Elevator
A malfunction of an elevator can cause a serious injury. Elevators can drop; they can fall from heights; they can mislevel above or below a landing; or an elevator cab can be in the wrong place causing a person to fall from a height thinking the elevator is actually where it is not.
Elevators are complex pieces of machinery that have a few hundred mechanisms and machines that make them work. There are motors, circuits, hoists, balances, door locks, and hundreds of other components of elevators.
Elevators are equipped with speed regulators, safety systems, emergency shut down systems, and with other mechanisms and devices to protect passengers who use the elevators.
The New York City Building Code requires that all buildings and all parts thereof be maintained in a safe condition and in good working order. This applies to elevators.
The owner of the building, the manager of the building, and any elevator maintenance company regularly used by the building have a non delegable duty to passengers to maintain and to repair the elevator.
Where an elevator maintenance company agrees by contract to maintain an elevator, the elevator maintenance company may be liable to passengers who are injured for failure to correct conditions of which it had knowledge or for the failure to use reasonable care to discover and correct conditions which it should have discovered.
The negligence of the elevator maintenance company is separate from the negligence of the owner and manager of the building, who too maybe held liable for serious injuries.
Cases involving elevator accidents are complicated and require expert opinion.
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