Palmirotto v Valensisi

[*1] Palmirotto v Valensisi 2014 NY Slip Op 51141(U) Decided on July 7, 2014 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 This opinion is uncorrected and will not be published in the printed Official Reports.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 July 7, 2014
SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE TERM, SECOND DEPARTMENT, 9th and 10th JUDICIAL DISTRICTS
PRESENT: : IANNACCI, J.P., MARANO and GARGUILO, JJ.
2012-2234 N C

Susan Palmirotto, Respondent,

against

Angelo Valensisi Doing Business as GLEN COVE IRON WORKS, Appellant.

Appeal from a judgment of the City Court of Glen Cove, Nassau County (Joseph D. McCann, J.), entered November 14, 2011. The judgment, after a nonjury trial, awarded plaintiff the principal sum of $1,470.

ORDERED that the judgment is modified by reducing the award in favor of plaintiff to the principal sum of $420; as so modified, the judgment is affirmed, without costs.

In this small claims action, plaintiff seeks to recover for breach of contract based upon defendant's defective manufacture and installation of porch railings. After a nonjury trial, the City Court awarded plaintiff the principal sum of $1,470.

We conclude that, contrary to defendant's contentions, plaintiff established defendant's liability. However, upon a review of the record, we determine that the judgment did not provide the parties with substantial justice according to the rules and principles of substantive law (see UCCA 1804, 1807) insofar as it awarded plaintiff damages in the principal sum of $1,470. The contract price was $1,050. Plaintiff established that she had paid a total of $1,470 to defendant and to a second contractor to correct defendant's defective work. Under the circumstances presented, plaintiff was entitled to recover only the amount by which her payments exceeded the contract price (see 36 NY Jur 2d, Damages § 52; see Fredlund v De Rosa, 309 AD2d 1287 [2003]). Accordingly, the judgment is modified by reducing the award in favor of plaintiff to the principal sum of $420.

Iannacci, J.P., Marano and Garguilo, JJ., concur.

Decision Date: July 07, 2014