City school district faces lawsuits

By RODNEY MINOR, The Leader-Herald
GLOVERSVILLE — A lawsuit filed by the father of a student against the Gloversville Enlarged School District is scheduled to go to court this fall, one of several legal matters involving the district.

On Jan. 9, 2002, then 10-year-old Misty Hilts slipped and fell on the playground at McNab Elementary School, “allegedly due to slushy conditions,” according to court papers.

Hilts’ mother, a teacher’s aide at the school, decided to take her daughter to the emergency room. Carol Edwards, the school nurse, assisted Hilts’ mother in supporting the girl as she walked to the parking lot.

“When the child’s mother pulled [her] car around, Edwards allegedly released her and told her she could walk, causing the child to fall again and to sustain injuries to her right ankle,” according to court papers. The girl’s mother is not identified in the court papers, and she is not named as a plaintiff.

Gloversville attorney Robert Abdella, representing Daniel Hilts, the girl’s father, filed the lawsuit alleging negligence on the part of Edwards and the Board of Education.

Abdella said the premise of the lawsuit is that Edwards should have helped the child all the way to her mother’s vehicle.

Edwards actually denies the second fall ever happened, he said.

“Because [Hilts] is a young girl, I am reluctant to talk about her physical condition, but it was very serious and did have some unfortunate consequences for her,” Abdella said.

Superintendent Robert DeLilli said last week he was not familiar with the case and could offer no comment on it.

The lawsuit, which began in early 2003, was recently scheduled to head to trial in September.

The Clifton Park-based Mills Law Firm, representing the school district in the case, moved to dismiss the complaint in state Supreme Court last year. When the court denied the motion, the school district’s attorneys filed an appeal.

On April 24, the Third Department of the Appellate Division of the state Supreme Court ruled the school district’s motion for summary judgment dismissing the lawsuit was properly denied.

“While defendants argue that Edwards did not owe a common-law duty to ‘hold up’ the child, it is well settled that once a person voluntarily undertakes acts for which he or she has no legal obligation, that person must act with reasonable care or be subject to liability for negligent performance of the assumed acts,” the appellate division’s decision said.

The Appellate Division’s ruling does not specify the amount of damages Hilts is seeking in the case.

The attorney for the school district, Christopher K. Mills, declined to comment on the case.



Injury claim

The Gloversville Enlarged School District also is facing a lawsuit alleging negligence in a separate case involving injury to a child.

On March 30, 2006, Marissa Farina was playing in a supervised recess period at Boulevard Elementary School when the swing she was using broke and she fell to the ground, according to court documents.

“As a result of the defective condition [of the swing], the swing was caused to break, throwing [Farina] to the ground and causing her severe bodily injury in the process,” according to the lawsuit.

Abdella represents Jilliane Farina, the girl’s mother, who is named as the plaintiff in the case.

Farina suffered permanent injuries to her back and head, according to the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages.

Abdella declined to comment on the case, saying both sides are still gathering information during a discovery period.



Contractor sues

In a third case, a construction company has sued the school district in state Supreme Court in Fulton County, alleging it was not properly paid for work that it did.

MLB Construction Services was given a contract in August 2005 to perform general construction work on the high school and middle school, according to court records.

The company claims it did the work, but the school district “failed to make payments to MLB required under the contract, leaving the sum of $290,403 due and owing to MLB,” according to court records.

In addition to breach of contract, the company alleges the school district refused to pay for extra “change order” work that was done. According to court records, the company is seeking more than $109,000 for the disputed change orders.

MLB claims additional damages because of delays is says the school district caused. According to the lawsuit, the district required the company to accelerate its construction activities, which resulted in additional costs.

The company is seeking the amount for the delays and acceleration in construction to be determined at trial.

John P. Mastropietro, the Saratoga Springs attorney for MLB, declined to comment on the case.

DeLilli said he had no comment on the lawsuit.



Rodney Minor covers Gloversville. He can be reached at gloversville@leaderherald.com.