Families sue New York City over 2025 Harlem Legionnaires' outbreak

Lawsuits cite Legionella-positive cooling towers at Harlem Hospital and NYC Public Health Lab

Families of five of the seven people who died in last year’s Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in Harlem sued New York City on Thursday, alleging that neglect and failures to follow the city’s own regulations led to dozens being sickened by bacteria and several deaths. Attorney Ben Crump, alongside co-counsel Jared Scotto and Nabeha Shaer, said the three lawsuits represent five of the seven people who died in the outbreak and 41 individuals and families who say it harmed them.

Announcing the lawsuits at a press conference, Rev. Al Sharpton, founder of the civil rights organization National Action Network, said those affected would not be forgotten. Crump said Harlem, a historically Black neighborhood, was neglected during the outbreak compared with other parts of New York City.

“Harlem is the center of Black America, historically has always been; that does not mean Harlem should be the center of a Legionnaires’ outbreak in the center of New York,” Crump said. “And so, we’re here today telling people that Harlem should never get less than — it should get everything that everybody else gets.”

Harlem was struck by the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak from July to August 2025, consisting of 118 confirmed cases and seven deaths. Legionnaires’ disease is a type of pneumonia caused by Legionella bacteria that grow in warm water. It is contracted by inhaling water vapor that contains the bacteria.

According to the lawsuits, the plaintiffs were exposed to Legionella bacteria while in the vicinity of cooling towers that tested positive for the bacteria at two locations: Harlem Hospital and the NYC Public Health Lab. The complaint alleges that the city, along with its health department and a handful of contractors, failed to develop and follow a water management plan required by the New York State Sanitary Code and failed to meet the code’s cooling tower registration, inspection, testing and other related requirements.

Crump and Sharpton spoke surrounded by victims of the outbreak, including the fiancée and 6-year-old daughter of Bruce Scott, who died from the outbreak. “I’m a single mother now,” Lakisha Plowden said as she hugged her and Scott’s daughter, Brooke. “We don’t have her best friend and we don’t have my soul mate.”

“Our lives mean something,” Sharpton said. “You cannot act as though the lives of people and the worth of people depend on what part of the town they live in. Geography does not have anything to do with biology. If Legionnaires’ disease was bad in one part of town it should be valued the same in every part of town. And that is what this is about.”

The announcement came nearly a week after the NYC Health Department declared an end to the Upper East Side Legionnaires’ disease outbreak that led to 92 confirmed cases and seven deaths. United Press International said it contacted New York City for comment.