7OYS investigation finds dozens of injury lawsuits from people living in same apartment buildings
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- An Eyewitness News investigation has found dozens of construction injury lawsuits from people living in the same homes in New York City, which builders and contractors say is evidence of the extensive insurance fraud in the New York construction industry.
When someone files a lawsuit, they list on the lawsuit their home address.
Eyewitness News analyzed hundreds of construction site injury lawsuits in the New York State public court filing database and found that many of them came from people living in the same apartment building or home.
At an apartment building on Ellis Avenue in the Bronx, we found 30 construction injury claims tied to people who live or lived there.
At a two-story home directly across the street - also on Ellis Avenue - we found 21 people who claimed they were injured on construction sites. A few blocks away, on Haviland Avenue, we found 12 people who lived in a home who filed injury lawsuits.
At an apartment building on Morrison Avenue we found 8 lawsuits, and 5 at a building on Stratford Avenue.
We shared the information with Michelle Rafeld, executive director of the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud.
"While I can't comment on specific cases, what I can tell you is that when you are seeing large numbers of individuals living in the same area and living in the same building all having a claim that sends up a very big red flag," she said. "Not only is it a red flag for insurance fraud, but it's a red flag for organized crime."
Members of the local construction and insurance industries met recently on Long Island to discuss this trend, which they call disturbing.
They believe many of the lawsuits are fraudulent, and they said this type of fraud is raising home and even food costs for every New Yorker.
"We have a system that allows for fraudulent claims, leads to million dollars settlements and it raises the cost of insurance premiums across the board," Brian Sampson, president of the Empire State Chapter of the Associated Builders & Contractors, said. "We need to find a way to get it to stop."
Eyewitness News found a home in Corona, which has seven lawsuits attached to it - two were filed by two different people in the same apartment alleging construction injury accidents within one month of each other.
While Eyewitness News investigative reporter Kristin Thorne was at that house, she spotted a man appearing to be injured going inside.
He had a cane and a back brace. He said he was hurt in a construction accident.
We showed him his lawsuit and asked him in Spanish if it was his. He said, yes.
We asked him if he knew the other people who live in the building who also filed lawsuits. He responded that he didn't know them and that maybe it was from years before.
A few minutes later, another man came out of the building, and we asked him about the other plaintiffs. He said they moved to New Jersey.
Not only did Eyewitness News uncover dozens of construction injury lawsuits coming from the same homes, but we found about half - 30 out of 62 lawsuits - were filed by the same two law firms.
We reached out to both of them. One did not get back to us.
The other did not want to provide a statement.
Eyewitness News reached out to the New York State Trial Lawyers Association about our findings.
They're the group that represents the lawyers who file these lawsuits.
We shared our data with them - showing them all the lawsuits that have come from people living in the same apartment buildings and filed by the same several attorneys - and requested an interview to discuss it with them. They did not get back to us.
Eyewitness News was able to find, however, that judges for the New York State Worker's Compensation Board agreed that at least 12 of those people did suffer work related injuries and awarded them workers comp.
"It's very easy for a fraudulent claim to get through in some cases because on paper that one single event does look legitimate," Rafeld said.
We shared the data with the New York State Inspector General - the agency which oversees worker's comp - and asked if they were aware of the information and if they find it problematic.
The office responded in a statement: " The Offices of the New York State Inspector General is committed to thorough, comprehensive, and independent investigations into all complaints received that fall under our jurisdiction. But as is the standard policy of this Office, in the interest of maintaining the confidentiality of complainants, witnesses, and subjects of any allegations, we do not confirm the existence or status of investigations unless and until a finding of wrongdoing is made."
We also shared the data with the New York State Inspector General, who oversees worker's comp, and asked to discuss it with them.
They said it's their policy not to comment on their investigations.
Eyewitness News investigative reporter Kristin Thorne has spent the last year investigating concerns that fake construction site accidents https://abc7ny.com/fake-falls-construction-new-york-rising-rent/14018693/ and sidewalk slip and fall claims https://abc7ny.com/post/7-side-investigates-how-fake-slip-fall-claims/15122320/ are leading to rising rents and home prices in New York.
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