Excerpt from: New York Times (click for full article)
A judge has agreed to allow a class-action lawsuit to proceed against New York City alleging a systemic failure in addressing the needs of the disabled population in planning for emergencies and disasters.
The lawsuit was filed last year after Tropical Storm Irene; the lawyers have contended that there were significant gaps in the city’s plans to accommodate people with disabilities at city shelters or to evacuate them from high rises, among other claims.
Judge Jesse M. Furman of Federal District Court in Manhattan cited Hurricane Sandy’s impact in support of granting class-action status to the plaintiffs: the city’s estimated disabled population of about 900,000 people.
The judge wrote that it was impossible to know “if or when disaster will strike the city, but — as the tragic events of the past few weeks make abundantly clear — it is beyond ‘mere conjecture’ that another disaster, whether natural or man-made, will occur and that it will seriously affect members of the proposed class.”
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