CONTRACT WAS SUBJECT TO THE STATE FINANCE LAW AND WAS NOT VALID UNTIL APPROVED BY THE STATE COMPTROLLER, NO RECOVERY FOR DELAYS IN THE PERIOD BEFORE THE CONTRACT WAS APPROVED (SECOND DEPT).
The Second Department determined claimant, a company hired by defendant City University to install fire alarms, could not recover damages for alleged delays caused by the defendant prior to the approval of the contract by the comptroller. No contract with the state is valid until approval:
The parties’ contract was subject to State Finance Law § 112(2)(a), which, at the time, provided that any contract exceeding $15,000 made by “any state agency, department, board, officer, commission, or institution . . . shall first be approved by the comptroller and filed in his or her office” “[b]efore . . . be[ing] executed or becom[ing] effective” … . Moreover, the contract itself provided that it would “not be valid, effective or binding upon the State until it ha[d] been approved by the State Comptroller and filed in his [or her] office.” In light of these provisions, the claimants may not recover damages based on delay occurring before the contract was approved by the Comptroller … . C & L Elec., Inc. v City Univ. of N.Y., 2019 NY Slip Op 01051, Second Dept 2-13-19
