Adult Survivors Act & Grieving Families Act

The “Adult Survivors Act” was signed by Governor Hochul on 5/24/22. Similar to the Child Victims Act, the Adult Survivors Act creates a new section 214-j of the CPLR to allow a one-year window to revive time-barred civil actions alleging conduct that would constitute a sexual offense against a person 18 years of age or older at the time of the conduct so those actions would not be barred by any statute of limitations or notice of claim requirement, and it revives civil actions that were previously dismissed due to being time-barred for failure to file a notice of claim or a notice of intention to file a claim. The one-year window will open on November 24, 2022.

On the horizon, the “Grieving Families Act” recently passed the New York State Senate and Assembly. If signed by the Governor, the new law will amend the EPTL §§5-4.1, 5-4.3, 5-4.4, and 5-4.6 to expand recovery rights to the decedent’s “close family” members, permit recovery of damages for emotional loss, and extend the statute of limitations from the current two (2) years to three (3) years and six (6) months. If signed, the new law is to take effect immediately and apply to all pending actions and actions commenced on or after such date.