Delorenzo v Tyrell Paving Co.

[*1] Delorenzo v Tyrell Paving Co. 2006 NY Slip Op 51346(U) [12 Misc 3d 140(A)] Decided on June 22, 2006 Appellate Term, Second Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. This opinion is uncorrected and will not be published in the printed Official Reports.

Decided on June 22, 2006
SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
APPELLATE TERM: 9th and 10th JUDICIAL DISTRICTS
PRESENT: : RUDOLPH, P.J., ANGIOLILLO and LIPPMAN, JJ
2005-1108 RO C.

Doreen Delorenzo, Respondent,

against

Tyrell Paving Company, Appellant.

Appeal from a judgment of the Justice Court of the Town of Ramapo, Rockland County (Samuel Colman, J.), entered August 19, 2005. The judgment, after a nonjury trial, awarded plaintiff the principal sum of $1,250.

Judgment reversed without costs and matter remanded to the court below for a new trial before a different judge.

Plaintiff commenced the instant small claims action to recover for damage to her automobile allegedly caused by defendant's snow plow. At the conclusion of trial, the court below stated: "Listen. I'm going to reserve decision. I'm going to find out whether anyone else plows there. Then I'm also going to find out whether this could have been caused by anything else than the plow-then a truck that's plowing and I will make a decision then."
It appears that, subsequent to the trial, the court may have contacted the owner of the complex in which the subject vehicle was parked in order to find out if anyone else plowed the area. The inference arises that the court, "improperly gave great weight to its own knowledge . . . of certain facts . . . outside of the record, absent the parties' consent," and thereby committed error (Silberman v Antar, 236 AD2d 385 [1997]). Thus, substantial justice (UJCA 1804) requires that the judgment be reversed and the matter remanded to the court below for a new trial before a different judge.

Rudolph, P.J., Angiolillo and Lippman, JJ., concur. [*2]
Decision Date: June 22, 2006