Limo crash suits proceed
Families of 20 victims pursue civil actions against owners of company, other defendants
A flurry of new court filings are being made in state Supreme Court as the families of the 20 victims who died in the 2018 Schoharie limo crash begin collecting evidence as part of their civil lawsuits against the owners of the limo company, as well as other defendants.
“The cases are going to start moving now,” said David Iversen, an attorney with E. Stewart Jones Hacker Murphy, who is representing some of the families.
The newly busy civil docket comes a week after the victims’ families marked two years since the Oct. 6. 2018 crash.
The court filings also come two weeks after the National Transportation Safety Board voted to approve its analysis of the disaster, which placed blame not only on the limousine company, Prestige Limousine of Wilton, but also the state Department of Transportation and the state Department of Motor Vehicles.
The NTSB determined that the DOT and DMV did not do enough to stop Prestige Limousine and its manager, Nauman Hussain, from keeping the 2001 limo off the road after it failed two DOT inspections and Hussain was fined by a DOT administrative judge for operating an illegal limo operation.
In a separate criminal case, Nauman Hussain is facing 20 counts each of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in Schoharie County, where Hussain has pleaded not guilty. The trial date has been postponed due to the pandemic, although Hussain’s attorneys and prosecutors have reportedly been in talks over a potential plea deal that would avoid a trial.
The families have until the end of this week to amend their lawsuits to include new defendants and allegations. Mavis
Discount Tire, which performed work on the stretch Ford Excursion limo involved in the crash, has been increasingly added as a defendant in the cases.
Another person who has been added as a defendant is Malik Riaz Hussain, a Pakistani real estate baron who is a relative of Hussain, who operated Prestige Limousine for his father, Shahed Hussain. Shahed technically owned the company and the Excursion but has been living in Pakistan since early 2018.
Most of the lawsuits were filed last year in various state Supreme Court offices across the region, but the attorneys for both the families and the defendants have consolidated all of the cases in state Supreme Court in Albany to streamline the gathering of evidence, in a process known as discovery.
When discovery is completed, the families will have the
option to hold their trials either in Albany or in the counties where they initially filed their cases.
Acting State Supreme Court Justice Denise Hartman set an Oct. 19 deadline for submitting any amended, final lawsuits before discovery begins.
Hartman is holding a video conference with the attorneys in the cases on Nov. 16 to discuss the discovery schedule. Two attorneys involved in the cases, Paul Davenport and Thomas Mortati, have been named the “liaison” lawyers that will lead the coordination of discovery.
Both Mavis, which has denied any wrongdoing, and Malik Riaz Hussain, who said he had no involvement in the limo operation, have informed the court they plan to get the allegations against them dismissed.
Most of the lawsuits were filed last year in various state Supreme Court offices across the region, but the attorneys for both the families and the defendants have consolidated all of the cases in state Supreme Court in Albany to streamline the gathering of evidence, in a process known as discovery.