Family of dad crushed to death in NYC parking garage collapse sues owners, claim they overpacked the structure
The family of a Manhattan parking garage manager who died last year in a collapse claims the owners of the lot “prioritized profits over safety” by packing it with too many cars, leading to the structural fail.
Willis Moore, 59, was tragically killed on April 18, 2023 at the four-story Little Man Parking facility on Ann Street in Lower Manhattan when it caved in on itself, trapping him inside, injuring five others and wrecking dozens of cars.
Moore’s brother Ian Moore and his NYPD cop daughter Brittany Moore sued the owners of the facility last week for unspecified damages, claiming the company negligently allowed “many more vehicles than was reasonably safe” to be parked in the 100-year old building, the Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit alleges.
The facility had been on notice about structural problems after it was slapped with “numerous violations” by the city Department of Buildings — including six open citationsfor “sagging beams and cracking concrete,” the filing claims.
One of the alleged offenses was “a Class 1 hazardous violation” after an inspector found cracks in the ceiling slab of the first floor — “the same slab that collapsed on April 18, 2023,” the court papers allege.
“The building never remedied any of the dangerous conditions cited,” the suit charges. “As a result of this entirely preventable garage collapse, six children lost a father, a mother lost a son, and several siblings lost a brother.”
Moore, who worked at the garage for 20 years, was about to get off work around 4:30 p.m. that day when the collapse occurred around 4:10 p.m.
“We believe that the garage owners prioritized profits over people,” family lawyer Benedict Morelli said in a statement. “This incident could have been entirely preventable had the defendants done the right thing and fixed the garage like they were instructed by safety officials to do.”
Moore’s daughter Brittany — who was pregnant at the time of his death — wept at his funeral over the fact her dad would never get to meet her granddaughter.
She also recalled the last time she spoke with her dad and was eaten up with regret for not telling him how much she loved him.
“If I would have known that would be the last time [we spoke], I would have told you how much I love you, even though you would play it off because you never liked that mushy stuff,” she said during the eulogy.
Garage employee Pierre Vancol told The Post last year that he always knew “this was going to happen” as he and co-workers had seen huge cracks in the structure. And Vancol said that Willis had even spoken up about the worrying signs that the building was unsafe.
Moore’s death prompted the DOB to crack down on unsafe parking lots with the agency forcing seven parking structures to be partially or completely vacated in the month after the tragedy.
During a City Council hearing Thursday, DOB commissioner Jimmy Oddo, gave an update on the department’s investigation into what caused the collapse.
Oddo said preliminary findings of the report indicate that the building being overloaded was not the cause of the collapse, but he declined to say more, instead telling the committee that the final report would be delivered to the District Attorney’s Office.
Oddo saidthe report would likely not be made public until this summer.
Oddo also told the council that to avoid collapses like this in the future DOB should find “a financial path” to create a team within the department that would use predictive analytics to identify problematic buildings before they collapse.
“To a large degree we are a complaint based agency … we need to free up a group that is on offense,” Oddo testified.
Owner Alan Henick and Little Man Parking both did not immediately return requests for comment. A working number for co-owner Jeffrey Henick could not be found.
