STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
8017
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
May 15, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sen. COMRIE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Transportation
AN ACT to amend the highway law, in relation to extending the time when
the state is liable for damages suffered by any person from defects in
state highways
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 58 of the highway law, as amended by chapter 1110
2 of the laws of 1971, is amended to read as follows:
3 § 58. Liability of state for damages. The state shall not be liable
4 for damages suffered by any person from defects in state highways,
5 except between the first day of [May] April and the [fifteenth] first
6 day of [November] December on such highways as are maintained by the
7 state under such system as the commissioner of transportation may adopt
8 pursuant to section twelve of this chapter, but the liability for such
9 damages shall otherwise remain as now provided by law, notwithstanding
10 the construction or improvement and maintenance of such highways by the
11 state under this chapter; but nothing herein contained shall be
12 construed to impose on the state any liability for defects in bridges
13 over which the state has no control. Within the limits of incorporated
14 villages the state shall maintain a width of pavement equal to the width
15 of pavement constructed or improved at the expense of the state, if a
16 state highway, the location of the state's portion of such roadway with-
17 in said incorporated limits to be determined by the center line of the
18 roadway as shown on the plans on file with the department of transporta-
19 tion and the state shall be liable for damages to persons or property
20 only when such damage shall occur as a result of the defective condition
21 of the portion of improved highway as above described.
22 § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of April next succeeding
23 the date on which it shall have become a law. Effective immediately, the
24 addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary
25 for the implementation of this act on its effective date are authorized
26 to be made and completed on or before such effective date.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD07612-01-5
