DeRosario v Best Furniture House Corp

[*1] DeRosario v Best Furniture House Corp 2013 NY Slip Op 50783(U) Decided on May 16, 2013 Appellate Term, First 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 This opinion is uncorrected and will not be published in the printed Official Reports.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 May 16, 2013
SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE TERM, FIRST DEPARTMENT
PRESENT: Lowe, III, P.J., Shulman, Hunter, Jr., JJ
570164/13.

Francia Ortega DeRosario, Plaintiff-Respondent,

against

Best Furniture House Corp d/b/a Cherry Hill Furniture Corp., Defendant-Appellant.

Defendant appeals from a judgment of the Small Claims Part of the Civil Court of the City of New York, Bronx County (Fernando Tapia, J.), entered November 3, 2011, after trial, in favor of plaintiff and awarding her damages in the principal amount of $4,500.

Per Curiam.

Judgment (Fernando Tapia, J.), entered November 3, 2011, reversed, without costs, and new trial ordered.

The trial of this small claims action — at which the relevant documents referenced by the parties were not marked as exhibits or introduced into evidence — produced a slender (12 page) record insufficient to permit informed appellate review of the issues presented, including whether successor liability is properly imposed upon defendant-appellant in connection with the allegedly defective furniture sold to plaintiff by defendant's alleged predecessor (see Ferguson v Budget Rent-A-Car, 21 AD3d 730, 730-731 [2005]; see generally Schumacher v Richards Shear Co., 59 NY2d 239, 244-245 [1983]). Compounding these problems, the trial court, in rendering judgment in plaintiff's favor, failed to set forth its rationale or the facts essential to its determination, in violation of CPLR 4213(b). Given the unsatisfactory state of the record, we are constrained to remand the matter for a new trial and issuance of a decision in conformity with the specificity requirements of CPLR 4213(b).

THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE COURT.
Decision Date: May 16, 2013