On September 29, 2009, the New York State Supreme Court for Schenectady County denied a group of plaintiffs permission to serve late notices of claim upon a School District pursuant to Education Law Section 3813. The Court=s ruling also barred these individuals from commencing lawsuits against the School District and the District=s officials. The School District was represented in the actions by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, Esq. and Robert F. Manfredo, Esq.
In this case, plaintiffs sought permission from the Court to serve late notices of claim upon the School District for injuries they claim to have suffered as a result of alleged acts of vandalism, threatening conduct, and harassment which they claim were committed by a District employee at various times during the period from 2005 to February 16, 2009. In addressing the plaintiffs= allegations, the Court adopted the argument raised by Girvin & Ferlazzo, P.C. on behalf of the School District, and held that the Court did not have jurisdiction to consider the plaintiffs= applications because the petitions were filed well past the one-year and ninety-day statute of limitations applicable to suits commenced against a school district. The Court further agreed with the School District=s argument that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate any specific acts on the part of the School District which would have induced the plaintiffs to refrain from serving timely notices of claim.
From the outset, the cases against the School District were highly publicized and received a great deal of media attention. Girvin & Ferlazzo, P.C. was pleased to obtain a favorable result for the School District at the very initial stages of this litigation.