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THE MAJORITY NOTED THAT A DECISION IS NOT AN APPEALABLE PAPER BUT HELD THE DECISION HERE IN THIS DIVORCE CASE MET THE ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS OF AN ORDER AND WAS THEREFORE APPEALABLE; THE DISSENT DISAGREED (FOURTH DEPT).

The Fourth Department, over a dissent, determined that, although a decision is not an appealable paper, the decision in this divorce action was close enough to an order to support an appeal. The dissent disagreed:

As a preliminary matter, although not raised by the parties and although “[n]o appeal lies from a mere decision” (… see generally CPLR 5501 [c]; 5512 [a]), we conclude that the paper appealed from meets the essential requirements of an order, and we therefore treat it as such … .

From the dissent:

In 1987, this Court held that “[n]o appeal lies from a mere decision” (Kuhn v Kuhn, 129 AD2d 967, 967 [4th Dept 1987]). In reaching that conclusion, we relied on, inter alia, CPLR 5512 (a), titled “appealable paper,” which provides that “[a]n initial appeal shall be taken from the judgment or order of the court of original instance.” Until today, we have routinely followed that settled principle … . * * *

Here, the record includes a decision that is denominated only as a decision and has no ordering paragraphs and, in his notice of appeal, plaintiff explicitly appeals “from the Decision” (emphasis added). My colleagues in the majority believe that the decision is an appealable paper because it meets “the essential requirements of an order.” To support that proposition, the majority relies on Matter of Louka v Shehatou (67 AD3d 1476 [4th Dept 2009]), wherein this Court determined that a letter would be treated as an order inasmuch as “the Referee filed the letter with the Family Court Clerk and . . . the letter resolved the motion and advised the father that he had a right to appeal” (id. at 1476). Although the decision here was filed and resolved the motion, there was no directive in the decision that plaintiff had the right to appeal from it. Furthermore, I submit that almost all written decisions at least attempt to resolve the issues presented by the parties and many of those decisions are also filed. Nicol v Nicol, 2020 NY Slip Op 00740, Fourth Dept 1-31-20

 

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