2019 New York Laws
GMU - General Municipal
Article 4 - Negligence and Malfeasance of Public Officers; Taxpayers' Remedies
50-I - Presentation of Tort Claims; Commencement of Actions.

§  50-i.  Presentation  of tort claims; commencement of actions. 1. No
action or special proceeding shall be prosecuted or maintained against a
city, county, town,  village,  fire  district  or  school  district  for
personal  injury,  wrongful death or damage to real or personal property
alleged to have been sustained by reason of the negligence  or  wrongful
act  of  such  city,  county,  town,  village,  fire  district or school
district or  of  any  officer,  agent  or  employee  thereof,  including
volunteer  firefighters  of  any  such city, county, town, village, fire
district or school district or any volunteer firefighter whose  services
have  been  accepted  pursuant  to the provisions of section two hundred
nine-i of this chapter, unless, (a) a notice of claim  shall  have  been
made  and  served upon the city, county, town, village, fire district or
school district in compliance with section fifty-e of this article,  (b)
it  shall  appear  by  and  as  an allegation in the complaint or moving
papers that at least thirty days have elapsed since the service of  such
notice, or if service of the notice of claim is made by service upon the
secretary of state pursuant to section fifty-three of this article, that
at  least  forty days have elapsed since the service of such notice, and
that adjustment or payment thereof has been neglected  or  refused,  and
(c)  the action or special proceeding shall be commenced within one year
and ninety days after the happening of the event upon which the claim is
based; except that wrongful death actions shall be commenced within  two
years after the happening of the death.
  2.  This  section shall be applicable notwithstanding any inconsistent
provisions  of  law,  general,  special  or  local,  or  any  limitation
contained in the provisions of any city charter.
  3.  Nothing  contained  herein  or  in section fifty-h of this chapter
shall operate to extend the period limited by subdivision  one  of  this
section for the commencement of an action or special proceeding.
  4.  (a)  Notwithstanding  any  other provision of law to the contrary,
including any other subdivision of this section, section fifty-e of this
article, section thirty-eight hundred thirteen of the education law, and
the provisions of any general, special or local law or charter requiring
as a condition  precedent  to  commencement  of  an  action  or  special
proceeding  that  a  notice of claim be filed or presented, any cause of
action against a public corporation for personal injuries suffered by  a
participant in World Trade Center rescue, recovery or cleanup operations
as  a  result  of such participation which is barred as of the effective
date of this subdivision because the applicable period of limitation has
expired is hereby revived, and a claim thereon may be filed  and  served
and  prosecuted  provided such claim is filed and served within one year
of the effective date of this subdivision.
  (b) For the purposes of this subdivision:
  (1) "participant in World Trade Center  rescue,  recovery  or  cleanup
operations" means any employee or volunteer that:
  (i)  participated in the rescue, recovery or cleanup operations at the
World Trade Center site; or
  (ii) worked at the Fresh Kills Land Fill in the city of New York after
September eleventh, two thousand one; or
  (iii) worked at the New York city morgue or the  temporary  morgue  on
pier  locations  on the west side of Manhattan after September eleventh,
two thousand one; or
  (iv) worked on the barges between the west side of Manhattan  and  the
Fresh  Kills Land Fill in the city of New York after September eleventh,
two thousand one.
  (2) "World Trade Center site" means anywhere  below  a  line  starting
from  the  Hudson  River  and Canal Street; east on Canal Street to Pike

Street; south on Pike Street to the East River;  and  extending  to  the
lower tip of Manhattan.
  5.  Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, this section
shall not apply to any claim made against a city, county, town, village,
fire district or school district for physical, psychological,  or  other
injury  or  condition  suffered  as  a  result  of  conduct  which would
constitute a sexual offense as defined in article one hundred thirty  of
the penal law committed against a child less than eighteen years of age,
incest  as  defined in section 255.27, 255.26 or 255.25 of the penal law
committed against a child less than eighteen years of age, or the use of
a child in a sexual performance as defined  in  section  263.05  of  the
penal law committed against a child less than eighteen years of age.