NYC parking garage collapse worth $100M in damages: lawsuit
Two Manhattanites who stored their pricey rides at a doomed Financial District parking garage have filed a $100 million class-action lawsuit over the loss of their cars.
Robert Galpern, the landlord of a nearby Fulton Street building, had parked his customized, $60,000 Toyota Highlander at the garage before it was destroyed, said his lawyer, Migir Ilganayev.
“He paid for it, he bought it and now it’s not there any more,” Ilganayev said.
While Galpern expects to put in an insurance claim on the vehicle, “they’re not going to pay him what he paid for the car. Who is responsible for that? It’s the owners, the operators, the managers of that garage, because that building was very old and run down and had way too many cars on that roof.”
Another Financial District resident, building superintendent Boguslaw Zapolnick, lost his $40,000 2023 Mazda, said the attorney, adding Zapolnick had complained for years of dust and falling cement at the garage.
Too many cars on the roof, along with heavier electric vehicles, may have been a factor in the collapse of the structure — which had a long history of violations.
The pair accuse garage owners 57 Ann Street Realty Associates, Alan and Jeffrey Henick, Little Man Parking LLC and Enterprise Ann Parking LLC of negligence and “reckless and wanton disregard for human life and property,” according to court papers.
It’s one of three lawsuits filed after the disastrous April 18 incident, which left one person dead and five others hurt.
Pierre Vancol, 50, a worker who survived the sudden crumpling of the three-story parking garage, filed his own lawsuit Tuesday in Brooklyn Supreme Court against the garage owners.
Luis Farfan, of the Bronx, is also suing in Bronx Supreme Court after claiming he was injured in the incident. Both Farfan and Vancol are seeking unspecified damages.
