Chautauqua County is asking the state Supreme Court to dismiss one of two lawsuits filed by the family of a man killed at the Chautauqua County Transfer Station in Pomfret in 2024.

William Bartoo suffered fatal injuries at the landfill on Webster Road in Pomfret when a truck driven by his wife, Sharon, backed into him after she lifted her foot from the brake. He was thrown into the nearby garbage pit and the truck fell in, too, pushing aside a 2,500-pound steel barrier.

William Bartoo suffered severe injuries and died a couple weeks after the accident. Wesley Bartoo, William Bartoo’s son, was named administrator of the estate of his father on Oct. 7, according to the lawsuit filed Feb. 7 in the Chautauqua County branch of the New York State Supreme Court.

Wesley Bartoo is suing the county as a whole, its Department of Public Facilities Solid Waste Division, the county’s Landfill Commission, and the Webster Road landfill itself.

Sharon Bartoo, William Bartoo’s widow, is also suing the county. Sharon Bartoo’s lawsuit was filed after Wesley Bartoo’s lawsuit was filed, with Mrs. Bartoo asking for damages. Attorneys for Chautauqua County, however, say her suit should be dismissed, arguing that Mrs. Bartoo’s claim should be dismissed because wrongful death claims do not include the ability to claim damages for loss of services, society and consortium (non-financial aspects of a personal relationship). Keifer S. Tehan, the county’s attorney in the case, also argues that Mrs. Bartoo’s lawsuit should be thrown out because her son had already filed a lawsuit. Kiehan argued that the state’s wrongful death legislation states the only party that can bring a wrongful death claim is the duly appointed representative of the person who died – in this case, Wesley Bartoo.

“Plaintiff lacks capacity to bring this lawsuit because she is not the personal representative of the decedent’s estate and because she is bringing this loss of society, services and consortium claim on her own behalf apart from the wrongful death action commenced by the proper representative of the decedent’s estate,” Tehan wrote in his memorandum of law arguing for dismissal of Mrs. Bartoo’s lawsuit.

Both Wesley and Sharon Bartoo allege William Bartoo’s fatal injuries happened due to “the negligent, careless, reckless and/or unlawful conduct on the part of defendants… in the ownership, operation, maintenance, management, construction, control and design of the said premises.” The garbage pit area and its allegedly “dangerous and hazardous condition” is a specific focus.

“Separately, and after Wesley W. Bartoo had already filed his complaint as administrator of the Estate of William R. Bartoo, plaintiff essentially copy and pasted the existing complaint filed by Wesley W. Bartoo and used it as the foundation of her complaint in this action,” Tehan said in his affidavit. “On March 24, 2025, plaintiff filed the subject complaint against the county, which is an attempt to secure a double recovery.”

In May, the county filed an answer to Wesley Bartoo’s lawsuit that included a third-party complaint against Mrs. Bartoo arguing that details her part in William Bartoo’s death. Brian Webb, Mrs. Bartoo’s lawyer, has asked the state Supreme Court to dismiss the county’s third-party complaint as well as asking the court to reduce Mrs. Bartoo’s recovery in proportion to how much she contributed to the conduct that caused damages to the Bartoo family, limiting the county’s recovery against Mrs. Bartoo to the percentage of responsibility attributed to Mrs. Bartoo if that percentage is less than 51%.