Caption and posture

Trial: J.A. v. Mandy Assoc. LLC, 84 Misc. 3d 740, 216 N.Y.S.3d 494 (Sup. Ct. Bronx County July 11, 2024) (Hummel, J.) — denied plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment on liability and causation.

Appeal: J.A. v. Mandy Assoc., LLC, 237 A.D.3d 471, 232 N.Y.S.3d 94, 2025 NY Slip Op 02035 (1st Dep’t Apr. 8, 2025) — unanimously affirmed.

Official Reports: 2024 NY Slip Op 24194 · 2025 NY Slip Op 02035.

Turnover noncompliance is not absolute liability

The courts rejected using Local Law 1’s turnover provision (Administrative Code §27-2056.8) as a private absolute or strict-liability path to summary judgment. A landlord’s turnover noncompliance may be some evidence of negligence, but it does not replace the common-law elements—including proximate cause—under Juarez v Wavecrest Management Team, 88 NY2d 628 (1996). The First Department held that, regardless of whether failure to comply with the turnover provision provided some evidence of negligence, triable issues of fact remained on whether lead exposure proximately caused the infant’s alleged injuries.

For how the firm discusses Juarez, notice, and negligence without absolute-liability theater, see landlord liability. Turnover duties in statute terms are on Local Law 1 and turnover provisions.

Proximate cause remained for the jury

The First Department centered the affirmance on proximate cause. Competing medical experts and school and IQ records created a jury question on whether exposure caused the claimed injuries. A conclusory expert assertion of “heme inhibition,” without a showing of physical symptoms or actual injury, was not enough to take causation from the jury or to win summary judgment. Elevated blood-lead figures recited in the trial court’s fact statement are case facts as the opinion prints them; they are not a finding of recoverable injury as a matter of law, and they are not a CDC “lawsuit trigger.”

This disposition is a denial of partial summary judgment, affirmed on appeal. It is not a plaintiff verdict, not a new absolute-liability rule, and not a settled recovery printed in these opinions.

Practice takeaway for families

Document symptoms and functional impairment carefully. Turnover gaps and Local Law 1 compliance records can matter as negligence evidence; they do not, alone, resolve liability or causation on papers. For the firm’s evergreen index of major New York lead decisions, see landmark cases — this post is a narrow Mandy 2024/2025 procedural note and does not retitle that library.

Counsel line (opened opinions)

The Frankel Law Firm appeared for the plaintiffs in the trial court and for the appellants on appeal, as the Official Reports counsel lines print. Those lines are counsel citations. They are not announced recoveries, and they are not a promise about another case. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Call The Frankel Law Firm at (212) 888-5100. There is no fee to speak with us or for us to evaluate your potential case.

Lead poisoning lawyer.

Related pages

• Landmark cases
• Landlord liability
• Lead poisoning lawyer
• Local Law 1 guide
• Turnover provisions
• Childhood lead poisoning