Who should be liable for broken sidewalk?

From CBS New York:

A Brooklyn business owner has been forced by the city to cough up $30,000 to have his sidewalk repaired – but he says it is the city’s fault that the sidewalk is broken.

As CBS 2’s Janelle Burrell reported, Louis Gellman is the owner of the Hilna Tire Shop in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. His shop sits alongside the elevated subway tracks of the D Line.

“The vibrations now are so loud, it’s like a jackhammer — and it’s cracking up the sidewalk,” Gellman said.

As any other property owner in the city, Gellman is responsible for maintaining the sidewalk outside. And now, he said he has been asked to pay for damage he did not cause.

“Thirty thousand dollars to replace a sidewalk that I didn’t break,” he said.

Gellman showed CBS 2 pictures, which he said show city contractors parked on his sidewalk. He said their machinery, as well as broken pieces of rail that have fallen to the ground, and the sonic vibrations from the trains through the support poles all contributed to the $200,000 square-foot slab of concrete in front of the tire shop.

“The vibrations for the train is at 100 decibel points,” Gellman said.

$30,000 for a replacement sidewalk? Seems kind of steep.