TROY – After being found negligent by a judge, the city faces a May 13 jury trial in Rensselaer County State Supreme Court to determine how much it should pay a woman who was injured when she fell 20-feet at the long-closed Leonard Hospital after watching the July 4 fireworks in 2016, according to her attorney and court papers.

Acting State Supreme Court Judge Henry Zwack ruled in March that the city was negligent in not taking steps to secure the neglected hospital property on 74 New Turnpike.

Victoria Brothers, 20, went to the hospital to watch the fireworks. She then fell 20 feet from a ledge suffering head and other bodily injuries, attorney Peter J. Hickey of Martin, Harding and Mazzotti said.

“At this point, she is still recovering from severe injuries,” Hickey said about his client.

In his ruling, Zwack said, “…there is simply no question that the defendant City had actual notice of the dangerous condition, and attractive nuisance, of the abandoned former Leonard Hospital. Instead of effectively abating the hazards the property presented, or demolishing the vacant building, the City persisted in repeating the same inadequate measures — such as repeatedly replacing plywood over the same windows that was repeatedly removed by trespassers — thus failing to properly secure the property.”

Zwack noted that after Brothers was injured the city erected a fence around the property, and that a city police captain testified in his deposition “that there had been no further reports of trespass at the hospital.”

The city’s attorneys have appealed Zwack’s decisions finding the city negligent and not affixing any blame to Alicia Mennillo, who had invited Brothers to the hospital property to watch the fireworks. Mennillo testified that she had been to the hospital five times and was even questioned by police once, but was never charged with trespassing, according to court papers.

Hickey said the city also is seeking a stay of the May 13 damages hearing while its appeals move forward.

John Salka, a city spokesman, said the city does not comment on pending litigation.

The city is seeking bids to tear down Leonard Hospital. It’s been estimated that it will cost $2.5 million to remove the decaying building from the 6.43-acre site in Lansingburgh.

The city took the hospital site in 2012 for unpaid property taxes. The hospital opened in the 1960s and shut its doors about two decades ago.

The City Council turned down the sale of the parcel in 2017 to The Community Builders for $1. The sale was defeated in a 4-4 vote when a majority did not approve it. There was neighborhood opposition to the developer’s proposal to build 120 apartments of affordable housing at a cost of $20 million to $23 million.

The bids for asbestos abatement and the demolition are to be opened May 15, two days after the damages trial is to begin.