MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT
S.4164 (Volker) – Senate Rules Committee
A.2989 (Weinstein) – Assembly Judiciary Committee
On behalf of NYTortReformNow.org, a broad based coalition of businesses, professionals, municipalities, not-for-profits and concerned citizens, we are writing in STRONG SUPPORT of the above referenced bill.
Under current law, injured employees are entitled to secure recovery against a wrongdoer, including an employer, which includes compensation for future economic harm such as lost wages. In the event that the element of loss is in fact not truly suffered by the employee because of the availability of insurance against the loss, such as payments pursuant to a disability policy, the claim for damages is adjusted downward to reflect the future disability payments. However, due to an anomaly in the present law pertaining to municipal employers, the set off is not available and an injured governmental employee suing his or her employer receives a double recovery.
New York State is one of the highest taxed states in the nation and our economy for decades has suffered anemic growth in comparison to many of our sister states. This bill will reduce the costs to local governments by more than eleven million dollars per year. The savings are predicated upon the elimination of the above discussed double recovery not available to private sector employees. New York simply cannot afford to permit windfall recoveries on the backs of New Yorkers struggling to deal with an enormous tax burden exacerbated by rapidly growing inflation impacting the cost for energy, food and other consumer goods.
Our civil justice is straining under the weight of rules which provide for strict liability in specified cases and require parties who are minimally at fault to pay for all economic losses simply because they have deep pockets. Passage of this bill will help reduce the burden imposed by an overly generous tort system. While many of our sister states have enacted comprehensive tort reform thereby attracting business development, New York simply cannot afford to retain rules which result in windfall recoveries in tort cases.
Accordingly, for all the foregoing reasons NYTortReformNOW.org urges approval of this measure.
Respectfully submitted,
Mark C. Kriss
Executive Director
NYTortReformNow.org