The mother of Lederise Curry, who died at home from an asthma attack during the December 2022 blizzard, was denied a chance in court Thursday to file a claim against the City of Buffalo and Erie County over late rescue response time.
State Supreme Court Justice Gerald J. Greenan III ruled a Notice of Claim from Phyllis Jackson, Curry’s mother, was filed long after the 90-day time frame to submit the paperwork.
Also this week, the daughter of Doris Williams, 91, found dead on Christmas Day in her apartment at a Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority building, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the housing agency and its executive director.
Curry and Williams were among 47 people who died in Erie and Niagara counties during the Christmas week blizzard, the second most deadly natural disaster to occur in the United States in 2022.
Curry, known as “Nikki” to her friends, was 46 and the mother of a 13-year-old son, Christian Elijah Curry, when she died Dec. 26, 2022. Christian called for the ambulance that didn’t arrive through snow-clogged streets and whiteout conditions until she had died.
Brittany Lee Penberthy, Jackson’s attorney, said the late filing was due in part to an estate being created in late January of this year.
Penberthy told The Buffalo News she hoped the court would exercise its discretion to go beyond the statutory 90-day limit.
“I think we are going to review alternate avenues to pursue the litigation,” Penberthy said.
BMHA sued
Few lawsuits have been filed as a result of the blizzard deaths.
After Williams’ apartment in the Lyndon B. Johnson Apartments lost heat during the blizzard, “Williams froze to death,” according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by her daughter, Kathy W. Lassiter.
The lawsuit said BMHA’s failure to have an adequate emergency generator system in the building and an emergency disaster plan for tenants resulted in her mother’s death. The court filing also said the BMHA failed to warn tenants of the…
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