His ferry tale

Oft-injured S.I. deckhand sues city for $45M

IT MIGHT be cheaper for the city to put this guy in drydock.

A Staten Island Ferry deckhand who has already pocketed $600,000 in settlements for job related injuries slapped the city this week with a new $45 million lawsuit.

John Kalyna, 57, claims he was injured Nov. 2 aboard the John Marchi ferry due to the city’s “failure to provide him with a safe place to work,” according to the suit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.

The suit is devoid of details about what actually happened, only noting that he was seriously injured due to no fault of his own.

Kalyna, a Navy veteran, was just as circumspect when the Daily News caught up with him outside his Staten Island home Friday afternoon. “On the advice of my counsel, I’ve been told not to comment,” he said.

“Things happen on a boat, it’s a very dangerous job,” he added. “Also on record, if you look in my past and see how long I’ve been sailing, I’ve been sailing since 1977, 38 years give or take.”

Kalyna started working for the city Dept. of Transportation in 2000. His first suit against the city came three years later, after he said he was assaulted by a ferry passenger and injured his knee, according to a knowledgeable source. The city paid him a $225,000 settlement.

He sued the city again in 2010 after a defective door on the Spirit of America ferryboat closed on his arm, crushing his hand, the source said.

Initially the city took the position that the injury was caused “in whole or in part by Kalyna’s conduct,” according to court papers.

Kalyna underwent two surgeries and the city eventually forked over $375,000 to settle that case in 2012 when he returned to work.

A spokesman for the Law Department said the settlement was in the best interest of the city.

Kalyna, who is married and the father of two children, did not want to talk about the prior injuries either. “I’m still going to doctors and I’m on medication,” he said.

He earned $74,000 including overtime in 2014, according to the most recent public records available. Neither his lawyer nor the city Department of Transportation returned calls seeking comment.

The suit claims Kalyna has been “incapacitated” as a result of serious physical pain and mental anguish.