$3.75 Million Recovery Against Bronx Landlord Whose Records Did Not Hold Up
A five-year-old boy living in a pre-1960 Bronx apartment was found to have a blood lead level six times the CDC's danger level after years of his landlord sending an uncertified worker to scrape and paint over chipping lead paint. The Orlow Firm pursued the landlord, the management company, and the painting contractor. The landlord's defense rested on records: an outside contractor with an EPA certification, paperwork showing work had been performed, and a medical expert prepared to challenge whether the lead exposure had really caused the cognitive damage. The Orlow Firm took the records apart line by line, exposed the maintenance worker's missing certification and the contractor's $225 invoice, and recovered $3.75 million for the child.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
What Happened
Our client was a five-year-old boy living with his family in a pre-1960 apartment in the Bronx. In January 2014, a routine blood test at the pediatrician came back at a lead level of 33, six times the level the CDC considers dangerous. A follow-up two weeks later was 48. He was admitted to the hospital for treatment. He had lived in the apartment since birth. Before the diagnosis, he was attending kindergarten in a regular classroom and developing normally.
How We Won
The landlord's documents looked clean on paper. They had hired an outside painting contractor who held an EPA lead certification. They had records of work performed. And they had a medical expert prepared to argue that the boy's cognitive problems were not actually caused by the lead exposure.
Adam Moses Orlow, our Senior Trial Partner, made the documents tell the actual story.
For five years, the family had been calling the landlord about chipping paint. Each time, the landlord sent the same maintenance worker to scrape, plaster, and paint over the damage. New York City lead-safety law requires that this kind of work only be done by EPA-certified workers, who lay down floor coverings, seal off rooms, wet-mop the dust, and test the air afterward. None of that happened. The boy was often in the apartment while the work was being done. We requested the maintenance worker's complete file. The only certification document the landlord could produce was dated May 2017, three years after the boy's diagnosis.
The pattern continued even after the diagnosis. After the city had told the landlord lead paint was present, while the boy's blood level was still high, the same uncertified worker was sent back into the apartment in March 2014 to scrape, plaster, and paint again. Two weeks later, the boy's blood level shot back to 33.
The outside painting contractor's defense was the same. The contractor had a certification. But his bill for extensive work across multiple rooms charged $225, far too small to be consistent with the protective steps the law required. The defense's medical expert was the last challenge. His report did not hold up against the medical record. Our experts in pediatric neurology and neuropsychology, working from the boy's own school and medical records, established the connection the defense could not break.
The Injuries
The boy's blood lead levels stayed high for two and a half years even after treatment. Before the exposure, he was in a regular classroom. Afterward, he was placed in special education in first grade. By fourth grade, he was reading at a first-grade level and doing math at a kindergarten level. By ninth grade, he was at a fifth-grade reading level and a third-grade math level. His school records list a learning disability in reading, writing, and math.
The Result
The Orlow Firm recovered $3.75 million for the child. The money is set aside to fund the educational support and lifetime medical care he will need.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
If your child has been exposed to lead paint in a New York apartment, contact The Orlow Firm at (646) 647-3398 for a free consultation.
