The First Department upheld Supreme Court’s grant of class certification in an action alleging defendant landlord charged market rents while accepting J-51 [tax incentive] benefits. The First Department wrote: The issues of when defendant received J-51 benefits, whether defendant deregulated apartments while receiving those benefits, which tenants resided in those apartments during those time periods, […]
The Court of Appeals, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge Read, determined that the phrase “depraved indifference to human life” as it is used in Social Services Law 384-b(8)(a)(i) to define when a child has been “severely abused” does not have the meaning ascribed to the same phrase under the Penal Law. In addition, the […]
In reversing Family Court’s grant of visitation rights to the children’s grandmother (more than what the mother wanted to allow), the Third Department wrote: Where, as here, the parents of children are alive, Domestic Relations Law § 72 gives grandparents the right to seek visitation with their grandchildren where, as a threshold matter, they can […]
Family Court granted a motion by social services to be relieved of its obligation to make further reasonable efforts to return the child to the father. The child was in foster care after a neglect proceeding against the mother. In holding that the motion was properly brought and granted, even though a finding of neglect […]
In annulling a disciplinary finding, the Third Department held the misbehavior report did not provide sufficient notice of the alleged offense: Petitioner contends that his due process rights were violated because the misbehavior report failed to comply with the particularity requirements of 7 NYCRR 251-3.1 (c). This regulation provides that a misbehavior report must set […]
The Court of Appeals held that the admission at trial of statements made by the defendant indicating he had committed murders other than the murder with which he was charged “did not rise to the level of constitutional injury such as ineffectiveness of counsel or juror partiality.” Therefore, the harmless error doctrine applied and, in […]
The Third Department noted the different proof burdens for a SORA classification hearing versus a modification hearing: The People concede that defendant is entitled to a new hearing because Supreme Court treated the 2005 rehearing as one for modification, as opposed to classification (compare Correction Law § 168-n, with Correction Law § 168-o). As the […]
In this sexual-crimes case, the Third Department discussed (among other issues): (1) the application of speedy trial rules when an initial indictment is dismissed and then charges stemming from the same incident are brought more than six months later in a second indictment; (2) the sufficiency of proof of the victim’s helplessness (intoxication); and (3) […]
The defendant was convicted of shooting the victim with a .25 caliber handgun. Under Molineux, the prosecution was allowed to present evidence that the defendant, two and a half months before, was seen brandishing a .25 caliber handgun. The trial court determined this “prior crime” evidence was admissible to prove the identity of the shooter. […]
In affirming the dismissal of a habeas corpus petition, the Third Department noted that even where the basis for the petition is valid (here there was no preliminary hearing for a parole violation) habeas relief is not available if there is an independent basis for continued incarceration (here an indictment for the offense underlying the […]
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