View this article online: https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/east/2015/04/30/366351.htm
Consolidated Edison Inc and New York City have been hit with a new lawsuit alleging that their carelessness contributed to a 2014 gas explosion in Manhattan’s East Harlem neighborhood that killed eight people and injured more than four dozen.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday in state supreme court in Manhattan was brought on behalf of 15 people who said they were in buildings adjacent to the two leveled in the March 12, 2014 blast, and suffered injuries from the defendants’ negligence or recklessness.
Other defendants include owners and managers of the adjacent buildings, and the owner of a church destroyed in the explosion.
Con Ed will respond to the lawsuit after it is served, a spokesman said. A spokesman for New York City’s law department said that office would review the complaint, which seeks unspecified damages.
The plaintiffs said they sued after the city failed to address their proof of claim.
Other lawsuits were filed soon after the explosion, which occurred moments after a resident reported a gas leak.
The cause of the explosion has not been determined.
Last month, the National Transportation Safety Board posted documents showing that investigators were focusing on plastic pipes that Con Ed had installed beneath the area in 2011.
The case is Samuels et al v. Consolidated Edison Inc et al, New York State Supreme Court, New York County, No. 154191/2015.
Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Richard Chang
Related: