New York Court of Appeals Decisions 2014

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff was a police officer with the New York City Police Department when she was injured while loading wooden police barriers onto a police flatbed truck. Plaintiff sued the City of New York and the New York City…

Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case was the validity of a rule promulgated by the New York State Racing and Wagering Board (Respondent) mandating out-of-competition race horse drug testing. Petitioners commenced this hybrid article…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, a property owner, and Defendant, a tenant, entered into a one-year commercial rental lease agreement. Prior to the end of the one-year term, the parties extended the lease for a nine-year term. Several months…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was arrested for burglary and, in an attempt to obtain leniency, told the police that a friend of his admitted that he stabbed a man at the supermarket. Defendant was represented by his lawyer at the meeting.…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, which owns a residential co-op complex with 1,674 residential apartments, was incorporated in 1961 as a Mitchell-Lama cooperative housing corporation pursuant to the Limited-Profit Housing Companies Law. In…

Justia Opinion Summary: Respondent pleaded guilty to sex offenses, including sexual abuse in the first decree. When Respondent’s term of imprisonment neared its end, the State commenced a civil commitment proceeding against him pursuant to N.Y.…

Justia Opinion Summary: A police officer stopped the car Defendant was driving due to traffic violations. After observing that Defendant appeared to be intoxicated, the officer asked Defendant to step out of the car and then patted him down.…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial in 1981, Defendant was convicted of rape in the first degree, murder in the second degree, and attempted robbery in the first degree. During trial, Defendant pursued a mistaken identity defense.…

Justia Opinion Summary: Nick Rigano purchased certain property and George Vignogna, through Vibar Construction Corp., agreed to develop the property. Vibar constructed a common driveway to access the property, but Rigano failed to compensate…

Justia Opinion Summary: Allstate Insurance Company issued a policy of liability insurance to the landlord of a two-family house. The policy, which was renewed annually for the next two years, stated a $500,000 limit for “each occurrence” and…

Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case was whether Lewiston Golf Course Corporation, an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of the Seneca Nation of Indians, a federal recognized Indian tribe, was protected from suit by the Seneca Nation’s…

Justia Opinion Summary: Mahesh Gandhi and his two associates held equal interests in three corporations. The corporations secured a loan, part of which was loaned to the partners, of which Gandhi received a portion pursuant to promissory notes…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder, among other charges. Defendant appealed, arguing, inter alia, that the count of the indictment charging him with attempted murder was…

Justia Opinion Summary: In these three putative class actions, Plaintiffs, current or former tenants of separate apartment buildings, sought damages for rent overcharges. All plaintiffs initially sought treble damages but then waived that…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was indicted for second-degree murder as a hate crime and second-degree murder. A jury convicted Defendant of the lesser included offense of first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime and acquitted him of the…

Justia Opinion Summary: After Plaintiff, Jandy Coleson, applied for an order of protection from her husband, Samuel Coleson (Coleson), New York City police officers escorted Plaintiff to a safe house and assured Plaintiff that Coleson had been…

Justia Opinion Summary: Strauss Painting, Inc./Creative Finishes, Ltd. contracted with the Metropolitan Opera Association, Inc. to perform work on the Met’s premises. At the time Strauss/Creative contracted with the Met, Strauss had in place a…

Justia Opinion Summary: The defendants in these two separate criminal cases were convicted of criminal offenses by a jury. The two juries each sent notes to the court requesting specific information for use in deliberations. The transcripts did…

Justia Opinion Summary: The owner and managing agent of an apartment building (collectively, the insureds) were insureds under two different policies: they were named insureds under their own policy and additional insureds under a policy…

Justia Opinion Summary: Debtor lived in a rent-stabilized apartment for over forty years. Debtor filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and listed the value of her unexpired rent-stabilized lease as personal property exempt from the bankruptcy estate…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2010, the Workers’ Compensation Board (“Board”) adopted Medical Treatment Guidelines, which include a list of pre-authorized medical procedures and set forth limitations on the scope and duration of each procedure.…

Justia Opinion Summary: George Andrucki and his wife served on the Port Authority’s World Trade Center a notice of claim for personal injury from asbestos. Andrucki later died of his injuries, and his widow became his administratrix. Mrs.…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed a medical malpractice action in New York against Laser Spine Institute (LSI) and various LSI professionals after undergoing unsuccessful back surgeries at an LSI facility in Tampa, Florida. Defendants…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, an on-duty New York City police officer, was injured in an automobile collision that occurred when Plaintiff’s vehicle collided with another patrol vehicle driven by Steve Tompos, another police officer…

Justia Opinion Summary: After School District notified Petitioner, a tenured school social worker, that she was to be suspended without pay for misconduct, Petitioner made a written request for a hearing on the specifications pursuant to N.Y.…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2008, Defendant pleaded guilty pro se in Town Court to a misdemeanor charge of driving while intoxicated. Defendant took no appeal. In 2010, Defendant was charged with a felony under N.Y. Veh. & Traf. Law…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, a not-for profit theater corporation, owned real property that it used to house its staff and summer stock actors. Petitioner filed applications for real property tax exemptions under…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a citizen of Vietnam, was married in New York to Vu Truong, a naturalized American citizen. Petitioner was later granted the status of a conditional permanent resident in the United States on the basis of her…

Justia Opinion Summary: Beginning in 1983, Defendant law firm represented Alice Lawrence and her three children in litigation arising from the death of her husband and their father, a real estate developer. For over three decades, Lawrence and…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant testified at a grand jury proceeding against his brother and received transactional immunity but subsequently refused to testify at his brother's trial. The court cited Defendant for contempt and ordered him to…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2007, the Queens County District Attorney implemented a central booking pre-arraignment interview program consisting of a structured, videotaped interview conducted by members of the District Attorney’s staff with a…

Justia Opinion Summary: In these two matters, the State commenced civil commitment proceedings against Kenneth T. and Donald DD under N.Y. Mental Hyg. Law 10. After trials were held in both cases, it was found that the men had a condition,…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the first and third degrees, criminal possession of marihuana, and two counts of criminally using drug paraphernalia. The…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff Paul Ellington, an heir and grandson of Duke Ellington, filed this breach of contract action to recover royalties allegedly due under a royalty provision contained in a 1961 United States copyright renewal…

Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this lawsuit was whether workers engaged in testing and inspection of fire protection equipment are covered by New York’s prevailing wage statute. The New York State Department of Labor issued an opinion…

Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case was whether the “separate entity” rule continues to be valid law and serves to prevent a judgment creditor from ordering a garnishee bank operating branches in New York to restrain a judgment…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pleaded guilty to an indictment charging her with attempted murder in the second degree with the understanding that the county court would impose a fifteen-year term of imprisonment. The county court imposed…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was indicted on one count of predatory sexual assault against a child for engaging in two or more acts of sexual conduct with the Complainant, who was less than thirteen years old. After a jury trial, Defendant…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs, Robert Davis and Michael Lang, commenced this action against Defendants, Syracuse University and James Boeheim, the University’s head basketball coach, for defamation based on statements made by Boeheim in…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff sustained debilitating injuries after exiting an apartment through a window and falling off an unguarded edge of a setback roof into an air shaft. Plaintiff commenced this personal injury action against…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was serving a sentence for his robbery conviction when he was interviewed in the absence of counsel regarding a murder. Before Defendant was interviewed about the murder, the lawyer who represented Defendant in…

Justia Opinion Summary: Following a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of three counts of attempted second degree murder, two counts of first degree assault, assault in the second degree, reckless endangerment in the first degree, and related…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant retained attorney Martineau to represent him on several criminal charges. When Martineau’s health declined, Defendant’s file was delivered to attorney Bruno. A week before trial was due to begin, Bruno moved,…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff retained Attorneys to pursue a medical malpractice action against the Veteran’s Administration, the University of Rochester, and an opthalmologist. A federal district court disposed of the majority of…

Justia Opinion Summary: After hearing gunshots in an apartment building, police officers pursued Defendant into an apartment, searched the apartment, and located Defendant and his cohort hiding under a bed. Defendant was placed under placed in…

Justia Opinion Summary: Applicants sought approval from the Town of North Hempstead Board of Zoning and Appeals (the Board) to place a full-service restaurant in a storefront that had most recently housed a retail gift shop. Restaurants in this…

Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case was whether the Education Law permits Nassau County to charge back to the Town of North Hempstead amounts the County paid on behalf of Town residents attending the Fashion Institute of Technology…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Drug Law Reform Act of 2009 (DLRA) denies remedial resentencing to offenders serving sentences for “exclusion offenses,” including offenses for which a merit time allowance is not available. At issue in this case was…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was charged with numerous crimes arising from his theft of a minivan and the death of a pedestrian that the minivan struck during a high-speed police chase. After a jury trial, Defendant was found guilty of…

Justia Opinion Summary: These two cases involved the dissolution of two separate law firms. After the law firms’ dissolution, the partners joined other law firms, which took on unfinished legal matters from the dissolved law firms’ former…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff brought an action against Volvo Cars of North America, alleging defective design of a product. The case proceeded to trial. At Plaintiff’s request, the trial court included a pattern jury instruction to charge…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant, a high school student, anonymously posted sexual information and photographs of fellow classmates and other adolescents on Facebook, a social networking website. Defendant was charged with and pleaded guilty…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 1996, Defendant pleaded guilty to third-degree sale of a controlled substance. In 2010, citing Padilla v. Kentucky, Defendant moved to vacate his conviction on the ground that defense counsel was ineffective for…

Justia Opinion Summary: New York City police officers and firefighters appointed on or after July 1, 2009 are tier three members of the New York City Police Pension Fund and the New York City Fire Department Pension Fund. Petitioners filed a…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of grand larceny and money laundering, both in the second degree, for defrauding the former New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, of $750,000. The Appellate Division affirmed…

Justia Opinion Summary: These two appeals concerned the efforts of two corporations to explore and develop natural gas resources in two municipalities. In response, both municipalities adopted amendments to their zoning laws that prohibited all…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of two counts of murder in the second degree. The Appellate Division affirmed on direct appeal. Approximately a decade later, Defendant moved to vacate his judgment of…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2012, Petitioner, the Albany County Surrogate, was served with a complaint alleging three charges of judicial misconduct based on her failure to disqualify herself from matters involving two of her personal attorneys…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, a resident of Alberta, Canada, commenced an action against Defendants in a New York federal court asserting various RICO claims stemming from a dispute over control of an oil field in Siberia. The Second…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was indicted on two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree. The jury returned a verdict convicting Defendant of both counts. Defendant appealed, arguing that the trial court erred in…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2012, in an effort to combat obesity among residents of New York City, the New York City Board of Health amended the City Health Code so as to restrict the size of cups and containers used by food service…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of three robbery counts and one assault count. Defendant appealed, arguing that the evidence was not sufficient to sustain her convictions because, inter alia, the stolen items…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Village of Kings Point adopted a proposal to build a facility in Kings Point Park. Plaintiffs filed an action against the Village, its Mayor and its Board of Trustees seeking to enjoin the Village’s proposed project…

Justia Opinion Summary: In two personal injury actions, Plaintiffs sued property owners (Defendants), alleging that they suffered numerous injuries from exposure to lead-based paint at Defendants’ properties. Prior to the defense medical…

Justia Opinion Summary: A person commits burglary in the second degree if a person unlawfully enters a dwelling with intent to commit a crime therein. In this case, Defendant was convicted of two counts of burglary in the second degree for…

Justia Opinion Summary: In People v. Syville, the Court of Appeals held that coram nobis may be used to assert a claim that appellate rights were extinguished by ineffective assistance. At issue in these three cases was whether Syville entitled…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff entered into a financial brokerage agreement with Defendant providing that Plaintiff would serve as financial advisor and investment banker in the proposed sale of certain student loan assets owned by…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendants issued excess insurance policies to Plaintiff that required, as a threshold condition for coverage, Plaintiff to provide timely notice of any occurrence that potentially implicated Defendants’ duty of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff sued several defendants in the Delaware Court of Chancery for alleged wrongdoing related to notes purchased by Plaintiff and issued by one of the defendants. Defendants moved to dismiss, claiming that…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. The Appellate Division reversed and granted Defendant a new trial, holding that the court’s colloquy with a single juror in…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Deputy Chief Administrative Judge for the New York City Courts entered an order relieving a district attorney from an investigation and appointing a special district attorney to conduct the investigation in Donovan’s…

Justia Opinion Summary: Both Defendants in this case were required to register as a sex offenders pursuant to the Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA). At issue in these cases was the SORA risk assessment guidelines promulgated by the Board of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant-attorney was criminally prosecuted along with Judge Doe on violations of the campaign finance law. The criminal proceeding was eventually terminated, and the records were sealed. The State Commission on…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff was riding her bike on a roadway that was closed to vehicular traffic for repairs. Plaintiff received permission from Donald Bowles, a supervisor with the Department of Transportation for the City of New York…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pleaded guilty to obstructing governmental administration in the second degree by preventing a police officer from patrolling the neighborhood. Defendant appealed, arguing that he did not waive prosecution by…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was prosecuted for driving while intoxicated (DWI). During trial, a defense expert opined that Defendant’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC) at the time she was stopped was between .03% and .04%, which was…

Justia Opinion Summary: When Respondent was fifteen, he was charged with unlawful possession of weapons by persons under sixteen in violation of N.Y. Penal Law 265.05. The charges stemmed from a police officer’s recovery of a machete from…

Justia Opinion Summary: After the Town of Islip discontinued the practice of permanently assigning Town-owned vehicles, or “take home” vehicles, to certain employees, the union representing the employees declared that employee use of a…

Justia Opinion Summary: IDT Corp. and Tyco International Ltd. litigated and negotiated for fifteen years over the development and use of a telecommunications system. In 2004, IDT claimed that Tyco breached its obligation under a 2000 settlement…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of trespass and resisting arrest. Defendant appealed, arguing that the arresting officer lacked probable cause to arrest him for trespass because the officer knew that…

Justia Opinion Summary: A twelve-year-old middle school student (“student”) was injured when she was struck by a car before an approaching school bus stopped to pick her up. Plaintiff, the student’s mother, filed a personal injury action…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant, the son of a Dead Sea Scrolls scholar, launched an internet campaign to attack the integrity and harm the reputation of other Dead Sea Scrolls academics and scholars. To accomplish his goal of discrediting and…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioners were found not responsible for crimes they committed by reason of mental disease or defect. Petitioners were eventually released from confinement into the community, subject to a five-year order of…

Justia Opinion Summary: After Plaintiff was terminated from her position as chief operating officer for Communication Action for Human Services, Inc., Plaintiff filed suit against Community Action and its chief executive officer (collectively,…

Justia Opinion Summary: Corporation, which owned corporate operating accounts at Bank, took out a loan and line of credit. Corporation passed a corporate resolution providing that unless it notified Bank within fourteen days of an improperly…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 1968, Respondent pleaded guilty to rape and robbery. A federal court later vacated Respondent’s convictions. In 1978, Respondent was convicted of rape in the first degree. After Respondent was released on parole, he…

Justia Opinion Summary: Respondent pleaded guilty to several violent sex offenses. As Respondent’s release date approached, the State commenced a N.Y. Mental Hyg. Law 10 proceeding seeking a determination that Respondent was a detained sex…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff initiated litigation to recover wrongfully diverted and concealed proceeds of a loan agreement, asserting that Defendants conspired to avoid repayment by denying their ownership and control over entities used…

Justia Opinion Summary: A grand jury charged Defendants, the president and CEO of a leading materials testing company and the company’s vice-president, with engaging in a pattern of criminal activity while intentionally conducting and…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioners and other members of the East Meadow Teachers Association displayed picketing signs from their cars parked where parents were dropping their children off at Woodland Middle School. The Board of Education of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant struck and killed a pedestrian while driving an automobile and was subsequently transported to police headquarters. While Defendant’s attorney was pursuing telephone contact with law enforcement personnel, the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioners were two medical providers whose patients included individuals insured by the State’s primary health benefit plan. The State Comptroller reviewed Petitioners’ billing records as part of an audit of billing…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner sought disclosure under the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) from the New York State Teachers’ Retirement System and the Teachers’ Retirement System of the City of New York (“retirement systems”) of the names…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant and his codefendants were charged via a sixty-one count indictment with several crimes arising from a sophisticated scheme to steal property through the use of forged credit cards. The case proceeded to trial…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of rape. During the prosecution, Defendant sought disclosure of the complainant’s mental health records. After an in camera review of the records, which contained thousands of…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Board of Managers of the French Oaks Condominium, a residential complex located in the Town of Amherst, commenced a Real Property Tax Law article 7 proceeding against the Town challenging the Town’s tax assessment of…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was charged with burglary in the second degree. The People sought permission to admit a witness’s grand jury testimony into evidence, alleging that Defendant had forfeited his right to…

Justia Opinion Summary: This case arose out of dispute over the administration of a workers’ compensation self-insurance plan (“Plan”) administered by Herkimer County. Dozens of municipalities participated in the Plan, including the Village of…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2011, Gabriela A., who was fifteen years old, was adjudicated a person in need of supervision (PINS) and placed on probation. Gabriela was later remanded to a detention facility from which she absconded. Several…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant was disciplined and then terminated from his employment with his Employer. The Union of which Appellant was a member filed several grievances protesting the discipline and subsequent termination, which were…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth-degree. Supreme Court submitted to the jury the indicted charge of second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter as a…

Justia Opinion Summary: This case arose out of a transaction between a bank located in United Arab Emirates and a partnership which had its headquarters in Saudi Arabia. The bank sued the partnership to collect an alleged debt and chose to do…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner worked at the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) until April 1991. While employed at DEP, Petitioner was a Tier 4 New York City Employees’ Retirement System (NYCERS) member. Later in…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellants retained Mary Dorman to represent them in a lawsuit. During the litigation, Dorman and Appellants entered into three separate retainer agreements pertaining to Dorman’s work on the trial, on the appeal to the…

Justia Opinion Summary: These four cases involved criminal appeals that were not pursued for more than a decade after the filing of a notice of appeal. The Appellate Division dismissed the appeal in each case. The Court of Appeals (1) affirmed…

Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case was N.Y. C.P.L.R. 3101(a)(4), which allows a party to obtain discovery from a nonparty. John Kapon was the CEO of Acker, Merrall & Condit Company (AMC), a retailer and auctioneer of fine and rare…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff brought this action for attorney deceit against Defendants. Defendants filed a motion to dismiss, asserting that the lawsuit was precluded by the three-year limitations period in N.Y. C.P.L.R. 214(2). Plaintiff…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of manslaughter in the first degree. On appeal, Defendant argued that the trial court erred by not submitting to the jury the question of whether the People’s key witness was…

Justia Opinion Summary: Sixteen-year-old Jessica Bowers sustained severe injuries when she was dragged into the rotating driveline of a tractor-driven post hole digger that was operated by her stepfather, who had borrowed the digger from Peter…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2010, the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) adopted amendments to regulations pertaining to the protection of endangered and threatened species. The amendments established a formal process through which…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff resided in an apartment from approximately 1997 until 2003. A corporation owned the building during Plaintiff’s occupancy until shortly before Plaintiff vacated the premises. In 2004, Plaintiff sued the…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 1979, Plaintiff began his employment with Defendant, New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC), where he was eventually promoted to health facilities planner. In 2005, Plaintiff was diagnosed with…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2001, Defendant was found guilty of robbery and other crimes and sentenced to terms of imprisonment. Supreme Court later ordered that Defendant be resentenced, determining that Defendant’s sentence was illegal because…

Justia Opinion Summary: Roberta Oldenborg was driving Matthew Isabella back from a business meeting in a vehicle owned by Michael Koubek when Oldenborg collided with a vehicle driven by Doris Hallock and owned by Peter Hallock. Isabella was…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2004, Plaintiff, a manufacturer and distributor of medical devices, and Defendant, the developer and manufacturer of CoStar, a coronary stent, entered into an agreement designating Plaintiff as the exclusive…

Justia Opinion Summary: This action stemmed from property damage and the resulting business interruption sustained by Plaintiffs as a result of water damages that occurred following three separate roof breaches. Plaintiffs were Deborah Voss and…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was charged with attempted murder and other crimes. During voir dire, a number of bench conferences were at held at which prospective jurors’ qualifications were discussed. Defendant did not attend, or ask to…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was found guilty of murder in the second degree for suffocating her stepdaughter. The Appellate Division found the jury verdict was against the weight of the evidence and modified the County…

Justia Opinion Summary: Upon responding to a burglary report at an apartment building, police officers observed Defendant in the building’s stairwell. When the officers arrested Defendant for trespassing, one of the officers opened Defendant’s…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was charged with third-degree sexual abuse, forcible touching, and public lewdness for rubbing his exposed penis against another man’s buttocks without the victim’s consent. Defendant pleaded guilty to forcible…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was arrested on suspicion of murder. At a second grand jury proceeding, Defendant vigorously urged the grand jury to have the People call a particular witness, Jane Doe, to testify. The grand jurors rejected…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed an action against Defendants, a construction company and the owner of a building, after he was injured when a heavy conduit pipe fell on his hand while he was working at the building, alleging that…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2012, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation executed a written license agreement with Chef Driven Market, LLC (CDM), which permitted CDM to operate a seasonal restaurant in the Union Square Park…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of depraved indifference murder for murdering his infant son. The Appellate Division affirmed Defendant’s conviction. The Supreme Court reversed and directed a new trial,…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed a personal injury action against Defendants, the construction manager and owner of a building at a construction site, after a large, flat object fell and injured his hand. Plaintiff alleged, inter alia, a…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendants were convicted of attempted robbery. On appeal, Defendants argued that the trial judge abused his discretion when he declined to deliver an adverse inference charge regarding the loss of a…

Justia Opinion Summary: Filippo Gallina and his wife (Plaintiffs) commenced a personal injury action against Preferred Trucking Services Corp. Preferred Trucking was insured by County-Wide Insurance Company under a policy that required insureds…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner purchased an apartment building on Staten Island. Petitioner’s parents lived in the building, and Petitioner stayed in their apartment on occasion to attend to their medical needs. Petitioner leased the other…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs brought legal malpractice claims against Jeffrey Daniels, American Guarantee & Liability Insurance Company’s insured. American Guarantee wrongly refused to defend the claims. A default judgment was entered…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2010, Nassau County passed Local Law 18, which shifted the obligation to pay real property tax refunds from the County to its individual taxing districts. Various interested parties filed three actions seeking a…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff-hospital engaged Defendant to undertake demolition in a basement room at the hospital. Defendant hired brothers Luis and Gerardo Lema, undocumented aliens not legally employable in the United States. The Lemas…

Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case was N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law 250.10, which requires a defendant to provide notice of intent to offer evidence in connection with the affirmative defense of extreme emotional disturbance (EED). Defendant…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff had a $1 million insurance policy from Defendant on an office building. On February 23, 2007, the building was severely damaged in a fire. Defendant paid Plaintiff the actual cash value of the destroyed…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was found guilty of two counts of first-degree robbery as an accessory and one count of second-degree murder as an accessory. The Appellate Division affirmed the judgment. Defendant…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a nonjury trial, Defendant was convicted of unlawful surveillance in the second degree for standing outside the front door of his neighbor’s townhouse and filming the complainant while she was naked in her second…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was tried on two counts of burglary. At his jury trial, Defendant asked to proceed pro se. Ultimately, the trial court granted Defendant’s request to represent himself. Defendant was convicted of the two counts…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2000, Defendant pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to twenty-three years incarceration. After Defendant’s incarceration, the Department of Correctional Services added a five-year PRS term to…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff was being treated at a private medical facility, a nurse employed by the clinic committed an unauthorized disclosure of Plaintiff’s confidential health information. Plaintiff filed this action in federal court…