The root of the issue
Hands off stump of tree that fell on me: woman
The trunk is junk!
The Central Park Conservancy says the base of a 75-foot elm tree that fell on a mother of three should be uprooted — but the woman’s attorney is blocking the historic green space from planting a new sapling.
The towering tree that nearly paralyzed Anne Monoky on Aug. 15, 2017, is in two pieces — stored on Randalls Island and in Central Park — as her $200 million suit against the city proceeds. But the elm’s jagged stump is still in the ground on Center Drive near W. 62nd St.
In new court papers, attorneys for the city and a Central Park landscape manager ask a judge to allow them to dig the stump up and plant a new tree, overruling claims by Monoky’s attorney that the stump and tree well may need “additional testing.”
“The site as it presently exists is unnatural, unattractive and therefore inconsistent with the esthetic we work to achieve in the park,” John Dillon, vice president of landscape management for the Central Park Conservancy, said in a sworn statement.
The unsightly stump is surrounded by fencing.
“The fence and the open tree well also attract and retain trash and other debris. Consequently, the area requires frequent maintenance by Central Park Conservancy staff to prevent it from becoming a trash can that attracts vermin,” Dillon said.
Monoky’s attorney Jordan Merson said he had not agreed to allowing the park to dig up the stump because the case was moving slowly and the city had not yet revealed its defense.
“We want to find out what their defense will be. Then we’ll determine if we need testing,” Merson explained.
But city attorney Andrew Orenstein argued the value of any testing on the stump would be minimal, anyway.
“Despite having made public statements to the contrary, and the fact that the tree has been exposed to air and other atmospheric contaminants over the past two years that may have altered the condition and character of the tree, [Merson] purportedly still desires that the city defendants preserve the site and tree components indefinitely,” Orenstein wrote.
Monoky, 41, was walking with her three boys when the tree fell on her. Her kids were between the ages of 6 weeks to 4 years old at the time of the terrifying accident. Her 2-year-old son, who was in a stroller, suffered a fractured skull. Her suit alleges the tree had “obvious signs” it was decayed prior to the collapse.
Among the examples of alleged arboreal negligence: “overhydration, reduction of root/trunk space and battering it with snowplows and other snow removal apparatus.”
Monoky, who worked in social media for the fashion company Tory Burch, said she faces a lifelong risk of paralysis because two fractures in her neck will never heal.
“No one should have to go through what we went through,” Monoky said when she filed the suit.
The city Law Department declined to comment.