Court: NY App. Div. Dept. 1

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Imagine your car is stolen. Then imagine getting sued after the thief strikes someone with your stolen car. While this sounds made up – a subplot of a bad comedy, perhaps – it happened to Christopher Bivens. Fortunately for him, the allegations against him were (eventually) dismissed. The case is Alvarez v. Bivens, decided today by the…

Read More Court Affirms Dismissal of Claims Against Owner of Stolen Truck Used in Accident
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In Watson v. Jade Luxury Transp. Corp., the court affirmed the trial court’s decision to set aside the jury’s verdict of no liability and to direct a new trial on the issue of liability. This car accident case illustrates the relationship of the distinct elements of “negligence” and “proximate cause” in a personal injury lawsuit. The…

Read More Jury Verdict in Car Accident Case Properly Set Aside As Inconsistent
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In Quinones v. Cornell Univ, 2014 NY Slip Op 00882 [114 AD3d 472] (App. Div. 1st Dept. Feb. 11, 2014), the Appellate Division, First Department affirmed a decision by New York Supreme Court Judge Shlomo Hagler to disallow an untimely motion for summary judgment by defendant. Plaintiff sued Cornell alleging employment discrimination based upon national origin and…

Read More Employment Discrimination Defendant Denied Opportunity to File Untimely Summary Judgment Motion
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In Garcia v Neighborhood Partnership Hous. Dev. Fund Co., Inc., the Appellate Division, First Department modified a lower court’s decision and held that plaintiffs were entitled to summary judgment on liability under Labor Law § 240(1), the so-called “Scaffold Law” (but not with respect to the remaining claims). The court explained the law under Labor Law §…

Read More Foreseeable Building Collapse Results in Summary Judgment for Plaintiffs Under “Scaffold Law” (Labor Law § 240(1))
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In Perez v. City of New York, the Appellate Division, First Department affirmed the lower court’s dismissal of plaintiff’s car accident case on the ground of laches. Black’s Law Dictionary defines “laches” as the “unreasonable delay pursuing a right or claim…in a way that prejudices the [opposing] party”. The court, in a very short opinion,…

Read More Laches Results in Dismissal of 28-Year Old Car Accident Case
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The Appellate Division, First Department in Gural v. Fred Drasner recently addressed the following question: whether a part performance exception should be applied to contracts that are not capable of performance within one year of their making, which must be in writing pursuant to General Obligations Law § 5-701(a)(1). Noting its prior “inconsistent” decisions on…

Read More No Part-Performance Exception for Contracts Not Capable of Performance Within One Year of Their Making
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In Gomez v J.C. Penny Corp., Inc., the Appellate Division, First Department reversed a denial of summary judgment for defendant J.C. Penny, and directed a judgment in defendant’s favor dismissing the complaint. In this negligence case, Plaintiff alleges that she slipped and fell on water near the bottom of an escalator going from the third to…

Read More Evidence of Inspection and No Complaints Result in Dismissal of Slip/Fall Suit Against J.C. Penny
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In Humphrey v. Park View Fifth Ave. Assoc. LLC, the court modified a lower court’s order to grant plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment on liability on his Labor Law § 240(1) claim, and affirmed the denial of defendants’ motion for summary judgment on plaintiff’s common-law negligence and Labor Law § 200 claims. Plaintiff claimed that he…

Read More Court Holds in Favor of Injured Construction Worker on Labor Law 200 and 240(1) Claims
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Ah, apartment living.  Efficiency, environmental friendliness, and – of course – loud neighbors.  (I came home today to find this note by my building’s entrance; since my apartment is on the 3rd floor and on the building’s west side, I’m fairly certain it isn’t referring to me.) In Brown v. Blennerhasset Corp., the Appellate Division,…

Read More Noises “Incidental to Normal Occupancy” Not a Private Nuisance
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In Malouf v. Equinox Holdings, Inc., the Appellate Division, First Department affirmed the lower court’s granting of (1) plaintiff’s motion “for spoliation sanctions to the extent of precluding defendant from arguing at trial that the treadmill plaintiff was using at the time of her accident was operating properly or was free from defects”, and (2) third-party defendant Life…

Read More Failure to Preserve Allegedly Defective Treadmill Results in Spoliation Sanctions Against Equinox
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