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NYC’S “OPEN SPACE” ZONING REQUIREMENT IS MET BY ROOFTOP GARDENS ON A SINGLE BUILDING IN A MULTI-BUILDING ZONING LOT (CT APP). ​

The Court of Appeals, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge Feinman, reversing the Appellate Division and upholding the NYC Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA), over an extensive three-judge dissent, determined the “open space” requirement of the NYC Zoning Resolution in a zoning lot with multiple buildings was met by rooftop gardens accessible to a single building’s residents:

The question before us is whether an area must be accessible to the residents of every building on a zoning lot containing multiple, separately owned buildings in order to constitute “open space” within the meaning of the New York City Zoning Resolution … . The Board of Standards and Appeals of the City of New York (BSA), which is responsible for administering the Zoning Resolution, has interpreted the definition of open space to encompass rooftop gardens accessible to a single building’s residents as long as the residents of each building on the zoning lot receive at least a proportionate share of open space. …

… “‘Open space’ is that part of a zoning lot, including courts or yards, which is open and unobstructed from its lowest level to the sky and is accessible to and usable by all persons occupying a dwelling unit or a rooming unit on the zoning lot” … . The minimum amount of open space required on a zoning lot is determined by the “open space ratio,” which is “the number of square feet of open space on the zoning lot, expressed as a percentage of the floor area on that zoning lot” … . … [T]he minimum amount of open space required on a zoning lot is calculated by multiplying the given open space ratio by the total residential floor area on the zoning lot. * * * The Appellate Division … opined that the definition of open space in ZR [Zoning Resolution] § 12-10 unambiguously requires that open space be accessible to the residents of every building on a zoning lot. By contrast, the dissent concluded that the statute was ambiguous and would have deferred to the BSA’s practical reading of the open-space definition as applied to multi-owner zoning lots. * * *The BSA’s interpretation is rational as applied to multi-owner zoning lots. Matter of Peyton v New York City Bd. of Stds. & Appeals, 2020 NY Slip Op 07662, CtApp 12-17-20

 

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ALTHOUGH RPAPL 1320-a, ENACTED WHILE THIS APPEAL WAS PENDING, HAS CHANGED THINGS, THE DEFENDANTS’ LACK-OF-STANDING DEFENSE WAS WAIVED BECAUSE IT WAS NOT RAISED IN THEIR ANSWERS OR PRE-ANSWER MOTIONS; THE BANK’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT WAS PROPERLY GRANTED (CT APP).

The Court of Appeals, in a brief memorandum with an extensive concurring opinion, determined the defendants in the foreclosure action had waived the lack-of-standing defense by not raising it in their answers or pre-answer motions. The court noted that Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law (RPAPL) 1320-a, which was enacted when this appeal was pending, may allow standing to be raised “at this stage of the litigation:”

… Supreme Court did not err in granting plaintiff’s motions for summary judgment and for a judgment of foreclosure and sale. Defendants failed to raise standing in their answers or in pre-answer motions as required by CPLR 3211 (e) and accordingly, under the law in effect at the time of the orders appealed from, the defense was waived … . Defendants’ argument that ownership is an essential element of a foreclosure action, raised for the first time in support of their motion for reargument at the Appellate Division, is unpreserved for our review. We do not reach the issue of whether RPAPL 1302-a, enacted while this appeal was pending, affords defendants an opportunity to raise standing at this stage of the litigation. Defendants are free to apply to the trial court for any relief that may be available to them under that statute. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. v Caliguri, 2020 NY Slip Op 07660, CtApp 12-17-20

 

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A NUMBER OF GUILTY-PLEA CONVICTIONS REVERSED BECAUSE THE DEFENDANTS WERE TOLD THE WAIVER OF APPEAL WAS AN ABSOLUTE BAR TO APPEAL (CT APP).

The Court of Appeals, over an extensive dissent with respect to one case, reversed a number of guilty-plea convictions because the judges told the defendants the waiver was an absolute bar to appeal:

The waivers of the right to appeal were invalid and unenforceable pursuant to our analysis in People v Thomas (34 NY3d 545 [2019]). It is well-settled that “a waiver of the right to appeal is not an absolute bar to the taking of a first-tier direct appeal” … . Nonetheless, in each case, among other infirmities, the rights encompassed by an appeal waiver were mischaracterized during the oral colloquy and in written forms executed by defendants, which indicated the waiver was an absolute bar to direct appeal, failed to signal that any issues survived the waiver and, in the Queens and Orleans Counties cases, advised that the waiver encompassed “collateral relief on certain nonwaivable issues in both state and federal courts” … . Viewing these deficiencies in the context of the record in each case and considering the totality of the circumstances, including in several cases defendants’ significant mental health issues … , we cannot say that “defendants comprehended the nature [and consequences] of the waiver of appellate rights” … . People v Bisono, 2020 NY Slip Op 07484, CtApp 12-15-20

 

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UNDER THE TERMS OF THE SURRENDER AGREEMENT THE TENANT OWED THE LANDLORD AN ADDITIONAL $175,000; UPON DEFENDANT’S DEFAULT, THE PLAINTIFF SUED FOR THE CONTRACTUAL LIQUIDATED DAMAGES OF OVER $1,000,000; THE JUDGMENT FOR $175,000 WAS UPHELD; THE LIQUIDATED DAMAGES OF OVER $1,000,000 VIOLATED THE PUBLIC POLICY AGAINST NON-STATUTORY PENALTIES AND FORFEITURES (CT APP).

The Court of Appeals, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge Rivera, over a three-judge dissent, determined the liquidated damages provision of the landlord-tenant surrender agreement violated the public policy against penalties or forfeitures for which there is no statutory penalty. Defendant-tenant, a grocery store chain, entered a surrender agreement with plaintiff-landlord which allowed defendant to get out from under the lease by making certain installment payments. Defendant defaulted on some of the payments (approximately $175,000) and plaintiff sought to recover liquidated damages of over $1,000,000. Defendant had timely surrendered the premises and it had been relet. Supreme Court had denied plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment and granted defendant’s cross-motion agreeing to pay $175,000:

Under our well-established rules of contract, the Surrender Agreement’s liquidated damages provision does not fairly compensate plaintiff for defendant’s delayed installment payments. The provision calls for a sum more than sevenfold the amount due if defendant had complied fully with the Surrender Agreement. We cannot enforce such an obviously and grossly disproportionate award without offending our State’s public policy against “the imposition of penalties or forfeitures for which there is no statutory authority” … . Accordingly, there was no error in rejecting plaintiff’s liquidated damages provision. Trustees of Columbia Univ. in the City of N.Y. v D’Agostino Supermarkets, Inc., 2020 NY Slip Op 06937, Ct App 11-24-20

 

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CONVERSATIONS ABOUT AND PLANNING OF THE MURDER OF DEFENDANT’S WIFE AND MOTHER-IN-LAW DID NOT CONSTITUTE LEGALLY SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE OF ATTEMPTED MURDER (CT APP).

The Court of Appeals, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge Feinman, over a three-judge dissent, determined the evidence of attempted first and second degree murder was legally insufficient. Defendant’s conversations and planning with a feigned confederate did not constitute an “actual step” toward killing his wife and mother-in-law:

… [T]he only conduct to be considered is defendant’s own acts because his purported accomplice [MS], who was working with the authorities, did not take any steps toward furthering the planned murders other than listening to defendant’s scheme. MS did not, for example, acquire the instrumentality for the crimes (such as drugs or poison), verify the existence of the keys and obtain them from the stated location, or stake out the address supplied by defendant to make sure that the wife and mother-in-law were present at the location specified. Nevertheless, the People, mostly by parsing defendant’s communications with MS, argue that defendant engaged in sufficient conduct by: (1) promising to provide a house to MS; (2) giving MS the purported address of the targets; (3) instructing MS when to carry out the murders; (4) providing MS with a hand-drawn map of the location of the third party’s house, where MS was to drop off the children after the murders; (5) handing MS a detailed plan of how to carry out the murders; (6) telling MS the location of the keys to the house; (7) calling MS’s girlfriend to arrange for MS to visit the jail; (8) writing a fake suicide note; (9) showing MS the suicide note; and (10) creating a prearranged code to discuss the postmortem over the recorded jail phone.

Not only are these acts “preparatory in a dictionary sense” … , they are also limited to the planning stages of committing the offense: they specify the who, what, where, when, and how of defendant’s murder plans. Notably absent are any acts that can be deemed to bring the crimes dangerously close to completion. People v Lendof-Gonzalez, 2020 NY Slip Op 06940, CtApp 11-24-20

 

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PLAINTIFFS SOUGHT TO FORECLOSE ON LOANS TO THE BORROWERS WHO THEN STARTED BANKRUPTCY PROCEEDINGS; PLAINTIFFS THEN SUED DEFENDANTS, WHO ARE NOT PARTIES TO THE FORECLOSURE/BANKRUPTCY ACTIONS, FOR TORTIOUS INTERFERENCE WITH THE LOAN AGREEMENTS; THE TORTIOUS INTERFERENCE WITH CONTRACT ACTIONS ARE NOT PREEMPTED BY FEDERAL BANKRUPTCY LAW (CT APP).

The Court of Appeals, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge Stein, over a three-judge dissent, determined the tortious interference with contract claims, against defendants who are not parties in the foreclosure/bankruptcy proceedings, were not preempted by federal law. Plaintiff sought to foreclose on a loan and the borrowers commenced bankruptcy proceedings. Plaintiff then sued defendants, who are not parties to the foreclosure, alleging tortious interference with the loan agreements. The opinion focuses on the law of preemption:

It is not disputed that valid contracts existed between plaintiff and the borrowers. Plaintiff’s claims arising out of the borrowers’ breach of those contracts as asserted against the borrowers were resolved by the bankruptcy proceeding. Here, plaintiff alleges that defendants knew of the relevant contractual terms and deliberately induced the borrowers’ violations of those terms prior to the bankruptcy proceedings. In other words, plaintiff’s allegations state a claim for tortious interference with contract, and the remedy for that tort will not affect the debtor’s estate. As such, these claims will not encroach upon the province of the bankruptcy court. Stated simply, plaintiff’s claims “do[] not require the adjudication of rights and duties of creditors and debtors under the Bankruptcy Code” … . Sutton 58 Assoc. LLC v Pilevsky, 2020 NY Slip Op 06939, Ct App 11-24-20

 

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BASED UPON THE LANGUAGE OF THE INSURANCE POLICIES AT ISSUE, THE EXCESS INSURER WAS NOT LIABLE FOR THE PREJUDGMENT INTEREST ON THE PERSONAL INJURY JUDGMENT AFTER THE PRIMARY POLICY WAS VOIDED (CT APP).

The Court of Appeals, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge DiFiore, over two dissenting opinions, interpreted the insurance policies at issue such that the excess insurer was not obligated to pay interest on the underlying personal injury judgment after the primary policy was voided:

This appeal involves a dispute concerning an excess insurer’s obligation to pay interest on an underlying personal injury judgment after the primary policy was voided. Like the courts below, we are unpersuaded by the injured plaintiff’s argument that the excess policy provided overlapping coverage for certain interest payments covered in the primary policy … .

Plaintiff Jin Ming Chen was injured at a construction site and sued the general contractor Kam Cheung Construction, Inc. (Kam Cheung). At the time, Kam Cheung maintained both primary and excess liability insurance policies: a primary policy with a liability limit of $1 million per occurrence from Arch Specialty Insurance Company (Arch) and an excess policy with $4 million per occurrence in coverage from defendant Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania (ICSOP). In December 2011, Supreme Court granted partial summary judgment to plaintiff in that action, and, in October 2013, the court entered a personal injury judgment awarding plaintiff $2,330,000 plus $396,933.70 in prejudgment interest. During that time, Arch commenced a declaratory judgment action seeking rescission of the primary policy due to material misrepresentations made by Kam Cheung in its application, securing a judgment declaring that the Arch Policy was void ab initio. Thus, Arch provided no coverage relating to the personal injury judgment. * * *

Plaintiff effectively asks us to treat interest payments on the underlying award as falling within or reducing the Arch Policy’s $1 million liability limit, which is contrary to the plain language of the Arch Supplementary Payments provision and the ICSOP Policy’s Coverage, Ultimate Net Loss, and Maintenance of Underlying Insurance provisions. To do so would be inconsistent with the language chosen by the parties to the insurance contracts, rendering several clauses forceless—a result that should be avoided …. Arch agreed to expand its coverage of pre- and post-judgment interest beyond its liability limits, and ICSOP agreed to provide coverage only for losses in excess of Arch’s coverage—including both the $1 million Arch policy limit and its Supplementary Payments. Jin Ming Chen v Insurance Co. of the State of Pa., 2020 NY Slip Op 06938, Ct App 11-24-20

 

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IN THESE THREE CASES, CONFINING LEVEL THREE SEX OFFENDERS WHO ARE ELIGIBLE FOR RELEASE FROM PRISON UNTIL COMPLIANT HOUSING IS AVAILABLE WAS NOT A CONSTITUTIONAL VIOLATION (CT APP).

The Court of Appeals, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge Fahey, over two separate dissenting opinions, determined, in the three cases before the court, confining level three sex offenders who are eligible for release from prison until compliant housing is available was not a constitutional violation:

In these appeals, we consider constitutional challenges to the practice of temporarily confining level three sex offenders in correctional facilities, after the time they would otherwise be released to parole or postrelease supervision (PRS), while they remain on a waiting list for accommodation at a shelter compliant with Executive Law § 259-c (14). In each case, we conclude that there was no constitutional violation. People ex rel. Johnson v Superintendent, Adirondack Corr. Facility, 2020 NY Slip Op 06934, CtApp 11-23-20

 

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SEX OFFENDERS SUBJECT TO POSTRELEASE SUPERVISION MAY BE HOUSED IN A RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT FACILITY BEYOND THE SIX-MONTH STATUTORY PERIOD BEFORE COMPLIANT HOUSING HAS BEEN FOUND (CT APP).

The Court of Appeals, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge Stein, over a three-judge dissent, determined that sex offenders under a period of postrelease supervision (PRS) maybe housed in a residential treatment facility (RTF) after the statutory six-month period has expired and before compliant housing has been found:

This appeal presents us with a question of statutory interpretation. Penal Law § 70.45 (3) provides that, “notwithstanding any other provision of law, the board of parole may impose as a condition of postrelease supervision (PRS) that for a period not exceeding six months immediately following release from the underlying term of imprisonment the person be transferred to and participate in the programs of a residential treatment facility (RTF).” Correction Law § 73 (10), in turn, authorizes the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) “to use any [RTF] as a residence for persons who are on community supervision,” which includes those on PRS (see Correction Law § 2 [31]). The question before us is whether Correction Law § 73 (10) authorizes DOCCS to provide temporary housing in an RTF to sex offenders subject to the mandatory condition set forth in the Sexual Assault Reform Act (SARA) (see Executive Law § 259—c [14]) after the six-month period specified in Penal Law § 70.45 (3) has expired but before the offender on PRS has located compliant housing. We conclude that it does. People ex rel. McCurdy v Warden, Westchester County Corr. Facility, 2020 NY Slip Op 06933, Ct App 11-23-20

 

DOMESTIC RELATIONS LAW 111 GIVES A COURT THE DISCRETION TO DISPENSE WITH AN ADULT ADOPTEE’S CONSENT TO ADOPTION; HERE PETITIONERS WERE PROPERLY ALLOWED TO ADOPT MARION T., A 66-YEAR-OLD NON-VERBAL WOMAN WITH A SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITY (CT APP).

The Court of Appeals, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge DiFiore, over a concurrence and an extensive dissent, determined that the lower court rulings that Domestic Relations Law 111 (1)(a) gives a court the discretion to dispense with the adoptee’s consent to an adoption. Here the petitioners sought to adopt Marion T, a non-verbal 66-year-old women with a significant developmental disability.

[The} issue turns on the proper interpretation of Domestic Relations Law (DRL) § 111(1)(a), which generally requires the consent of an “adoptive child” who is over 14 years old but gives the court discretion to dispense with that consent. We agree with the Appellate Division that, in appropriate circumstances, the statute permits a court to approve an adoption even absent the consent of an adult adoptee. Because that discretion was not abused here and there is record support for the affirmed best interests finding, we affirm. Matter of Marian T. (Lauren R.), 2020 NY Slip Op 06932, CtApp 11-23-20

 

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