim must be served. Also, the rule is that complaints against civic bodies must be filed in the county where the alleged incident occurred.
To address the issue, lawmakers created and approved the Uniform Notice of Claim Act in June, which would allow plaintiffs in New York to file notices of claim with the Secretary of State in Albany, and who in turn would have the responsibility of identifying and notifying the proper defendants. However, since passing of the bill, both the state Association of Counties and the New York Conference of Mayors have been urging the Governor Andrew Cuomo to veto the bill. The organizations opposing the bill represent the cities and towns of New York State.
Though, the bill has the blessings of lawmakers and passed the Democrat controlled Assembly with 113-13 vote and the Republican-led Senate with a 44-16 vote, and though as mentioned above the New York State Bar Association and the Trial Lawyers Association also support the bill, the bureaucracy clearly does not.
The bureaucrats are supported in their efforts to veto the bill by small civic groups like the Lawsuit Reform Alliance who see the bill promoting lawsuits against the state and civic bodies, which otherwise would have become time-barred by personal confusions of plaintiffs as to the identity of defendants and proper jurisdiction.
