The mother of a Manhattan woman who plummeted to her death when her 17th-floor balcony railing gave way on a first date last month is suing the building owner for negligence.
Jennifer Rosoff, 35, went to dinner last month with a suitor and invited him back to her apartment at East 57th Street and First Avenue, where the two went onto the balcony for a smoke, law-enforcement sources said in August.
The beautiful account executive was sitting on the edge of the balcony at about 12:30 a.m. when her date heard two pops and the railing buckled beneath her, sending her backward, the sources said.
Rosoff, who worked for a Flatiron Web-advertising company called TripleLift, plunged 15 stories and landed on scaffolding on the second floor, police said. She died instantly.
Her mom, Eugenie, says in her Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit, filed Thursday, that the building management’s firm, Stonehenge Management, caused her daughter’s death by “failing to adequately inspect the balcony” and “using balcony railings that were unable to support weight.”
The suit also claims the building failed to post warning signs, barricades or other protective devices in the area where Rosoff fell.
It also claims that because of the accident, Rosoff suffered “pain, shock and mental anguish” up until the time of her death.
Days after the fall, a law-enforcement source told The Post that every balcony at the building was “deemed defective or not up to code.”
“They weren’t strong enough to hold her up,” another law-enforcement source said. “All of the apartment balconies were defective.”
The suit names Stonehenge Management and building owner SL Green Realty as defendants.
A Stonehenge spokeswoman said the firm had not seen the suit and so could not comment. Calls to SL Green were not returned.
When the accident occurred in early August, Stonehenge pledged to cooperate with the investigation and called the incident a “tragedy.”
“Our sincere condolences go out to the family and friends of Ms. Rosoff,” a statement read. “We are cooperating fully with the investigation into the cause of this terrible accident.”