A Manhattan judge exposed a little-known loophole clearing the city from liability for a delay in emergency care if the 911 call is not placed by a victim or an “immediate family member.”
City lawyers used that technicality to wriggle out of a lawsuit filed by the family of a woman who died during a 2010 blizzard after waiting more than two hours for an ambulance.
Kathleen Thomas, 51, suffered cardiac arrest after slipping in the snow outside her boyfriend’s apartment during the Dec. 27 storm. Alan Taylor, Thomas’ boyfriend, called 911 and an operator told him help would be there as soon as possible.
Thomas’ sister, Simone Pascal, filed a lawsuit against the city last year for the tragic delay.
But Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Margaret Chan agreed with the city’s claims that the case had no legal basis because the 911 call was placed by Thomas’ boyfriend, Alan
Taylor.
Taylor didn’t qualify as a “family member,” Chan said Wednesday in dismissing the suit, even though the two were together for 25 years.
“Mr. Taylor is not a family member, he was the decedent’s longtime boyfriend,” Chan wrote in her decision.
“Therefore plaintiff cannot satisfy the . . . elements of a special relationship and plaintiff’s claim against the municipality and its employees must fail.”
Pascal, 61, slammed the judge’s decision.
“If the 911 call came from a stranger or a crackhead on the street or even a dog, it shouldn’t matter,” she said. “I’m upset with the city and with Mayor Bloomberg. I feel betrayed. This is a cop-out, simply because they are looking for any excuse to defend themselves.
“My sister was hanging on as long as she was because the boyfriend was there. He is closer to her than just about any family.”
A Department of Law spokeswoman declined to comment.
The 2010 blizzard dumped 20 inches of snow and paralyzed the city. Abandoned cars and buses clogged up the roads — and ambulances couldn’t make it out to calls that at one point backed up past 1,000.
The family of a Queens grandmother who died of a heart attack during the blizzard also sued the city last year for failing to clear the streets. That case is still pending.