50-I - Presentation of tort claims; commencement of actions.
§ 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 firemen of any such city, county, town, village, fire district or school district or any volunteer fireman 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 chapter, (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 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.