New York parking lot collapse worth $100 million in damages: lawsuit

Subway

For Kathianne Boniello

April 29, 2023 | 9:39 a.m

Two Manhattanites who stored their expensive rides in a condemned Financial District parking lot have filed a $100 million class action lawsuit over the loss of their cars.

Robert Galpern, the owner of a nearby building on Fulton Street, had parked his $60,000 customized Toyota Highlander in the garage before it was destroyed, said his lawyer, Migir Ilganayev.

“He paid for it, bought it, and now it’s gone,” Ilganayev said.

Although Galpern hopes to file an insurance claim on the vehicle, “they’re not going to pay you what you paid for the car. Who’s responsible for that? It’s the owners, the operators, the managers of that garage, because that building was very old and dilapidated and there were too many cars on the roof.”

Another Financial District resident, building superintendent Boguslaw Zapolnick, lost his $40,000 2023 Mazda, the attorney said, adding that Zapolnick had complained for years about dust and falling cement in 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 couple accuses the owners of the garage at 57 Ann Street Realty Associates, Alan and Jeffrey Henick, Little Man Parking LLC and Enterprise Ann Parking LLC of negligence and “reckless and reckless disregard for human life and property,” according to court documents.

It is one of three lawsuits filed after the disastrous incident on April 18, which left one person dead and five others injured.

Pierre Vancol, 50, a worker who survived the sudden collapse of the three-story parking garage, filed his own lawsuit Tuesday in Brooklyn Supreme Court against the garage’s 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.