New Yorkers who get Legionnaires’ disease have legal rights. Here’s what you should know.

As Legionnaires’ disease infects dozens of Central Harlem residents, the landlords and cooling tower operators who allowed bacteria to fester on their property could face legal consequences.

Legionnaires’ disease is a flu-like illness caused by a bacteria that grows in standing water. It flourishes in cooling towers that are installed on top of some large buildings as part of their air conditioning systems. At least 67 cases and three deaths have been reported so far in the latest cluster, according to New York City's health department.

Two New Yorkers who got sick have already hired a lawyer who has represented patients in past Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks. Their attorney, Jory Lange, has won millions of dollars for people infected with Legionnaires’ disease, according to his website. He said lawsuits can provide a path to compensation for all the medical bills, time off of work and possible lingering effects of a Legionnaires’ disease infection.

“ No one's expecting to lose the ability to work for weeks or months,” he said. “No one's expecting to be healthy one day, and then the next day you have hundreds of thousands of dollars in hospital bills. And unfortunately, those are things that we see time and time again with Legionnaires' outbreaks.”

Harlemite George Yates settled for an undisclosed amount of money in court after a Legionnaires’ disease infection landed him in the hospital in 2018. Yates said he hadn’t heard of the disease when he came down with a bad cough and a fever that wouldn’t go away. It wasn’t until he went to the hospital that he realized it was more than just a case of the flu.

Yates spent almost a week in the hospital as antibiotics cleared up a chest infection. When he got home, he said, a cousin suggested that he file a lawsuit.

“I just wanted to get better,” he said. “But I thought about it. I’m like, ‘Yeah, it makes sense, because I’m going through something that I didn’t cause.’”

After a 2015 outbreak in the South Bronx, the City Council passed a local law that mandated annual certifications for owners and operators of cooling towers to make sure that their towers have been inspected, tested and cleaned. Building owners are supposed to have their cooling towers sanitized every three months when they’re in use. They’re also supposed to have a maintenance plan to ensure their cooling towers are in good condition.

If health department inspectors find a cooling tower isn’t clean, the law allows them to order a property owner to have it disinfected. Landlords who break the law can be fined between $2,000 and $5,000 for most violations — or $10,000 if a violation causes a death or serious injury. Property owners who violate orders to clean their cooling towers can also face misdemeanor criminal charges, which can lead to a fine of up to $25,000 and a jail sentence of up to a year.

The 2015 law created a registry of buildings with cooling towers, which New Yorkers can search online to see different buildings’ inspection histories.

Lange said he’s investigating which cooling towers may caused the latest outbreak, to determine who should be held responsible in court.

The health department said Monday that 11 cooling towers in Central Harlem tested positive for the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease and have since been remediated. Officials have warned Harlemites who live in ZIP codes 10027, 10030, 10035, 10037 and 10039 to look out for flu-like symptoms. But the health department has not made public the addresses of the buildings where legionella was detected.

Yates lives in one of those ZIP codes, though, and he said the new outbreak has surfaced a lot of emotions.

“ I just feel for the people, especially for the families of the [people] who died,” he said. “ That's just unimaginable for a family to have to deal with that. And they don't even know, most people don't know what Legionnaires’ is off the top of their head, but unless you know somebody who experienced it or you experienced it.”

Yates advised anyone who feels sick to seek medical help, like he did.

"You can't ignore what your body's telling you. If your body is not getting rid of a fever, then it could be serious,” he said. “I decided to go in [to the hospital] and thank God I did."