First Blizzard Suit: Victim's Family Sues City For $20 Million

Yvonne Freeman

The family of a 75-year-old Corona woman who died of a heart attack on December 27th is suing the city for $20 million, claiming Yvonne Freeman could have survived if the ambulance hadn't taken three hours in the storm to get to their house. Freeman's daughter, Lauren, told the Daily News, "She never had a chance. I felt so helpless. I can't believe they wouldn't plow the streets. The city can't let this happen again."

Lawyer Sanford Rubenstein will notify the city of plans to sue, which would be the first wrongful-death suit to come out of December's blizzard. Lauren Freeman says she was unable to reach an emergency operator for about 45 minutes; emergency operators said they had a backlog of over 1,000 calls, some of them pranks or non-emergencies. Medics allegedly told Freeman, "We're so sorry we've never seen anything like this," once they arrived, but by that point it was too late. A city spokeswoman says, "The case involves a very tragic situation and we'll await the legal papers."

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By Jaya Saxena in News on January 19, 2011 5:02 PM

Comments [rss]

Jesse James Payette-Steinberg

I know family can be priceless, but $20 million is a tad steep. Lawsuits such as this one should be, the amount of years the women have left to live, say about 25 years. Seeing 100 years is a nice number. Plus the amount the woman made at work early. So say $50,000 a year. So the family should sue for $1.25 million. We know if the family wins, most of the money going towards the lawyers fees.

user696969

i wish that annoying ambulance chasing Rubenstein would have stroke and die.

Emily Dougherty

I know times have changed since this girl disappeared: http://gothamist.com/2011/01/1...
But these parents got $750,000 for LOSING THEIR NEW BORN BABY.... please justify how a 75 yo woman's death is worth 2 million? I'm sure she was a great lady, but these greedy people are the reasons we don't have an extra 2mill to put into our plowing efforts in the first place.

justthinkin

Read again. It's $20 million, not $2mil. But don't have s stroke...it may be snowing out.

Gwinny

well, that horrible huckster Sanford Rubenstein (known ambulance chaser with commercials on NY1) is their lawyer, so I'm not too surprised about this.

gertah

My reaction to the story about the missing girl was that her parents got way too little and it took way too long for them to get it. It's impossible to put a $ amount on the value of a person's life, regardless of their age or circumstances. However, there are formulas used by attorneys, insurance companies, the government, etc. to come up with numbers that appropriately reflect current mores and standards. I imagine that $750,000 in 1992 dollars is worth at least double in today's.