Mother New York, Let Me Dive Into Your Deep Pockets

As much as it pains me to say it — I’ve been trying to slip on ice for years now! — people probably wouldn’t be bum rushing smashed-up buses (“A dozen Brooklyn residents falsely claimed they were injured last night after witnessing an accident involving a city bus, police said.”) if juries stopped awarding people millions of dollars for slipping on the sidewalk:

It was the city’s responsibility, the jury found, to clear the ice-covered sidewalk outside the city-owned Bronx apartment building where Wilfredo Ferrer hurt his knee.

On Feb. 1, 2000, Ferrer, a 25-year-old security guard at the time, was helping a paraplegic friend clean his apartment at 1386 Prospect Ave. when he went outside about 2 a.m. to take out some trash and wound up taking a fall on the icy sidewalk.

He was taken to Montefiore Medical Center’s emergency room, where doctors there determined he had suffered torn ligaments and cartilage in his right knee.

During the seven-day trial before state Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Thompson, Ferrer said because of the weight he had to put on his other leg after the fall, he had to undergo surgery on his left knee a year later.

“The city should have been aware that its sidewalks were hazardous,” said Ferrer’s attorney, Steven Cohen. “The city has a responsibility to clean up the ice.”

The four-unit building had been taken over by the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development, but during the seven-day trial, the city’s attorney argued that the city was not aware that the sidewalk was hazardous and that it did not have enough time to clear it.

The city attorney also said that Ferrer fell because he was drunk, producing medical records from Montefiore that indicated Ferrer emitted an odor that suggested that he had been drinking at the time of the fall.

Ferrer testified that he suffered ongoing knee pain and limitations that constitute a permanent partial disability.

An orthopedist who testified on his behalf agreed, but the city’s attorney contended that Ferrer is still capable of sedentary work. At the time of the accident, Ferrer’s annual salary was $20,000.

The jury awarded him $31,564 for past medical expenses, $130,000 for lost earnings and $1.5 million for pain and suffering.

A spokeswoman for the city Law Department said it is weighing an appeal.