112 results for 'court:"New York Court Of Appeals"'.
J. Rivera finds that the appellate division improperly convicted Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein of sex crimes based on uncharged prior bad acts not germane to the case because cross-examining Weinstein about those allegations threatened to portray him in a highly prejudicial light, and a new trial should be held since both errors deprived him of a fair trial. Meanwhile, the court properly held that rape charges were not time-barred because the statute of limitations had been tolled for time during which Weinstein was continuously out-of-state. Reversed in part.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Rivera, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 24, Categories: Evidence, Fair Trial, Sex Offender
J. Cannataro finds that defendant was properly convicted of drug possession based on a legally sufficient chain of custody for cocaine seized during a traffic stop. Defendant raises evidentiary questions due to the fact that a night passed between between the seizure of the drug and the cocaine being formerly logged, but the evidence remained under police control in sealed envelopes. Affirmed.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Cannataro, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 33, Categories: Drug Offender, Evidence
J. Halligan finds that the appellate division improperly held that defendant's confrontation rights were violated when the state introduced a standardized form of pedigree information suggesting that defendant lived in a basement where a gun allegedly used in a road rage incident had been discovered. The form is prepared for all New York City arrestees to assist in bail decisions and thus had not been created primarily for trial testimony. Reversed.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Halligan, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 39, Categories: Confrontation, Evidence
J. Troutman finds that the appellate division improperly held that rehabilitation mandates for paroled sex offenders confined to prison residential treatment facilities were met through internal state programs. The offenders remained in these facilities because they could not secure community housing away from schools, and they should not have been categorically denied access to educational, training, and employment programs outside the prison. While the appeal was mooted by plaintiffs' release, the exception to the mootness doctrine applied because the issues would likely recur. Reversed in part.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Troutman, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 32, Categories: Civil Procedure, Prisoners' Rights
J. Garcia finds that the appellate division properly dismissed employment discrimination, hostile work environment, and retaliatory termination claims an adjunct professor brought against the university, its administrators, and her colleagues. The district court found for defendants in the original federal claims, and the nearly identical state court action was barred by collateral estoppel. Affirmed.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Garcia, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 37, Categories: Civil Procedure, Employment Discrimination
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J. Wilson finds that the appellate division improperly dismissed a developer's claims seeking damages for breach of a redevelopment contract based on repudiation. The agreement to turn a single-room-occupancy hotel into a mixed-use residential/commercial building required that the site include some low-income housing, which was complicated by a subsequent court settlement mandating the addition of rent-stabilized units. Written notification stating the property owner could not agree to the latter as altering the parties' original contract supported allegations of anticipatory repudiation. Reversed in part.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Wilson, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 30, Categories: Damages, Contract
J. Halligan finds that the appellate division improperly accepted non-eyewitness testimony from a police detective to identify defendant in grainy surveillance video as the party who fired three shots into a van on a city street. The detective contends he knew defendant's build and mannerisms from their interactions, but the detective's familiarity with defendant was not likely superior to the jury's ability to determine identity. Reversed.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Halligan, Filed On: April 23, 2024, Case #: 23, Categories: Witnesses, Identification
J. Wilson finds that a mistrial should have been declared in defendant's trial for drug possession after a juror expressed fears that her car had been followed by defendant early on in the proceedings because the juror was "grossly unqualified" by bias and should have been dismissed. Reversed.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Wilson, Filed On: April 23, 2024, Case #: 41, Categories: Jury
J. Rivera finds that the appellate division improperly granted defendant a writ of error coram nobis on grounds that appellate counsel failed to seek direct appeal concerning defendant's abrupt removal from the courtroom while the verdict was being announced. No "practical opportunity" arose to provide warnings about removal in light of disruptive behavior exhibited by defendant, a teenager convicted of attempted murder, and a claim alleging rights violation would have lacked merit. Reversed.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Rivera, Filed On: April 23, 2024, Case #: 42, Categories: Ineffective Assistance
J. Troutman finds that defendant was improperly convicted of selling drugs based on an undercover officer's distant observation of a drug buy because the suppression hearing determined that probable cause had been insufficient to arrest defendant. Thus, a new trial must be held, preceded by an independent source hearing on the admissibility of the officer's in-court identification. Reversed.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Troutman, Filed On: April 23, 2024, Case #: 38, Categories: Search, Identification
J. Rivera finds that the appellate division improperly held that changes to for-profit nursing homes' Medicaid rates could not be made retroactively because legislation authorizing the changes to help close a state budget gap specified an April 1 effective date, and new rates were not made retroactive when homes were notified months after federal approval. Meanwhile, the usual 60-day advance notice requirement was not applicable due to the urgency of the fiscal crisis. Reversed in part.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Rivera, Filed On: April 23, 2024, Case #: 31, Categories: Administrative Law, Civil Procedure, Medicaid
[Consolidated.] J. Cannataro finds that the tax appeals tribunal properly denied corporate tax deductions to Walt Disney and IBM based on their foreign affiliates' royalty payments on licensed intellectual property. For a decade, New York allowed companies that paid franchise taxes to deduct income received as royalty payments if the affiliates already paid a state tax on the same income, as long as companies included the royalty payments when calculating their own taxable income. However, the affiliates operate overseas and thus are not subject to that provision, and royalty deductions do not apply. Affirmed.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Cannataro, Filed On: April 23, 2024, Case #: 34, Categories: Corporations, Commerce, Tax
Per curiam, the court of appeals finds that the appellate division properly enhanced defendant's sentence on grounds that he violated plea conditions prior to sentencing because sufficient inquiries had been made into misconduct he allegedly committed upon returning to jail, and defendant had a chance to dispute those findings. Affirmed.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: April 18, 2024, Case #: 40, Categories: Sentencing, Plea
Per curiam, the court of appeals finds that the appellate division improperly dismissed medical malpractice claims brought after a month-old infant died at a clinic following treatment for flu-like symptoms because triable issues of fact exist concerning placement of the endotracheal tube. Reversed.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: April 18, 2024, Case #: 70 SSM 2, Categories: Medical Malpractice
Per curiam, the court of appeals accepts certification of the circuit's question concerning whether the six-month waiting period that precedes the two-year window for filing claims for past sexual abuse under the state's Child Victims Act created a statute of limitations, a condition precedent to bringing suit, or some other affirmative defense.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: April 18, 2024, Case #: 71, Categories: Civil Procedure, Negligence
J. Halligan answers a certified question by finding that New York law allows personal jurisdiction to be extended when a successor entity entirely assumes a predecessor's assets and liabilities but the parties do not merge. Long-arm jurisdiction had been established over claims contending a foreign bank's U.S. transfers provided assistance to Hezbollah by financing terrorist rocket attacks that harmed U.S. citizens in Israel in 2006. Under the theory of successor jurisdiction, after another foreign bank purchased the assets and liabilities, it also took on the predecessor's specific personal jurisdiction in New York.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Halligan, Filed On: April 18, 2024, Case #: 29, Categories: Tort, Terrorism, Jurisdiction
Per curiam, the court of appeals finds that the appellate division properly dismissed slip and fall claims brought against the housing authority because the agency demonstrated it did not create the wet condition that caused the visitor to fall on the stairs and lacked constructive notice of such. Affirmed.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: April 18, 2024, Case #: 36, Categories: Tort
J. Rivera finds that the appellate division improperly agreed that a building owned by a nonprofit and leased to a for-profit entity qualified as exempt from property taxes because the services of the for-profit were "reasonably incidental" to the nonprofit's work. The language of real property tax law is clear that exemptions apply when a nonprofit uses a property or leases it to another nonprofit for charitable purposes, so having an entity in the space that charged for dialysis services defeated exemption. Furthermore, those services were not related to the the purpose of the exempt owner, which was fundraising. Reversed.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Rivera, Filed On: March 21, 2024, Case #: 05, Categories: Real Estate, Tax
[Consolidated.] J. Troutman finds that the appellate division improperly affirmed granting late notices of claim against the City of New York by two men who separately alleged harm through a jailhouse beating and malicious prosecution. In neither case did the man provide sufficient sworn evidence of intentional tort, nor was any court inquiry made into whether the city had independent knowledge of purported employee conduct that led to the claims. Reversed.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Troutman, Filed On: March 21, 2024, Case #: 15, Categories: Civil Procedure, Tort
J. Wilson finds that the appellate term properly dismissed an indictment against defendant on speedy-trial grounds. Although the trial court, reacting to multiple requests for ongoing postponement by the prosecution, did not schedule the specific successive dates offered, the time delay still needed to be charged to the prosecution because no reasons were given for any of the requested post-readiness adjournments. Affirmed.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Wilson, Filed On: March 21, 2024, Case #: 28, Categories: Speedy Trial
J. Halligan finds that the appellate division properly held that an attorney established entitlement to fees in a medical malpractice action as he calculated them. His client claimed legal malpractice and sought plenary action under judiciary law for alleged deceit on the court, which she was permitted to bring as opposed to solely seeking vacatur on appeal. However, she failed to raise triable issues on whether the attorney's calculations amounted to false statements. Affirmed.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Halligan, Filed On: March 19, 2024, Case #: 18, Categories: Legal Malpractice, Attorney Fees
J. Troutman finds that the appellate division properly vacated defendant's conviction for first-degree murder in a gang-related slaying after finding that an element of the crime was not supported by legally sufficient evidence. While testimony showed defendant boasted of stabbing the teenage victim in the neck, and he and his co-defendants engaged in a "course of conduct" that included using knives and machetes, missing was the necessary first-degree element of taking pleasure in delivering the fatal wound that caused the victim to bleed out while trying to get to a hospital. Affirmed in part.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Troutman, Filed On: March 19, 2024, Case #: 21, Categories: Intent, Murder
J. Garcia finds that the appellate division properly held that defendant's actions in strangling and beating a woman to death met the threshold of torture to support a conviction for first-degree murder. The woman's severe injuries, her acknowledged abusive relationship with defendant, and an inadvertent recording of their last encounter were sufficient proof for a rational jury to find that defendant took pleasure in inflicting extreme pain on her in the fatal attack. Affirmed.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Garcia, Filed On: March 19, 2024, Case #: 22, Categories: Intent, Murder
J. Rivera finds that the appellate division improperly dismissed claims that New York City's system for setting property tax assessments is unfair and inequitable because majority-white sections of town are favored. Dismissal at the pleading stage was unwarranted, as the issue was not whether the claims could eventually be proven but whether they were rooted in viable legal theory. However, dismissing the state as a defendant was proper because those claims failed to support liability in how the city determined assessments. Reversed in part.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Rivera, Filed On: March 19, 2024, Case #: 01, Categories: Property, Tax
J. Wilson finds that the appellate division improperly rejected a third request to amend a complaint to cure a shortcoming that led to dismissal in an earlier appeal. Since requests to amend are generally granted, no abuse of discretion occurred in authorizing one, even on appellate division dismissal, because the lower court retained the power to allow amendment to cure the defect found on appeal. Reversed.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Wilson, Filed On: March 19, 2024, Case #: 17, Categories: Civil Procedure
J. Garcia finds that the appellate division properly dismissed efforts by unionized lifeguards to enforce provisions in their union constitution that provide seasonal members the right to vote and run for office. Precedent does not apply to purportedly unlawful union conduct when joint and several monetary liability is not sought, but the union local reasonably attempted to interpret the relevant provisions of the constitution in limiting voting to full-time lifeguards. Affirmed.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Garcia, Filed On: March 14, 2024, Case #: 26, Categories: Labor / Unions
Per curiam, the court of appeals finds that the appellate division improperly dismissed counterclaims in which plaintiff, a New York City "hop-on, hop-off" bus tour, alleged tortious interference and anticompetitive behavior against other such services because the counterclaims adequately alleged other services conspired to impugn plaintiff's reputation to operators of common city attractions and by alleging exclusive relationships constituting nothing more than pretexts for exclusion. Reversed.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: March 14, 2024, Case #: 27, Categories: Transportation, Unfair Competition
J. Singas answers a certified question by finding that human rights laws of New York state and city provide protections from employment discrimination to nonresidents who are not yet employed in city- or state-based jobs, but who proactively sought such employment. A South Asian-American journalist working outside New York claimed her race and sex kept her from a job in New York City because the occupation was not labeled a "diversity slot" by her employer. Thus, the alleged discrimination met the precedential test of having an impact within city-state boundaries.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Singas, Filed On: March 14, 2024, Case #: 20, Categories: Employment Discrimination
Per curiam, the court of appeals finds that the appellate division properly held that accidental death benefits should be paid to the daughter of a state worker who contracted Covid-19 and died of related causes. The decedent's domestic partner, his designated beneficiary for ordinary death benefits, objected, but amendments to retirement law clearly state that work-related deaths from Covid-19 are accidents and that benefits should go to beneficiaries statutorily designated as spouses or dependent blood relatives. Affirmed.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: March 14, 2024, Case #: 25, Categories: Social Security, Covid-19