On August 14, 2003, after a massive blackout left much of the East Coast powerless, Christine Kopsachilis was unable to return to her home. Like many New Yorkers in that situation, Kopsachilis was forced to spend the night at a friend's apartment.
When she arrived at the apartment building, Kopsachilis was escorted up the stairs to her friend's fourth floor apartment by a building employee carrying a flashlight. The following morning, upon attempting to descend without a flashlight, Kopsachilis fell down the stairs and sustained serious injuries.
In Kopsachilis v. 130 E. 18 Owners Corp. , Kopsachilis filed suit against the building owners alleging negligence per se for violating Multiple Dwelling Law § 37.* When the owners moved to dismiss the case, the New York County Supreme Court denied the request and found in Kopsachilis's favor.
On appeal, the Appellate Division, First Department, affirmed, explaining that there were triable issues of fact as to whether the building took appropriate measures to maintain the building's emergency stairwell lighting.
In a dissent, Justice Catterson was of the opinion that the building had exercised reasonable care to comply with its legal obligations under particularly difficult circumstances.
The dissenter could find nothing willful about the building owners' failure to provide continuous lighting. In fact, she was of the opinion that they took reasonable efforts to comply with the law.
The record established that each of the building's two stairwells had been equipped with emergency lighting that illuminated for 30 to 40 minutes if the electricity failed. (These lights were powered by rechargeable batteries.)
In addition, at the blackout's outset, the building's superintendent placed 30 flashlights in each of the stairways to aid the building's visitors and residents.
While the emergency lights were no longer operational on the morning of August 15, the superintendent was unable to obtain replacement batteries because all of the suppliers were closed due to the blackout. Yet, the superintendent notified the residents that if they wanted to descend or ascend, they should call and arrange for an escort by a building staff member.
According to Catterson, while a blackout may be foreseeable, the notion that the building owners' negligence was established by their failure to keep an adequate supply of backup batteries was "simply ludicrous."
Since the accident occurred some 16 hours after the blackout had begun, more than 20 sets of backup batteries would have been required in order to illuminate all of the stairways.
Ultimately, according to Catterson, since the duration of a blackout can vary, any attempt to quantify the adequacy of backup battery supplies in order to determine whether the building owners had failed to provide an adequate supply would be completely arbitrary and without any legal effect.
It seems that despite their efforts to provide adequate emergency lighting during this unexpected outage, it's lights out for this particular group of owners.
For a copy of the Appellate Division's decision, please use this link: Kopsachilis v. 130 E. 18 Owners Corp.
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* Multiple Dwelling Law § 37 states in pertinent part:
1. In every multiple dwelling the owner shall provide a light or lights, each of at least sixty watts incandescent . . . for every vestibule and entrance hall in every public hall, stair, fire-stair ... on every floor. Said light or lights shall be located as prescribed by the department, but, in every stair, fire-stair or fire-tower, shall be so located that every part thereof shall be lighted.
2. Except as provided in subdivision three, every such light shall be turned on by the owner at sunset every day and shall not be turned off by the owner until the following sunrise. Every such light shall be kept burning daily from sunset until sunrise, but if it becomes extinguished and remains so without the knowledge or consent of the owner he shall not be liable ....
3. Every light in every fire-stair ... at every story, and in every stair and public hall at every story where there is no window opening to the outer air, shall be kept burning continuously ...."