Woman Sues City After Falling Branch On UWS Causes Amputation

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — Molly Smith is suing the city, the New York City Parks Department, and the Riverside Park Conservancy after a tree branch fell from the sky and landed on her foot as she was walking through an Upper West Side section of Riverside Park in July, according to the petition.

The branch landed on her left foot causing "crush injuries" and the partial amputation of her toes, according to the suit filed on Thursday.

The toe-crushing incident happened within the park near West 79th Street, according to the suit. Smith also suffered a cut on her foot and was taken to Mount Sinai West by emergency responders.

The petition filed in the Supreme Court of New York State seeks to inspect the tree limb as soon as possible, "before its condition deteriorates due to weather conditions."

Smith and her lawyers believe that the tree limb was taken away on the day of the accident by the Parks Department and stored in a nearby maintenance facility. Smith states in the suit that it is "likely" that the collapsed limb is still at the site, but when she sent a request to inspect the limb she received no response from the department.

The Parks Department did not immediately respond to Patch's request for comment.

The suit is "compelling" the Parks Department, the city, and the Riverside Parks Conservancy to "search for" and "locate" the collapsed tree limb as it is "valuable physical evidence" and may prove to be crucial in determining whether the tree was in an unsafe condition when the branch fell.

Smith and her law team have identified the Riverside Park tree that the branch fell from as tree #225. The Parks Department keeps a running map of nearly 670,000 trees in New York City's five boroughs, including 5,653 on the Upper West Side.

The petition also compels the above-mentioned parties to search for any prior inspections or prunings done of the tree that the branch came from.

While the suit never says it outright, Smith and her law team seem to be trying to prove there was some negligence on the part of the city, Parks Department, or Riverside Park Conservancy when it came to the care of the tree that the branch fell from.

The Riverside Park Conservancy told Patch it had no comment on the ongoing matter.