In this video, Jonathan Ratchik of Kramer, Dunleavy & Ratchik, a Manhattan personal injury law firm, explains how elevator accident cases work under New York premises liability law — the common types of accidents, who can be held legally responsible, and the damages an injured person can recover.

Elevators are part of daily life in New York City and across New York State, and most of the time they operate without incident. When they malfunction, though, the results can be serious or even catastrophic. The most common elevator accidents include misleveling, where the elevator floor stops above or below the landing and creates a trip-and-fall hazard; door malfunctions, where doors close too quickly or fail to reopen because the electronic eye or safety edge isn't working, striking or trapping a passenger; and the most catastrophic cases, where a passenger steps through open doors into an empty shaft because no elevator cab is present, often resulting in a fatality.

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Under New York law, the owner of a building has a non-delegable duty to maintain the premises, including the elevators, in a reasonably safe condition — inspecting, maintaining, repairing, and monitoring the elevator system and complying with the New York City elevator code. Because the duty is non-delegable, an owner cannot shift that legal responsibility onto someone else: the buck stops with the owner.

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Elevator maintenance companies can also be responsible, but whether they owe a legal duty to an injured passenger depends on their contract with the owner. A basic "oil and grease" maintenance contract generally is not enough to create a separate duty of care to a passenger. A comprehensive maintenance contract, however, can mean the maintenance company assumes a duty of care to passengers and may be held responsible for conditions it knew or should have known about. Depending on the facts, liability may rest with the owner, the maintenance company, or both.

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Like most premises liability cases, elevator cases usually turn on the question of notice — whether the owner or maintenance company had actual notice (they knew about the dangerous condition) or constructive notice (the condition existed long enough that they should have discovered and corrected it). One important exception is the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur, which can allow negligence to be inferred from the accident itself when the incident is the type that does not normally happen without negligence, the elevator was in the exclusive control of the owner or maintenance company, and the passenger did not cause it. A misleveling event is a common example where this doctrine may apply.

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Proving an elevator case depends on evidence that can disappear quickly — maintenance and inspection records, service tickets, shutdown history, Department of Buildings inspection records, prior complaints, incident reports, photographs, witness statements, and surveillance footage from inside or outside the cab. Maintenance logs get updated, footage gets overwritten, and the elevator is often repaired and returned to service before a full investigation, which is why prompt investigation by an attorney and a qualified expert is critical.

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A person injured in a New York elevator accident may recover the same damages as in any personal injury case: past and future pain and suffering, past and future medical expenses, and past and future lost earnings. In a fall down an elevator shaft, pre-impact terror may also be compensable. If the accident is fatal, surviving family members may pursue a wrongful death claim for the decedent's conscious pain and suffering and for the pecuniary losses to the family. Personal injury attorneys work on a contingency fee basis and do not charge for an initial consultation, so it is important to speak with a qualified attorney as soon as possible to investigate the claim and preserve evidence before it is lost.

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