Court Rules In Favor Of Grandma Who Saw Toddler's Death On UWS

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — In 2015, Susan Frierson was outside the Esplanade Luxury Senior Residences on the Upper West Side with her two-year-old granddaughter Greta when a piece of decorative windowsill fell from the building and struck them both.

The toddler died the next day.

On Thursday, New York's highest court ruled in favor of Frierson, allowing the grandmother to go forward with an emotional-distress claim against the building's owner at 305 West End Avenue, between 74th and 75th Streets.

"The entire Scharf family is heartbroken by this tragedy," the owners of the building said in a statement at the time of the incident.

The ruling from the Court of Appeals expands the framework of the "zone of danger" rule, allowing people who survive dangerous experiences to receive monetary damages for emotional distress if they witness the death or physical injury of an immediate family member.

Before Thursday's ruling, the "zone of danger" rule had been almost exclusively used with situations involving the mother of a seriously injured or killed individual.

According to the ruling from Judge Eugene Fahey, the court was asked to decide whether grandchildren could qualify as immediate family to grandparents.

“Our increasing legal recognition of the special status of grandparents, shifting societal norms, and common sense, we conclude that plaintiff’s grandchild is ‘immediate family’ for the purpose of applying the zone of danger rule,” Fahey wrote in the ruling.

The Court of Appeals' decision reversed an order from the Appellate Division to not allow Frierson to file an emotional distress claim related to the Upper West Side incident.

Read More: Girl, 2, Dies After Being Struck by Falling Piece of Windowsill in Manhattan