§ 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.