NYC subway jumper: city saved my life, then violated privacy

[Yasmin] Rahman tried to commit suicide in 2001 by jumping in front of a subway train. NYPD officers saved her life. She was 15. Now, 27, she’s suing the city for $7 million, claiming the city and the NYPD posted pictures, police reports and hospital records of her failed suicide attempt on a database open to the public. She claims that has prevented her from obtaining a job.

Although her lawsuit alleges that the publication of the material has prevented Rahman from “obtaining any type of job,” a reporter “found that she actually did have a job from 2010 to 2012,” among other difficulties with the story. Rahman’s lawyer, Andrew Schatkin, commented on the $7 million demand: “I put a large figure in because if I put a small figure in I would only get that small amount. It’s not that I’m making an outsized or frankly a lie about it for a better word. I’m simply enabling a figure that would get her as much compensation as possible.” [MyFoxNY.com; Eric Turkewitz on ad damnum clauses in New York]

7 Comments

  • it was my understanding of New York law, that a dollar amount is not allowed in the complaint.

  • Well, it’s a good thing that nothing damaging will come up now when people Google her name!

  • “get her as much compensation as possible.”

    [aside] I mean, get me as much compensation as possible.

  • @Doug

    You are generally correct, but in this instance the first step in suing a municipality in New York is the filing of a Notice of Claim with that municipality which requires that you set forth the amount of damages you are seeking.

  • @Doug,

    You’d be correct. The link to Eric Turkewitz’s blog explains it.

  • Suit taken straight from a plot line in the movie, The Incredibles: You saved my life, so now I’ll sue you. The NYPD officers risked their lives to save hers. Fiction becomes reality, and reality then becomes farce.

  • He can get her more money by lowering his cut….