$600,000 Window Fall & Dog Attack Settlement in Brooklyn

No window guards on a first-floor apartment where a child lived. The infant fell through the unprotected window — and landed near a pitbull that attacked. When the mother ran to save her baby, the dog attacked her too. A Brooklyn building owner failed this family twice.

Infant Falls From Brooklyn Apartment Without Window Guards

New York City's Health Code requires building owners to install window guards in apartments where children age ten or younger reside. The law exists because children fall from windows — it is a known, predictable, and preventable hazard. At a Brooklyn apartment on Ocean Avenue, the building owner failed to comply with this legal mandate. No window guards were installed in the apartment where our clients — a mother and her infant child — lived.

The infant fell from the first-floor apartment window. While a first-floor fall is lower than the upper-story falls that make headlines, it is still a fall from a significant height for an infant — high enough to cause serious injuries to a child whose bones, organs, and neurological system are still developing. The fall alone would have constituted a serious premises liability claim. But what happened next made this case far more alarming.

Pitbull Attack Following the Fall

After falling from the window, the infant landed in an area where a pitbull was present on the building's property. The dog attacked the infant. The mother, hearing her child's distress, rushed from the apartment to rescue her baby and was herself attacked by the same dog. Both mother and infant suffered bite injuries, lacerations, and trauma from the animal attack — injuries layered on top of the infant's fall injuries.

The building owner bore responsibility for both the fall and the animal attack. The absence of window guards violated a mandatory safety provision of the Health Code. The presence of a dangerous dog on the premises — whether belonging to another tenant or an unauthorized occupant — represented a second failure of the building owner's duty to maintain safe conditions. A building owner who permits or fails to address the presence of a dangerous animal on the property is liable for injuries that animal causes, particularly when the victim is a child who was placed in the animal's path by the owner's first failure — the missing window guards.

"This building owner failed this family twice. First, no window guards in an apartment with an infant — a direct violation of the Health Code. The baby fell. Then, a dangerous dog on the property attacked the child and the mother. Each failure standing alone would be a serious case. Together, they represent a level of negligence that put a mother and her baby through an experience no family should ever endure." — Andrew Levine, Founding Partner

$600,000 Settlement for a Brooklyn Window Fall and Dog Attack

This $600,000 settlement covers the infant's fall injuries, the infant's dog bite injuries, the mother's dog bite injuries, emergency medical treatment for both victims, follow-up surgical care, psychological treatment, and the lasting impact on this family. It holds the building owner accountable for two distinct failures — missing window guards and a dangerous animal on the premises — that combined to cause devastating harm to a mother and her child.

If your child fell from a window without guards or was injured by a dangerous animal on a landlord's property, our premises liability attorneys have experience with building code violation cases and are ready to review your claim.