Wallach v Flood

[*1] Wallach v Flood 2016 NY Slip Op 51789(U) Decided on December 7, 2016 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 This opinion is uncorrected and will not be published in the printed Official Reports.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 December 7, 2016
SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE TERM, SECOND DEPARTMENT, 9th and 10th JUDICIAL DISTRICTS
PRESENT: : MARANO, P.J., IANNACCI and GARGUILO, JJ.
2015-1624 S C

Lynne Wallach, Appellant,

against

Winifred A. Flood and Winifred A. Flood, Trustee of the Credit Trust of Richard T. Flood, Respondent.

Appeal from a judgment of the District Court of Suffolk County, Third District (C. Stephen Hackeling, J.), entered March 30, 2015. The judgment, after a nonjury trial, dismissed the action on the ground that the damages sought exceeded the monetary jurisdictional limit of the Small Claims Part of the court.

ORDERED that the judgment is reversed, without costs, the action is reinstated and the matter is remitted to the District Court for a determination of the merits of the action.

Plaintiff commenced this small claims action in May of 2014 to recover $5,000 in damages based on defendant's alleged conversion of her kitchen cabinets in January of 2014. While the small claims complaint states that the kitchen cabinets cost $6,500, plaintiff confined her demand to the jurisdictional limit of $5,000 (see UDCA 1801). Consequently, the District Court erred when it dismissed the action on the ground that the sum sought exceeded the small claims monetary jurisdictional limit.

We pass on no other issue.

Accordingly, the judgment is reversed, the action is reinstated and the matter is remitted to the District Court for a determination of the merits of the action.

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

Decision Date: December 07, 2016