Lawsuit Targets Con Edison Over Fatal Manhattan Manhole Fall

The complaint, filed by the law firm Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf, alleges that Gocaj’s death was a preventable tragedy rather than a freak accident. Attorneys argue that Con Edison has spent decades ignoring the well-documented risk of heavy traffic displacing manhole covers across New York City. Despite internal records and a history of thousands of emergency incidents, the utility has allegedly refused to adopt industry-standard safety measures such as locking mechanisms, IoT monitoring sensors, or secondary internal mesh netting.

Howard Hershenhorn, a senior partner at the firm, contends that the utility prioritized cost savings over public safety, ignoring technologies that are neither experimental nor prohibitively expensive. The lawsuit seeks damages on behalf of Gocaj’s estate and her domestic partner, Jashar Kameraj, who witnessed the fall and unsuccessfully attempted to rescue her. With over 45,000 manhole incidents documented by the FDNY in recent years, the legal team asserts that the utility’s failure to implement basic security protocols constitutes a disregard for established OSHA standards and the lives of city residents.