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JUDGE PROPERLY SET ASIDE THE VERDICT AWARDING $0 FOR FUTURE PAIN AND SUFFERING IN THIS LABOR LAW 240 (1) ACTION DESPITE PLAINTIFF’S FAILURE TO OBJECT TO THE VERDICT AS INCONSISTENT (FIRST DEPT).

The First Department determined Supreme Court properly set aside the verdict awarding $0 for pain and suffering in this Labor Law 240 (1) action, despite plaintiff’s failure to object to the verdict as inconsistent:

… [P]laintiff’s failure to object to the jury’s award of $0 for both past and future pain and suffering as inconsistent with the jury’s awards for past and future lost earnings and future medical expenses did not preclude the court from deciding whether ” the jury’s failure to award damages for pain and suffering [wa]s contrary to a fair interpretation of the evidence and constitute[d] a material deviation from what would be reasonable compensation'” … . Natoli v City of New York, 2020 NY Slip Op 00988, First Dept 2-11-20

 

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CONTINUOUS TREATMENT DOCTRINE NOT AFFECTED BY A YEAR AND THREE MONTH GAP IN TREATMENT, DEFENDANTS’ SUMMARY JUDGMENT MOTION SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN GRANTED IN THIS MEDICAL MALPRACTICE ACTION (FIRST DEPT).

The First Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined defendants’ motion for summary judgment in this medical malpractice action should not have been granted. Although the alleged malpractice (the failure to follow up on a detection of a mass) occurred in 2006, the continuous treatment doctrine tolled the statute of limitations. A year and three month gap in treatment did not preclude application of the continuous treatment doctrine:

Plaintiff raised an issue of fact as to whether Dr. Woo continuously treated the decedent for conditions related to renal cell carcinoma. Plaintiff’s expert, Dr. Feit, opined that Dr. Woo treated the decedent for symptoms of back pain, hypertension, and insomnia, all of which were symptoms of and related to renal cell carcinoma, a diagnosis that should have been considered given the findings in the 2006 MRI of a renal mass.

Plaintiff sufficiently established that such treatment continued through the decedent’s hospitalization in July 2012. * * *

The one-year-and-three month gap between the April 2011 visit and the July 2012 note does not preclude application of the continuous treatment doctrine … . Dookhie v Woo, 2020 NY Slip Op 00975, First Dept 2-11-20

 

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ACCELERATION OF A DEBT DOES NOT AFFECT THOSE INSTALLMENT PAYMENTS DUE MORE THAN SIX YEARS BEFORE THE ACTION ON THE NOTES WAS COMMENCED, ACTION ON THOSE PAYMENTS IS TIME-BARRED (FIRST DEPT).

The First Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined that installment payments due prior to six years before the action on the notes could not be recovered despite the allegation that the debt had been accelerated:

Acceleration causes those future installment payments that are not yet due and payable to become immediately due and payable. It enables a lender to advance the due date for the future installment payments and thus, the statute of limitations runs on the balance of the debt … . It does not change the due date of those past due installment payments to that of the date of acceleration … .

Accordingly, plaintiffs demonstrated, prima facie, that defendant breached each of the notes by submitting evidence of the duly executed notes and defendant’s failure to make payments in accordance with their payment terms … . Defendant, however, demonstrated prima facie, that the unpaid installment payments due prior to June 1, 2012 were time-barred. Cannell v Grail Partners, LLC, 2020 NY Slip Op 00973, First Dept 2-11-20

 

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STATEMENT MADE IN PRIOR APPELLATE DECISION IN THE SAME MATTER TO THE EFFECT NO ONE QUESTIONED THE NUMBER OF HOURS PUT IN BY THE ATTORNEY FOR THE CHILD WAS DICTA AND THEREFORE SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN CONSIDERED THE LAW OF THE CASE ON REMITTAL; THE FOURTH DEPARTMENT REDUCED THE NUMBER OF BILLABLE HOURS (FOURTH DEPT).

The Fourth Department, reducing the amount of attorney’s fees awarded by Supreme Court, noted that a statement made by the Fourth Department in a prior appeal in the same matter was dicta and therefore should not have been treated as the law of the case by Supreme Court. In the prior decision the Fourth Department stated that no one had questioned the number of hours the attorney (Reedy) had worked on the case as the attorney for the child. Supreme Court took that statement to mean the number of hours could not be reduced by the court on remittal:

Our prior order unequivocally directed the court to calculate the amount of Reedy’s fees. An award of attorney’s fees must be “calculated on the basis of the . . . hours actually and reasonably spent on the matter by . . . counsel, multiplied by counsel’s reasonable hourly rate” … . In assessing the reasonableness of the hours spent by counsel, the issue “is not whether hindsight vindicates an attorney’s time expenditures, but whether, at the time the work was performed, a reasonable attorney would have engaged in the same time expenditures” …  . Thus, upon remittal the court was, inter alia, to determine an award of attorney’s fees that adequately reflected both the time spent and whether such time “was reasonably related to the issues litigated” … . Here, especially in light of Reedy’s prior concession that the amount sought was excessive, we conclude that the court abused its discretion in fixing the amount of fees without determining the reasonableness of the number of hours included in Reedy’s fee request … .

Contrary to respondent’s contention, the court’s statement in its earlier decision that “[n]o one has questioned the number of hours [Reedy] has claimed” did not become law of the case. The doctrine of law of the case “applies only to legal determinations that were necessarily resolved on the merits in a prior decision” … . Consequently, the doctrine does not apply where, as here, the court makes statements that are “mere dicta” … . Inasmuch as the court’s ultimate ruling in its earlier decision was that Reedy was not entitled to compensation as a private pay AFC, the court’s statement about the number of hours that he worked was dictum. Stefaniak v Zulkharnain, 2020 NY Slip Op 00961, Fourth Dept 2-7-20

 

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PETITIONERS, SIMPLY BY VIRTUE OF BEING RESIDENTS OF THE VILLAGE, HAD STANDING TO CHALLENGE THE VILLAGE BOARD’S ALLEGED VIOLATION OF THE OPEN MEETINGS LAW (SECOND DEPT).

The Second Department, reversing Supreme Court, in a full-fledged opinion by Justice Rivera, determined petitioners, as members of the public and residents of the Village of Mamaroneck, had standing to challenge an alleged violation of the Open Meetings Law. Petitioners alleged the Village Board did not provide proper notice of the meeting, improperly entered a closed executive session and failed to accurately record the minutes of the meeting:

The purpose of the Open Meetings Law and the intent of the Legislature in enacting that law dictate that the harm or injury is the alleged unlawful exclusion of the public from a municipal meeting. The Open Meetings Law plainly confers upon the public the right to attend certain meetings of public bodies (see Public Officers Law § 100). Consistent therewith, the harm or injury of being excluded from municipal meetings that should be open to the public is sufficient to establish standing in cases based upon alleged violations of the Open Meetings Law … . If the analysis and determination of the Supreme Court were allowed to stand, a petitioner/plaintiff would have to demonstrate an additional personal damage or injury to his or her civil, personal, or property rights in order to assert a violation of the Open Meetings Law. This would, in effect, interject a counterintuitive restriction upon the general citizenry’s access and participatory freedoms to attend certain meetings of a public body. Such a requirement or condition would undermine, erode, and emasculate the stated objective of this statute, which was designed to benefit the citizens of this state and the general commonweal, assure the public’s right to be informed, and prevent secrecy by governmental bodies. Matter of McCrory v Village of Mamaroneck Bd. of Trustees, 2020 NY Slip Op 00864, Second Dept 2-5-20

 

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DEFENDANTS RAISED A QUESTION OF FACT ABOUT WHETHER THEY WERE SERVED WITH THE SUMMONS AND COMPLAINT AND PLAINTIFF FAILED TO PROVE COMPLIANCE WITH THE NOTICE REQUIREMENTS OF RPAPL 1304; PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT IN THIS FORECLOSURE ACTION SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN GRANTED (SECOND DEPT).

The Second Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment in this foreclosure action should not have been granted. Defendants raised a question of fact whether they were served with the summons and complaint and plaintiff failed to prove compliance with the notice requirements of Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law (RPAPL) 1304:

… [T]he defendants submitted the affidavit of Vicki Erani, in which she expressly averred that she was never served. She also averred that, on Thursdays, which was the day of the week of the alleged service, she customarily was away from her residence, assisting her mother with errands. The defendants also submitted the affidavit of Vicki Erani’s mother confirming that Vicki Erani spent every Thursday with her. The defendants also submitted evidence that, in 2016, this particular process server’s application to renew his license as an individual process server had been denied by the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs on the basis that he had falsified affidavits of service. The defendants’ submissions rebutted the presumption of proper service established by the process server’s affidavit … . * * *

… [T]he plaintiff failed to establish, prima facie, that it complied with RPAPL 1304 because neither of the affidavits submitted by the plaintiff of two of its vice presidents asserted personal knowledge of the purported mailing and neither vice president made the requisite showing that she was familiar with the plaintiff’s mailing practices and procedures to establish “proof of a standard office practice and procedure designed to ensure that items are properly addressed and mailed” … . The plaintiff failed to attach, as exhibits to the motion, any documents to prove that the mailing actually happened. Since the plaintiff failed to provide evidence of the actual mailing, or evidence of a standard office mailing procedure designed to ensure that items are properly addressed and mailed, sworn to by someone with personal knowledge of the procedure, the plaintiff failed to establish its strict compliance with RPAPL 1304 … . Citimortgage, Inc. v Erani, 2020 NY Slip Op 00843, Second Dept 2-5-20

 

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DEFENDANT DEFAULTED; SUPREME COURT SHOULD NOT HAVE CONSIDERED LIABILITY ISSUES AT THE INQUEST TO DETERMINE DAMAGES (SECOND DEPT).

The Second Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined the court should not have considered issues of liability because defendant had defaulted and thereby admitted liability:

In this action, inter alia, to recover damages for personal injuries, the defendant failed to appear or answer the complaint. In an order … , the Supreme Court granted the plaintiff’s unopposed motion for leave to enter a default judgment against the defendant and directed an inquest on the issue of damages. After conducting the inquest, the court … determined that the plaintiff had failed to establish, prima facie, that the defendant was negligent and that her negligence was a substantial factor in causing the plaintiff’s injuries, and thereupon, sua sponte, directed the dismissal of the complaint.

By defaulting, the defendant admitted “all traversable allegations in the complaint, including the basic allegation of liability” … . As such, the sole issue to be determined at the inquest was the extent of the damages sustained by the plaintiff, and the Supreme Court should not have considered issues of liability … . Arluck v Brezinska, 2020 NY Slip Op 00839, Second Dept 2-5-20

 

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DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO DISMISS ON FORUM NON CONVENIENS GROUNDS SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN GRANTED IN THIS PRODUCTS LIABILITY ACTION, DESPITE THE FACT THAT ONLY TWO OF THE 19 PLAINTIFFS RESIDED IN NEW YORK (SECOND DEPT).

The Second Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined defendants’ motion to dismiss on forum non conveniens grounds should not have been granted. Nineteen plaintiffs brought this production liability action alleging damage caused by defendants’ “Just For Men” dyes and products. Only two plaintiffs resided in New York and defendants’ motion to dismiss was granted on that ground, without any further proof:

“The doctrine of forum non conveniens permits a court to dismiss an action when, although it may have jurisdiction over a claim, the court determines that in the interest of substantial justice the action should be heard in another forum'” (… CPLR 327[a]). The burden was on the defendants to show that “considerations relevant to private or public interest militate against accepting or retaining the litigation” … . Factors to consider are the residency of the parties, potential inconvenience to proposed witnesses, especially nonparty witnesses, availability of an alternative forum, the situs of the actionable events, the location of the evidence, and the burden that retaining the case would have on New York courts … .

Here, the defendants asserted no facts other than that the nonresident plaintiffs were out-of-state residents. The defendants did not meet their burden of proof on the issue of convenience of the witnesses, since, among other things, there was no statement as to whom the witnesses are and where they reside. Moreover, Just For Men’s design, manufacturing, labeling, advertising, and executive decision-making all allegedly occurred in White Plains, where Combe Incorporated has a principal place of business. Further, there is no per se rule stating that out-of-state plaintiffs cannot, on the ground of forum non conveniens, sue in New York based upon products liability … , despite the fact that evidence of damages would most often be found where the plaintiff resides. Albright v Combe Inc., 2020 NY Slip Op 00837, Second Dept 2-5-20

 

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TOWN DID NOT DEMONSTRATE IT DID NOT RECEIVE WRITTEN NOTICE OF THE ALLEGED SIDEWALK DEFECT IN THIS SLIP AND FALL CASE; THE TOWN’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN GRANTED (SECOND DEPT).

The Second Department, reversing (modifying) Supreme Court, determined that the town’s motion for summary judgment in this sidewalk slip and fall case should not have been granted because the town did not demonstrate it had not received written notice of the defect. The Second Department noted that Supreme Court properly rejected plaintiff’s theory that inadequate lighting was a factor because that theory was not in the notice of claim and permission to amend the notice of claim was not sought by the plaintiff:

To prevail on its motion, it was the Town’s burden to establish, prima facie, that no prior written notice of the alleged condition was given to either the Town Clerk or Town Commissioner of Highways (see Code of the Town of Hempstead § 6-3; Town Law § 65-a[2]). In support of its motion for summary judgment, the Town submitted, inter alia, the affidavit of a records access officer for the Town’s Highway Department, wherein she specifically averred that she searched the Highway Department records, but did not state that she searched the Town Clerk’s records. Thus, the Town failed to establish, prima facie, that neither the Town Clerk nor the Commissioner of Highways received prior written notice of the alleged condition … . Weinstein v County of Nassau, 2020 NY Slip Op 00890, Second Dept 2-5-20

 

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BY NOT SEEKING THE FULL AMOUNT OF THE DEBT IN THE 90-DAY NOTICE PLAINTIFF MAY HAVE DE-ACCELERATED THE DEBT MAKING THE FORECLOSURE ACTION TIMELY (FIRST DEPT).

The First Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined plaintiff, by demonstrating it did not demand the full debt, but rather demanded only the amount needed to cure the default, presented sufficient proof that the debt had not been accelerated, and therefore the action was timely, to warrant restoring the matter to the calendar. The action had been dismissed when plaintiff did not appear at a scheduled conference. Defendant had moved to dismiss alleging the debt had been accelerated and the action was time-barred:

Plaintiff … moved, pursuant to CPLR 5015(a)(1), to vacate the dismissal order and reinstate the claim. * * *

… [P]laintiff provided evidence that it took affirmative action to de-accelerate the mortgage, which would have stopped the running of the statute of limitations on the mortgage debt. The 90-day notice provided to defendant sought an amount lower than the accelerated amount, which may evidence an intent to de-accelerate. While seeking a lower amount in and of itself is not enough to establish, as a matter of law, that the 90-day notice “destroy[ed] the effect of the sworn statement that the plaintiff had elected to accelerate the maturity of the debt” … . it is sufficient to meet the “minimal showing” required on a motion to restore … . Federal Natl. Mtge. Assn. v Rosenberg, 2020 NY Slip Op 00814, First Dept 2-4-20

 

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