532 Madison Avenue Gourmet Foods, Inc. v. Finlandia Center, Inc.

Facts

On December 7, 1997, a section of the south wall of the 39-story office-building located at 540 Madison Avenue in New York City partially collapsed, throwing bricks, mortar, and other debris onto Madison Avenue. The collapse occured after a construction project in the building, which included adding 94 windows, aggravated pre-existing strucural problems. New York City officials ordered the 15 blocks between 42nd street and 57th street of Madison Avenue, Park Avenue, and 5th Avenue be shut down for approximately two weeks. Some businesses closest to the collapse were shuttered for longer. The plaintiff 532 Madison Avenue Gourment Foods was closed for five weeks.

Many of the businesses within that radius lost customers and income for the time of the shut down. Some of those businesses, including 532 Madison Avenue Gourmet Foods and 5th Avenue Chololatiere filed lawsuits against the owner of the collapsed building, the ground-floor tenant of the collapsed building, and the property management company for the collapsed building. Each suit alleged the defendant property owner et al., were responsible for the economic losses suffered by the closed businesses because the closures were a result of actions taken by those defendants in renovating their building.

The facts of the third plaintiff discussed in this case is similar. Following the July 21, 1998 collapse of a 48-story construction elevator on West 43rd Street between 6th and 7th Avenues, the immediately surrounding streets were evacuated and remained closed to traffic for varying times. Goldberg, Weprin, & Ustin filed suit on behalf of themselves and other similarly situated businesses who lost income as a result of the closures.