Court hearing held for possible class-action lawsuit in spray park illnesses
The outbreak of a stomach illness at a spray park in Geneva has now moved into an upstate courtroom and it could soon become a class-action lawsuit. In a Syracuse courthouse Wednesday a Rochester lawyer says he has more than 250 clients who say they got sick from the spray park. But Paul Nunes says he knows there are thousands of other victims out there and he hopes they know their rights. "Giving notice to the department of health is not enough. You have to file a claim against the state of New York to protect your rights and time is running out."
Nunes says many of his clients did not know they had to take that step so he came to the court of claims to ask a judge to require the state to tell all 4,000 people that information.
The attorney generals office, which is defending the state, says it's a ridiculous request.
"What the claimants are looking for today is essentially an invitation from the State of New York to file a lawsuit against it," said Assistant New York Attorney General Winthrop Thurlow.
Thurlow says by now, most people who got sick from the spray park should either know their legal rights and/or have taken legal action.
He says it's an unnecessary step, one that is not within the law and one that would benefit Nunes and his law firm by bringing them more clients.
Nunes says that's not the motivation. He says just look at the paperwork. Some people got so sick; they were hospitalized and missed weeks of work. A wrong he says, that should not go unpunished because they don't understand the legal system.
