NYC, Park Owner Turn on Each Other in Zuccotti Eviction Case

Posted on Aug 28, 2012

Jagz Mario (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Books contained in the People’s Library are protected from rain in plastic bags.

New York City officials are blaming Brookfield Properties, the owner of the park where Occupy Wall Street activists were camped for nearly two months, for thousands of dollars of damage done to books, computers and other property destroyed during the eviction of protesters.

The city is the subject of two lawsuits: one from members of Occupy Wall Street’s People’s Library who claim to have lost more than 2,700 books and $47,000 worth of property; and one from livestreaming organization Global Revolution TV, which asserts the loss of almost 100 pieces of equipment worth at least $45,000.

—Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.

The Village Voice:

The interesting development in both these suits over the last few weeks is that the City has taken the surprising step of impleading Brookfield Properties as a third-party defendant in both suits, alleging:

“If the plaintiffs in the OWS Action were caused to sustain the damages alleged in the OWS Action through any negligence or want of due care other than the negligence or want of due care on the part of themselves, then said damages were sustained by reason of the negligence and want of due care by acts of commission or omission on the part of Brookfield, its agents, servants and/or employees.”

Specifically, the city’s response claims that Brookfield hired a carting company for the night of the eviction, and that that company took property from the park straight to a landfill, but that “City defendants played no role in, and did not authorize, the disposal of any property from Zuccotti Park.”

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