Establishes the toxic victim justice act to extend the time frame to commence an action for certain victims who were exposed to a toxic substance until one year from the date of discovery of the toxic etiological cause or source of the injury or the date the plaintiff should have discovered the cause or source of the injury.
S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________
8046
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
I N A S S E M B L Y
April 22, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. SOLAGES -- read once and referred to the Commit-
tee on Judiciary
AN ACT to amend the civil practice law and rules, in relation to the
time frame to commence an action for certain victims who were exposed
to a toxic substance; and to repeal certain provisions of such law
relating thereto
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "toxic
victim justice act".
§ 2. Subdivision 2 of section 214-c of the civil practice law and
rules, as added by chapter 682 of the laws of 1986, is amended to read
as follows:
2. Notwithstanding the provisions of section [214] TWO HUNDRED FOUR-
TEEN OF THIS ARTICLE, the three year period within which an action to
recover damages for personal injury or injury to property caused by the
latent effects of exposure to any substance or combination of
substances, in any form, upon or within the body or upon or within prop-
erty must be commenced shall be computed from the date of discovery of
the injury by the plaintiff, WHICH IS PRESUMED TO BE THE DATE THE DIAG-
NOSIS WAS CONVEYED TO THE PLAINTIFF OR CLAIMANT, or from the date when
through the exercise of reasonable diligence such injury should have
been discovered by the plaintiff, whichever is earlier.
§ 3. Subdivision 4 of section 214-c of the civil practice law and
rules is REPEALED and a new subdivision 4 is added to read as follows:
4. (A) A PLAINTIFF OR CLAIMANT WHO DISCOVERS AN INJURY DESCRIBED IN
SUBDIVISION TWO OF THIS SECTION, WITHOUT KNOWING THE SPECIFIC TOXIC
ETIOLOGICAL CAUSE OR SOURCE OF THE INJURY, MAY, WHEN OTHERWISE NOT
AUTHORIZED BY THE TIME PERIOD AUTHORIZED BY SUBDIVISION TWO OR THREE OF
THIS SECTION, COMMENCE AN ACTION OR FILE A CLAIM ONE YEAR FROM THE
EARLIER OF: (I) THE DATE THE PLAINTIFF OR CLAIMANT SUBSEQUENTLY DISCOV-
EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD11621-01-5
Open Legislation is a forum for New York State legislation. All comments are subject to review and community moderation is encouraged.
Comments deemed off-topic, commercial, campaign-related, self-promotional; or that contain profanity, hate or toxic speech; or that link to sites outside of the nysenate.gov domain are not permitted, and will not be published. Attempts to intimidate and silence contributors or deliberately deceive the public, including excessive or extraneous posting/posts, or coordinated activity, are prohibited and may result in the temporary or permanent banning of the user. Comment moderation is generally performed Monday through Friday. By contributing or voting you agree to the Terms of Participation and verify you are over 13.
Create an account. An account allows you to sign petitions with a single click, officially support or oppose key legislation, and follow issues, committees, and bills that matter to you. When you create an account, you agree to this platform's terms of participation.