Ask anyone in New York how long they have to bring an injury claim, and you will hear three years. That answer is correct, and for many falls in New York City it is also dangerously wrong.
A large number of falls in the five boroughs happen on ground owned or controlled by a public entity. When they do, the deadline is not three years. It is ninety days, and it belongs to a document most people have never heard of.
Two different deadlines, decided by who owns the ground
For a claim against a private defendant, CPLR 214 gives three years from the date of injury.
Claims against a public corporation run on a different track entirely. Under General Municipal Law section 50-e, a notice of claim must be served within ninety days after the claim arises. That is a condition precedent, not a formality. Without it, a case against the entity rarely survives a motion, regardless of how badly the property was maintained.
The second deadline behind the first
Section 50-i adds the rest of the sequence. After the notice is served, at least thirty days must pass, or forty if served through the secretary of state, and payment must have been neglected or refused. The lawsuit itself must then be commenced within one year and ninety days of the event, with wrongful death actions running two years from the death.
A claim against a public entity therefore runs on two clocks at once, and the shorter one starts the day you fall.
Which defendants trigger it
The list is broader than “the City.” It reaches the City itself, the New York City Housing Authority, public schools, the public hospital system, the transit authority, and municipal parks. A fall in a NYCHA stairwell, on a school walkway, on a subway staircase or on a park path is a ninety-day matter.
The sidewalk rule that decides which clock you are on
Here is where New York City becomes genuinely counterintuitive.
Administrative Code section 7-210, effective September 14, 2003, moved tort liability for a defective sidewalk off the City and onto the owner of the abutting property. For most of the city, a sidewalk fall is therefore a claim against a private building owner, on the ordinary three-year timetable.
The exception is narrow and specific. Where the abutting property is a one, two or three family residential building that is at least partly owner occupied and used exclusively for residential purposes, the City retains responsibility. All of those conditions have to be met.
Why this is nearly impossible to judge from the pavement
Consider what those conditions exclude. A four family building is outside the exception. A brownstone with a ground floor dental office is not used exclusively for residential purposes. A three family house whose owner moved out and rents all the units no longer qualifies.
From the sidewalk, none of that is visible. Two adjacent townhouses can look identical while one carries a three-year deadline and the other carries ninety days. That single ambiguity is the most common reason a legitimate New York sidewalk claim fails.
What a notice of claim actually is
It is not a lawsuit or a phone call. It is a formal document served on the entity, and the statute prescribes its contents: the name and address of each claimant, the nature of the claim, the time when and place where and manner in which it arose, and the items of damage or injury claimed.
For claims against the City of New York, that document goes to the Comptroller’s office, which maintains the official process for filing a claim.
Vagueness is its own failure mode
Courts take the location requirement seriously, because the notice exists to let the entity investigate while conditions still do. A notice describing a fall “on the sidewalk near the building” can be held insufficient even if served on day one. Building number, cross streets and which side of which entrance all matter.
Late notice is sometimes fixable, but never a plan
Section 50-e(5) lets a court extend the time to serve a late notice, and the extension cannot exceed the period for commencing the action, which effectively means one year and ninety days.
The court weighs whether the entity or its insurer acquired actual knowledge of the essential facts within the ninety days or a reasonable time after, infancy or incapacity, reliance on settlement representations, an excusable mistake about which entity was responsible, and whether the delay substantially prejudiced the defense.
That relief is discretionary, and the burden sits with the claimant. It is a remedy for people who had a reason, not for people who waited.
Why identifying the defendant comes first
The hard part in New York is not filing the notice. It is working out quickly who it should be served on, because serving the wrong entity can be as damaging as serving nothing. Ownership records, building classification and occupancy status all have to be checked, and none of it is apparent to someone lying on the pavement. That is why NYC accident attorneys treat the first days after a fall as investigative rather than administrative, before any decision about pursuing a claim.
What to do in the first week
Photograph the defect with something in frame for scale, and take a wide shot showing the nearest building number and the cross street. The exact location is the fact the notice turns on.
Photograph the abutting building too, including any signage, awning or commercial entrance. Whether it is a house, a four family walkup or a shop with apartments above decides which deadline applies.
Get medical attention the same day and keep everything. And if there is any possibility a public entity owns the ground, work from ninety days rather than three years until somebody confirms otherwise.
This content is provided for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. AFP editorial staff were not involved in the creation of this content.
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