Who Pays for Riots?

Soon after quelling Negro riots in Harlem and Brooklyn, New York City police totted up the cost as $1,500,000 --a bill that included everything from overtime pay to extra ammunition. But that figure may be nowhere near the eventual total, said the New York Law Journal last week. Fact is that every city and county in New York State is liable for all property damage incurred in all riots. In New York City the recent riots destroyed or damaged at least 540 stores and caused other uncalculated losses.

Section 71 of New York State's General Municipal Law says in part: "A city or county shall be liable to a person whose property is destroyed or injured therein by a mob or riot, if the consent or negligence of such person did not contribute to such destruction or injury, and such person shall have used all reasonable diligence to prevent such damage."

Enacted in 1855, the law spurred many suits against New York City after the Civil War draft riots of 1863, in which whites attacked stores employing Negroes. Over city protests, courts upheld the law as constitutional, relying on the English common-law principle that government has an absolute responsibility to stop riots (defined as "tumultuous" assemblages of three or more persons intending to terrorize others). No matter how hard police try to prevent it, property damage is regarded as evidence that the government failed to use enough force to prevent disorder.

A number of merchants sued New York City and collected for damage done during the Harlem riots of 1935 and 1943. Under similar state laws, cities in Illinois and New Jersey have been sued for damage caused by strikes as well as riots. Restrictions on the plaintiff are few. A merchant cannot collect if he himself helped to incite the rioters--by illegally giving them liquor, for example. He probably cannot collect for lost business, only for real property damaged or carried away. Beyond that, the law is all on his side.

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