Defendants’ motion to change venue was untimely as to improper venue and was unwarranted as to the inconvenience of witnesses.

There were two grounds to defendants’ objection to the venue of the action: first, that the county was improper (“improper venue”) and second, that the witnesses were inconvenienced by the county plaintiff had chosen (“inconvenient venue”). Defendants’ motion as to the first ground (improper venue) was late and as to the second (inconvenient venue) was unwarranted.

Timing of motion re improper venue. Where defendant objects to the county in which plaintiff has commenced suit (under CPLR 510(1), defendant must serve a demand for change of venue on or before the date the answer is served. CPLR 511(a). Unless plaintiff consents to the transfer of venue within five days of defendant’s demand, defendant must move within 15 days from the date of filing his demand for change of venue to the proper county. CPLR 511(b); Alexander, Practice Commentary C511:2 Motion to Transfer Based on Improper Venue: “Demand Procedure” (Main Commentary, McKinney’s).

Here, defendants met the first deadline by electronically filing their demand for change of venue with their answer on July 14, 2015. In so doing, defendants consented to electronic filing, which thereafter required defendants to electronically file and serve all documents that were thereafter required to be filed with the court. 22 NYCRR 202.5-b(d) (1)(i).

Defendants, however, missed the second deadline by two days: seventeen days after electronically filing and serving their demand for a change of venue, defendants served by U.S. mail their motion to change venue. Defendants attempted to argue that CPLR 2103(b)(2) (which gives an extra five days for service by mail when a prescribed period of time is measured from the service of paper and service is mailed) added an extra five days to the fifteen-day time limit. The First Department rejected that argument holding that because defendants had already consented to electronic service and filing, they were bound by the time limits applicable to electronic filling and could not avail themselves of the extension of time for mailing.
Inconvenience of witnesses. CPLR 510 sets forth two additional grounds for change of venue: inability to obtain an impartial trail (CPLR 510(2)) and inconvenience of witnesses (CPLR 510(3)). These two grounds are “discretionary” grounds. Alexander, Practice Commentary C510:1 Motions for Change of Venue, In General (Main Commentary, McKinney’s). These defendants also argued that the venue was inconvenient for their witnesses.
The First Department held without elaboration that defendants failed to show that a change of venue was warranted due to the inconvenience of material witnesses because their motion papers did not address the factors enumerated in Cardona v Aggressive Heating, 180 AD2d 572 (1st Dep’t 1992). [Cardona requires that the movant provide (1) the identity of the proposed witnesses, (2) the manner in which they will be inconvenienced by a trial in the county in which the action was commenced, (3) that the witnesses have been contacted and are available and willing to testify for the movant, (4) the nature of the anticipated testimony, and (5) the manner in which the anticipated testimony is material to the issues raised in the case.]
Woodward v Millbrook Ventures LLC, 2017 NY Slip Op 02522 (1st Dep’t Mar. 30, 2017) http://nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2017/2017_02522.htm

Res ipso loquitur did not apply in an escalator case where there was no objective evidence of malfunctioning

Res ipso loquitur did not apply in an escalator case where there was no objective evidence of malfunctioning (plaintiff misstepped onto the escalator and there was no proof of malfunction), but did apply in an elevator case where the elevator unexplainedly stopped suddenly and abruptly.

Summary judgment was affirmed to Macy’s and to its independent escalator servicing company because neither defendant had any notice of the alleged escalator defect either before or after the incident, and because the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur did not apply.

The store’s manager and the escalator company’s mechanic both testified that they received no reports of the escalator’s shaking or stopping and starting before or after the date of plaintiff’s accident.  Nor did anyone, including plaintiff, before or after her accident, observe the escalators stop and start several times in succession, as plaintiff claimed occurred when she fell.  There was evidence, however, that plaintiff fell after misstepping onto the elevator and that after her fall, she successfully rode the escalator up to the next level with no further escalator malfunction.  Moreover, defendant’s expert opined that plaintiff’s description of the alleged malfunctioning was a mechanical impossibility because it would have resulted in a catastrophic mechanical failure of the escalator that would have resulted in observable problems and would have required a significant repair, none of which occurred.

Plaintiff failed to raise a question of fact.  Her expert relied on a bare-bones print-out of prior elevator incidents that was unauthenticated and that gave no indication that the incidents were similar to the one at issue.  The print-out was therefore inadmissible as proof of prior incidents.  Also inadmissible were service calls made by Macy’s to the elevator servicing company four and five months before plaintiff’s incident.  The calls pertained to an escalator on a different level that was not running, which was a malfunction that was unrelated to the type plaintiff described.  Moreover, plaintiff’s expert’s opinion that the accident was caused by a defective step chain and a lack of proper and adequate preventative maintenance was speculative and conclusory.

Lastly, the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur, which would permit a jury to infer negligence based upon the sheer happening of the event, was inapplicable:  The escalator never operated in the manner that plaintiff described either before or after her incident, and plaintiff, after her fall, rode the escalator up to the next level without further malfunctioning.   The evidence of plaintiff’s misstepping getting onto the escalator created the possibility of plaintiff’s own negligence in causing the accident.  And res ipsa loquitur could not be applied to Macy’s because Macy’s had ceded all responsibility for the daily operation, repair and maintenance of the escalator to the servicing company via a full-service contract.

Torres-Martinez v Macy’s, Inc., 2017 NY Slip Op 00429 (1st Dep’t Jan. 24, 2017) http://nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2017/2017_00429.htm.

In contrast, however, the First Department did apply res ipsa loquitur to defeat the motion for summary judgment by defendant NYC Housing Authority in a case where plaintiff was injured when an elevator came to a unexplained sudden and abrupt stop; defendant failed to demonstrate that it lacked exclusive control over the elevator; and there was no evidence that vandalism caused the elevator’s malfunction or that plaintiff’s actions contributed to the accident.

Galante v. New York City Hous. Auth, 2017 NY Slip Opn  00430 (1st Dep’t Jan. 24, 2017) http://nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2017/2017_00430.htm

Met Opera’s motion to dismiss a star’s negligence action against it was properly denied.

In a decision by Justice Rolando Acosta, the First Department affirmed Special Term’s denial of the Met Opera’s motion to dismiss plaintiff’s negligence action.  The Met based its motion on plaintiff’s status as the Met’s employee or special employee, which would have relegated plaintiff to the exclusive remedy of worker’s compensation per WCL §11.

By way of background, the New York Times reported on December 18, 2011 that mezzo soprano Wendy White, while singing the role of Marthe in Gounod’s “Faust” the preceding evening, fell from a platform eight feet above the stage as she made her entrance in Act III.   http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/arts/music/opera-singer-wendy-white-in-stable-condition-after-a-fall-at-the-met.html.   As she walked onto a platform from a staircase, a hinge on a piece of plywood that connected the platform to the stairway broke, and Ms. White disappeared from view.  The curtain was dropped and Ms. White was taken to the hospital.  Id.  Ms. White broke no bones but suffered nerve and muscle damage that has prevented her from singing professionally.  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/02/arts/music/wendy-white-says-met-refuses-to-pay-her-after-injury.html.

At issue on the Met’s motion to dismiss was Workers’ Comp. Law§ 2(4), which was enacted in 1986 to define “employee” to include those in the performing arts:

“a professional musician or a person otherwise engaged in the performing arts who performs services as such for … a theatre … or similar establishment … unless, by written contract, such musician or person is stipulated to be an employee of another employer covered by this chapter.”

WCL §2(4) (emph. supplied).

Plaintiff performed at the opera house pursuant to a “Standard Contractor’s Agreement (Per Performance”) between the Met and her corporation, Wendy White, Inc. (WW, Inc.), which defined WW, Inc. as the “Contractor”.

Notwithstanding various provisions of the Standard Contract and the collective bargaining agreement covering Ms. White, which gave the Met a certain amount of control over Ms. White in her performances, the First Department found the following factors important in denying the Met’s motion to dismiss:

  • The Standard Contractor’s Agreement was between the Met and plaintiff’s corporation and specified that plaintiff was an employee of her corporation.
  • The Standard Contractor’s Agreement did not cede total control of Ms. White’s performance to the Met, so the Met did not become her special employer.
  • Plaintiff’s corporation received only 1099’s, not W-2’s from the Met.
  • The Met paid her no employment benefits and had told her she did not qualify for the Met’s health insurance because she was not an employee.
  • The Met provided her with no training, supervision, or direction from the Met with respect to how to perform her role and did not pay for her voice lessons or coaching.
  • The legislative history behind section 2(4) stated that the section was intended to cover the vast majority of musicians and performers who are not in the star category, as opposed to star performers who are independent professionals able to negotiate the terms of their engagements.
  • Without plaintiff’s consent, the Met filed a worker’s compensation claim in New York with its worker’s compensation, which the Met’s WC carrier accepted “without prejudice”.
  • The Worker’s Compensation Board cancelled its proposed decision of accident, notice and causal relationship on the ground that claimant wanted the case to be discontinued because she had filed her own WC claim in New Jersey against her corporation-employer.
  • The Met had previously taken the opposite position in an unrelated case, Inre Metropolitan Opera Assn., Inc. and Operatic Artists of America, (327 NLRB No. 136, 327 NLRB 740, 744-745 1999 WL 112550, *9, 1999 NLRB LEXIS 113, *29-30 [NLRB 1999]).

Plaintiff’s corporation therefore met the definition of an “employer covered by this chapter,” inasmuch as it is a corporation “having one or more persons in employment” per WCL § 2(3).

Lastly, the failure of plaintiff’s corporation to have obtained a workers’ compensation policy compliant with WCL §50(2) did not mean that plaintiff was necessarily covered by the Met’s worker’s compensation policy, because the statutory consequence of failing to obtain such a policy is simply payment of a penalty.  In addition, WCL §54(6)(c) provides that a corporation such as plaintiff’s, whose sole employee is an executive officer who owns 100% of the stock, need not purchase workers’ compensation for the employee.  Moreover, plaintiff’s corporation was not seeking to invoke the benefits of the immunity provision of WCL §11 without fulfilling its corresponding obligation under the statute.

White v. Metropolitan Opera Ass’n, 2017 NY Slip Op. 00093 (Jan. 5, 2017)   http://nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2017/2017_00093.htm

Defendant homeowner’s insurer properly rescinded the policy based on insureds’ innocent misrepresentation that the home was to be occupied, and the insurance broker had no duty to make sure the insureds properly filled out the application.

The Second Department held that defendant insurer properly rescinded plaintiffs’ fire insurance policy based upon the plaintiffs’ misrepresentation the residence would be owner-occupied because a misrepresentation can be innocently made and still trigger rescission. The Second Department also found that the broker had no obligation to make sure that plaintiffs properly filled out the insurance application.

Before plaintiffs bought the subject residence in Brooklyn, plaintiffs’ mortgage broker told plaintiffs that plaintiffs needed insurance to close.  The mortgage broker contacted defendant insurance broker to procure a homeowners’ insurance policy based upon plaintiffs’ representations in their loan application that they would occupy the premises as their primary residence.  Plaintiffs signed an application for owner-occupied homeowner’s insurance and defendant insurance carrier issued a homeowner’s insurance policy on the closing date.

After fire damaged the premises, defendant insurer discovered that plaintiffs did not occupy the premises as their primary residence and rescinded the policy, on the ground that plaintiffs’ material  representation about occupancy induced the insurer to issue a policy that it normally would not have issued.

Plaintiffs sued the insurer and the insurance broker for breach of contract and negligence. Held:  Supreme Court properly granted summary judgment to defendant insurer and defendant insurance and properly denied the plaintiffs’ cross motion for summary judgment against both defendants.

The insurer established its prima facie entitlement to summary judgment by submitting evidence showing that the plaintiffs’ application for insurance contained a misrepresentation regarding whether the premises would be owner occupied and showing that it would not have issued the subject policy if the application had disclosed that the subject premises would not be owner occupied.  In holding that plaintiffs failed to raise a triable issue of fact, the Second Department  stated:

  • Plaintiffs admitted that, when they signed the application for insurance, they did not intend to occupy the premises. Plaintiffs unsuccessfully contended that, although the application was completed before to closing and before to the inception of the policy, the representation that the premises was an owner-occupied primary residence established, in effect, a material misrepresentation of a then existing fact that the premises would be owner occupied, which was sufficient for rescission under Insurance Law § 3105.
  • Secondary evidence of plaintiffs’ first application for insurance which plaintiffs signed was proof in admissible form under CPLR 4539[b]). And plaintiff’s unsigned second application was also admissible.
  • The question on the application about owner occupancy was unambiguous and therefore could properly serve as the basis for a claim of misrepresentation. Moreover, plaintiffs admitted that they did not read the application when they signed it, so they could not have been misled by any unclear language.
  • The insurer was not required to establish that plaintiffs’ misrepresentation was willful. An innocent or unintentional material misrepresentation is enough to warrant rescission of an insurance policy.
  • The policy language did not require a showing of willfulness for rescission based on a misrepresentation made when applying for coverage.
  • Although there was a question of fact as to whether the insurance broker was an agent or a broker vis-à-vis the insurer, there was no issue of fact as to whether the insurance broker knew of the material misrepresentation, so no such knowledge could not be imputed to the insurer.

With regard to the insurance broker, insurance brokers have a common-law duty to obtain coverage that their client request within a reasonable time or inform the client of the inability to do so, but they have no continuing duty to advise, guide or direct a client to obtain additional coverage.  So to state cause of action for negligence or breach of contract against an insurance broker, plaintiff must establish that a specific request was made to the broker for the coverage that was not provided in the policy.

Although in exceptional circumstances a special relationship may develop between the broker and client that will make the broker liable for failing to advise or direct the client to obtain additional coverage even in the absence of a specific request, none of those circumstances applied here.  The three exceptional situations are: (1) the agent receives compensation for consultation apart from payment of the premiums; (2) there was some interaction regarding a question of coverage, with the insured relying on the expertise of the agent; or (3) there is a course of dealing over an extended period of time which would have put objectively reasonable insurance agents on notice that their advice was being sought and specially relied on.

The insurance broker demonstrated that none of the exception circumstances applied and further demonstrated that it procured the insurance requested.

Joseph v Interboro Ins. Co., 2016 NY Slip Op 08050, 2nd Dept 11-30-16 http://nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2016/2016_08050.htm

Tort-plaintiff is entitled to “made whole” rule vis-à-vis his no-fault carrier’s subrogation right against his tort settlement.

Tort-plaintiff (“plaintiff”) had sued tort-defendant (“defendant”) for plaintiff’s personal injuries resulting from their two-car accident.  Plaintiff’s no-fault carrier had paid plaintiff $100,000 in APIP (additional personal injury protection), which the no-fault carrier has the right to recoup from plaintiff’s tort settlement.

Defendant’s carrier eventually offered defendant’s policy limit of $100,000 to settle plaintiff’s case.  Plaintiff accepted the offer and served a supreme-court order to show cause on plaintiff’s no-fault carrier requesting a declaration that the no-fault carrier’s subrogation rights were limited to extended economic loss (that is, to the portion of the settlement allocable to the category of damages for which APIP benefits were meant to compensate).  Respondent did not oppose supreme court’s adjudicating the dispute over its subrogation rights but contended that plaintiff owed it the full amount of the APIP benefits paid (some $39,500).   Supreme court directed plaintiff to pay the no-fault carrier the full amount of APIP benefits paid.   Plaintiff thereupon formally tendered the amount and pursed his appeal.

The no-fault carrier argued preliminarily that plaintiff’s tender of payment made the appeal moot, but the Fourth Department held that it did not, because the parties’ rights would be affected directly by the outcome of the appeal.

Plaintiff argued that, under the “made whole” rule, the no-fault carrier had no right of subrogation because plaintiff’s damages exceed the amount of the settlement.

[Explanatory note with regard to subrogation: If defendant’s insurance is insufficient to compensate plaintiff fully for plaintiff’s loss, plaintiff retains a right of action against defendant personally.  In those cases where plaintiff has his own insurance that covers the balance of plaintiff’s loss (first-party insurance), and plaintiff’s first-party insurer in fact pays him, plaintiff’s first-party insurer acquires plaintiff’s right to pursue the defendant for the amount that plaintiff’s first-party insurer has paid.  To state it another way, plaintiff’s first-party insurer is subrogated to plaintiff’s claim against defendant.

[The “made whole” rule then provides that if defendant’s insurance is inadequate to fully compensate plaintiff for his losses, plaintiff’s first-party insurer, whom the insured has paid to assume the risk of loss, has no right to share in the proceeds of the insured-plaintiff’s recovery from the tort-defendant.  In other words, plaintiff’s first-party insurer may subrogate against only those funds and assets that remain after plaintiff-insured has been fully compensated.  This designation of priority of interests assures that the injured party’s claim against the tort-defendant takes precedence over the subrogation rights of his first-party insurer.

[Here plaintiff’s own insurer was his no-fault carrier which paid plaintiff “additional personal injury protection” (APIP) benefits, also known as extended economic loss.  Therefore plaintiff’s no-fault carrier would be subrogated only to plaintiff’s recovery after plaintiff was made whole and then only for the portion of settlement attributable to economic loss, not to plaintiff’s pain and suffering.]

Supreme court here, however, refused to apply the made-whole rule or to prorate the settlement between extended economic loss and pain and suffering, and instead had directed plaintiff to pay his no-fault insurer the entire amount of APIP benefits.

The Fourth Department agreed with plaintiff that supreme court should have applied the made-whole rule but remanded the matter for a determination as to (a) whether the settlement made plaintiff whole and (b) what portion of the $100,000 settlement was for plaintiff’s extended economic loss and what portion was for plaintiff’s pain and suffering.

The Fourth Department therefor reversed supreme court’s judgment (which had the additional defect of failing to declare the rights of the parties) and remitted the matter for the required determinations and for a judgment declaring the rights of the parties in accordance therewith.

Grinage v Durawa [in re ACA Insurance Co., respondent], 2016 NY Slip Op 07429 (4th Dep’t Nov. 10, 2016);  http://nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2016/2016_07429.htm.

The Court of Appeals reversed summary judgment to defendant physician vis-à-vis causation, on the ground that defendant’s expert’s affidavit failed to meet defendant’s initial burden on his motion.

Parsing plaintiff’s bill of particulars, a majority of the Court of Appeals (Judges DiFiore, Pigott, Garcia, and Fahey) reversed the First Department’s grant of summary judgment to medmal-defendant physician on proximate causation, on the ground that defendant failed to meet his initial burden on his motion.  The Court of Appeals expressly left open, however, the appropriate standard that governs the opposing party’s burden once the burden shifts to the opposition party in a medmal motion for summary judgment.

Defendant moved for summary judgement on the issue of proximate cause and submitted in support the affidavit of his medical expert which characterized plaintiff’s allegations of malpractice as “center[ed] around an alleged contraindicated prescription by [defendant] to plaintiff of Lipitor separately and/or in conjunction with Azithromycin”.  The majority ruled that plaintiff’s bill of particulars asserted that the negligent CONCURRENT administration of two drugs (Lipitor and azithromycin) proximately caused plaintiff’s injuries, not just that the administration of one drug (Lipitor) exacerbated plaintiff’s adverse reaction to the other (azithromycin).

According to the majority opinion, defendant’s expert did not address the effect of azithromycin administered alone or in conjunction with Lipitor, and addressed azithromycin only in conclusory statements unsupported by any reference to medical research.

In opposition, plaintiff and his experts asserted that defendant’s expert did not adequately address the concurrent azithromycin prescription and did not cite to any medical research in support of his conclusions about the combined effect. Accordingly, plaintiff argued, defendant failed as a matter of law to eliminate all triable issues of fact regarding whether the combined effect of the drugs could have proximately caused plaintiff’s injury (a heart block).

The Court of Appeals sided with plaintiff and held that defendant’s expert proffered only conclusory assertions unsupported by any medical research that defendant’s actions in prescribing both drugs concurrently did not proximately cause plaintiff’s injury and did not adequately address plaintiff’s allegations that the concurrent Lipitor and azithromycin prescriptions caused plaintiff’s injuries. By ignoring the possible effect of the azithromycin prescription, defendant’s expert failed to demonstrate the absence of any material issues of fact as to proximate causation, so defendant was not entitled to summary judgment. And because defendant failed to meet his prima facie burden, it was unnecessary to review the sufficiency of the plaintiff’s opposition papers.

Judge Fahey concurred in the majority decision but wrote separately to emphasize that the Court took no position on the split of authority between the First and Second Departments on plaintiff’s burden of coming forward with evidence once defendant makes his prima facie showing on a motion for summary judgment.

In dissent, Judge Stein, joined by Judge Rivera and Judge Abdus-Salaam, would have affirmed summary judgment to defendant because a fair reading of plaintiff’s bill of particulars showed that plaintiff’s claim centered on plaintiff’s adverse reaction to Lipitor that was exacerbated by prescribing the concurrent administration of Azithromycin.  Because defendant met his initial burden on his motion, the burden should have shifted to plaintiff who failed (in the dissent’s view) to raise a question of fact because of an insurmountable gap between the data relied on by plaintiff’s experts and their conclusion that Lipitor either alone or in conjunction with the other drug caused plaintiff’s injuries. Pullman v. Silverman, 2016 NY Slip Opn 07107 (Nov. 1 2016http://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2016/2016_07107.htm

Business records – affiant’s failure to assert familiarity with plaintiff’s record-keeping practices and procedures was fatal to plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment of foreclosure.

The Second Department reversed summary judgment of foreclosure to plaintiff and awarded defendant-borrower one bill of costs.

Defendant-borrower had executed a note in favor of Original Lender and a mortgage in favor of Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS) acting as nominee for Original Lender.   Original Lender thereafter assigned the mortgage to plaintiff.   Plaintiff commenced this action alleging that defendant had defaulted on his loan payments.  After commencement of the action, plaintiff then assigned the mortgage to Subsequent Assignee, who continued the prosecution of this action under plaintiff’s name as plaintiff.

Defendant answered and asserted as an affirmative defense that plaintiff lacked standing to commence the action.  Plaintiff moved for summary judgment on the complaint and defendant cross-moved for leave to amend his answer to assert certain counterclaims.  Supreme Court granted plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment on the complaint and denied defendant’s cross motion to amend his answer.

Because defendant challenged plaintiff’s standing to commence the action, plaintiff was required to prove prima facie that it had standing in addition to proving prima facie the other elements of its action (to wit, the mortgage, the unpaid note, and defendant’s evidence of default).  To establish prima facie that plaintiff had standing, plaintiff had to demonstrate that it was the holder or assignee of the underlying note when the action is commenced by showing either a written assignment of or physical delivery of the note.

Here, plaintiff failed to establish prima facie that it had either a written assignment or physical delivery of the note.  Plaintiff submitted the affidavit of the assistant secretary of Subsequent Assignee who stated “pursuant to the business records of” plaintiff, plaintiff had physical possession of the note when it commenced the action.  But the assistant secretary of Subsequent Assignee failed to attest that she was personally familiar with the record-keeping practices and procedures of plaintiff.  So the assistant secretary’s assertions based on those records were inadmissible.

Plaintiff unsuccessfully attempted to cure the omission by submitting in reply the affidavit of its vice president, which could not be considered in reply.   And although plaintiff’s motion papers showed that MERS as nominee had assigned the note and mortgage to plaintiff before the action was commenced, plaintiff failed to establish the note had been delivered to MERS before MERS assigned it to plaintiff.   So because plaintiff failed to meet its prima facie burden, Supreme Court should have denied it summary judgment without regard to the sufficiency of defendant’s opposition papers.

But Supreme Court properly denied defendant’s cross motion for leave to amend his answer to assert counterclaims because the counterclaims were either patently devoid of merit or their belated addition would have prejudiced the plaintiff.  Defendant failed to offer a reasonable excuse for his nearly five-year delay in seeking to add them.

Aurora Loan Services, LLC v. Baritz, 2016 NY Slip Op 07154 (Nov. 2, 2016) http://nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2016/2016_07154.htm.

Plaintiff’s motion made midtrial to challenge the sufficiency of defendant’s expert disclosure was properly denied as untimely.  Defendant’s expert disclosure was made timely and the alleged deficiency was apparent upon receipt.

Plaintiff’s decedent entered defendant hospital with symptoms of pneumonia and died early the next morning after being admitted to an area of the hospital that lacked continuous monitoring of patients’ vital signs. The autopsy report identified the cause of death as bronchopneumonia complicated by diabetes.  Decedent’s mother sued for wrongful death and for conscious pain and suffering.

Defendant had timely served CPLR 3101 (d) expert disclosure which stated without more that the expert would testify “on the issue of causation” and “as to the possible causes of the decedent’s injuries and contributing factors.”  Upon receipt of the disclosure, plaintiff had objected solely on the ground that the statement did not provide the dates of the expert’s medical residency, which objection defendant had cured.

At trial, the hospital treating physician testified that decedent’s death was caused in part by pneumonia, but on cross examination stated that he believed decedent instead died from acute cardiac arrhythmia. Plaintiff’s expert also testified that decedent’s death was caused in part by pneumonia, but acknowledged on cross examination that a cardiac event was a possible cause of death.

Immediately before defendant’s expert took the stand, and without requesting an adjournment, plaintiff moved to preclude defendant’s expert from giving any testimony regarding any possible causes of the decedent’s death on the grounds that defendant’s expert disclosure statement did not include “any reasonable detail whatsoever” as to the possible causes of decedent’s death.  The trial court denied the application as untimely. Defendant’s expert then testified that he disagreed with plaintiff’s expert and the autopsy report regarding the cause of death, that decedent’s vital signs instead showed no indication of worsening respiration, that decedent’s other health issues increased his risk for cardiac problems, and that the cause of death was sudden, lethal cardiac arrhythmia.

The jury found defendant liable for failing to place decedent in an area of the hospital with continuous monitoring and awarded plaintiff damages for wrongful death but awarded zero for conscious pain and suffering.  Plaintiff moved under CPLR 4404(a) to strike all testimony about cardiac arrhythmia as the cause of death and to set aside the $0 award for conscious pain and suffering, arguing that the expert disclosure statement failed to include the theory that decedent died of cardiac arrhythmia and so the disclosure was deficient. The trial court again denied the motion as “untimely made at the time of trial.”

The Appellate Division affirmed, holding that plaintiff failed to timely object to the lack of specificity in the expert disclosure statement and that plaintiff was not justified in assuming that the defense expert’s testimony would agree with the autopsy report’s conclusion. The Appellate Division held that where plaintiff’s own proof acknowledged that sudden cardiac arrhythmia was a possibility based on decedent’s medical history and condition, and where evidence in the record supported this theory, the testimony need not be stricken as an unfair surprise. One justice dissented and granted leave to appeal to the Court of Appeals.

Noting that trial courts possess broad discretion in the supervision of expert disclosure, the Court of Appeals affirmed, finding as a matter of law that there was no abuse of discretion as a matter of law: assuming defendant’s disclosure was deficient, the deficiency was readily apparent upon plaintiff’s receipt of the disclosure and no analogy could be made between the issue here of insufficiency and those cases where a party’s disclosure was misleading or where the trial testimony was inconsistent with the disclosure.  The trial court’s ruling did not endorse the sufficiency of the statement but instead addressed the motion’s timeliness. The lower courts were entitled to determine that the time to challenge the statement’s content had passed because the basis of the objection was readily apparent from the face of the disclosure statement and could have been raised and potentially cured before trial.

Lastly, the Court of Appeals rejected plaintiff’s claim that the testimony regarding cardiac arrhythmia should have been excluded as speculative, because there was ample evidence in the record on which to premise cardiac arrhythmia.

Rivera v. Montefiore Med. Ctr., 2016 NY Slip Op 06854 (Court of Appeals Oct. 20, 2016)

http://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2016/2016_06854.htm

CPLR 4518(a), not 4539(b), was the proper basis for admitting a record of testing the simulator solution during a breathalyzer test, because the record was originally created electronically.

The Court of Appeals affirmed County Court’s reliance on CPLR 4518, not CPLR 4539(b), to admit into evidence the People’s exhibit of a record of testing the simulator solution used during the breath test that was administered to defendant. Defendant objected on the ground that the certifications contained within the exhibit did not include a verification to show that the record could not be tampered with pursuant to CPLR 4539(b).

The Court of Appeals noted that CPLR 4539 (b) does not apply to documents like the record of simulator solution testing that were originally created in electronic form.  CPLR 4539(b) applies only when a document that originally existed in hard copy form is scanned to store a digital “image” of the hard copy document, and then a “reproduction” of the digital image is printed in the ordinary course of business.   Subdivision (b), which was added to CPLR 4539 in 1996, requires an authentication by competent testimony or affidavit to include information about the manner or method by which tampering or degradation of the reproduction is prevented when a reproduction is created by any process which stores an image of any writing, entry, print or representation.   CPLR 4539 (a), in turn, allows reproductions made in the regular course of business to be admissible as the original.

Therefore, County Court correctly held that the applicable statute was CPLR 4518(a), which was amended in 2002 to provide that an electronic record shall be admissible in a tangible exhibit that is a true and accurate representation of such electronic record.   CPLR 4518(a) further provides that the court may consider the method or manner by which the electronic record was stored, maintained or retrieved in determining whether the exhibit is a true and accurate representation of such electronic record, but all other circumstances of the making of the memorandum or record may be proved to affect its weight, and shall not affect its admissibility.

Lastly, County Court properly held that the record of simulator solution testing and the records pertaining to the maintenance and calibration of the breath test instrument were admissible based upon the attached state agency certifications, and County Court did not err in disregarding the inaccurate certifications submitted by the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office with respect to those records.

People v. Kangas, 2016 NY Slip Op 06857 (Court of Appeals Oct. 20, 2016)

http://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2016/2016_06857.htm

Water on locker room floor was not “necessarily incidental to use of the area”.

Water on locker room floor was not “necessarily incidental to use of the area”, so defendant’s motion for summary judgment was properly denied.

 Plaintiff alleged he slipped on water in a locker room in the vicinity of a swimming pool and showers. The majority rejected the argument that water in the locker room was necessarily incidental to the use of the locker room, which would have justified summary judgment to defendant.  The majority distinguished two prior cases granting defendant summary judgment, one where plaintiff slipped on water around an indoor swimming pool and the other where plaintiff slipped on water in the area of the gym’s showers.   In those two previous cases, it had been held that the mere presence of water on a tiled floor adjacent to the gym’s shower or swimming pool could not impart liability because water was necessarily incidental to the use of the area.

But in the present case, plaintiff had left the pool area and he was not in the shower area: he was in a corridor between the pool and the men’s locker room which was a central spot from which a patron could access the showers, sinks, sauna, and steam room as well as the pool-access corridor. The location was also within a few feet of a bathing suit spinner machine and a nearby floor drain.

Plaintiff testified that one of the shower stalls would periodically overflow into the corridor and soak the carpeting at the entrance to the locker room, and that staff periodically placed towels on the carpet at the entrance to the locker room to protect to the carpet.

One member of defendant’s staff testified that the staff mopped the area in question every 15 to 20 minutes, but no one testified as to the last time the area in question was mopped and defendant had no log or check lists of maintenance performed.  The maintenance supervisor testified that the staff put out “wet floor” signs so that the staff didn’t have to mop as often.

Grossman v TCR, 2016 NY Slip Op 06114 (1st Dep’t Sept. 22, 2016) http://nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2016/2016_06114.htm

Delaware Supreme Court en banc has construed New York law

Delaware Supreme Court en banc has construed New York law, which governed interpretation of certain excess policies, on the issue of triggers of excess coverage against multiple policy periods for claims of asbestos exposure.   In Re Viking Pump, Inc. and Warren Pumps, LLC Insurance Appeals, (Sup. Ct. DE Sept. 12, 2016) http://courts.delaware.gov/Opinions/Download.aspx?id=245990.  Plaintiffs were successors in interest to a pump manufacturer that had purchased primary, umbrella, and excess policies.  Plaintiff sought coverage under the predecessor’s excess policies which contained non-cumulation and prior-insurance provisions.

Delaware Supreme Court had previously certified questions to the New York Court of Appeals’ as to (1) the proper method of allocation to be used (all sums versus pro rata) and (2) whether vertical or horizontal exhaustion applied when the underlying primary and umbrella insurance in the same policy period had been exhausted.   The New York Court of Appeals had ruled on the certified questions on May 3, 2016 that pro rata allocation is inconsistent with non-cumulation and non-cumulation/prior insurance provisions, that all sums allocation was appropriate for policies containing the provisions at issue, and that the excess policies were triggered by vertical exhaustion of the underlying available coverage within the same policy period.   In the Matter of Viking Pump, Inc. and Warren Pumps, LLC, Insurance Appeals , 52 N.E. 3d 1144 (May 3, 2016) https://www.nycourts.gov/ctapps/Decisions/2016/May16/59opn16-Decision.pdf .

In this 83-page opinion, the Delaware Supreme Court conducted a de novo review of Chancery Court’s grant of summary judgment and of Superior Court’s contract interpretations made at trial and held that

  • the excess policies had been validly assigned to the successors in interest,
  • the primary policies had be exhausted, and
  • the trigger of coverage under the excess policies was New York’s operative injury-in-fact trigger:

As to a person who ultimately develops lung cancer, mesothelioma, or nonmalignant asbestos-related disease, bodily injury first occurs, for policy purposes, upon cellular and molecular damage caused by asbestos inhalation, and such cellular and molecular damage occurs during each and every period of an asbestos claimant‘s significant exposure to asbestos and continues thereafter.  The duty to defend is based on the possibility of coverage, reflected in the pleadings‘ allegations. The duty to indemnify derives from whether the basis for Warren or Viking‘s liability to the injured claimant is actually covered by the policy.

In Re Viking Pump, Inc. and Warren Pumps, LLC Insurance Appeals, (Sup. Ct. DE Sept. 12, 2016) http://courts.delaware.gov/Opinions/Download.aspx?id=245990

Plaintiff stone mason’s motion for summary judgment on liability under Labor Law §240(1)

Plaintiff stone mason’s motion for summary judgment on liability under Labor Law §240(1) was properly denied because of inconsistencies in his description of how the accident happened.  Plaintiff was the sole witness to his accident.  Plaintiff fell when he was attempting to descend via a scaffold from the roof of the building where he had been building a parapet wall.  Questions of fact existed both as to whether he was a recalcitrant worker and as to whether plaintiff’s acts were the sole proximate cause of the accident.

Regarding “recalcitrant witness”, plaintiff testified that although he had his own harness, there were no safety ropes at the site to attach to the harness or to the scaffold and that he would have been fired if he had delayed the job until safety ropes were obtained.  Plaintiff’s foreman testified that

  • he (the foreman) had instructed all workers including plaintiff to wear safety equipment,
  • that he and plaintiff had worn attached harnesses while working together earlier that day,
  • that when he (the foreman) had left earlier in the day, he left plaintiff in charge of the work site and asked plaintiff to finish the job, and
  • he (the foreman) never told plaintiff that plaintiff was expected to work on the roof with a properly attached harness.

From the  concurring opinion, we learn that the foreman averred in his affidavit that on the day of the accident, when he and plaintiff stood on the pipe scaffold as they worked, they wore properly secured harnesses, and that photographs taken soon after the accident showed safety ropes were in fact present.

Held:  This conflicting testimony created a triable issue as to whether plaintiff recalcitrantly failed to use available equipment that he had been directed to use and that, if used, would have averted his injuries.

Regarding sole proximate cause (i.e, whether Labor Law §240(1) had been violated), there was a question of fact as to whether plaintiff fell because of movement of the scaffold or, alternatively, because plaintiff’s losing his footing was unaccompanied by any failure of the scaffold.  These two versions of how the accident happened, each given by plaintiff, the sole witness to the incident, were inconsistent with each other and created a question of fact as to whether plaintiff’s fall was caused by a failure of a safety device within the purview of §240(1).

A fall from a scaffold or ladder in and of itself does not result in an award of damages to an injured party.  Rather, §240(1) liability depends upon the injury having resulted from the failure to use or the inadequacy of a device within the purview of the statute.  There is no liability under section 240(1) when there is no violation and the worker’s actions are the sole proximate cause of the accident.

Albino v. 221-223 West 82 Owners Corp., 2016 NY Slip Opn 05953 (1st Dep’t Sept. 8, 2016)
http://nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2016/2016_05953.htm

Parties’ stipulation to liability caused interest to run from the subsequent damages verdict.

Defendant stipulated to liability two and one-half years before the trial on damages.  In the stipulation conceding liability, plaintiff withdrew her claim for punitive damages and the parties agreed that the action would be on the issue of damages with recovery to be capped at a certain amount.  The stipulation contained no provision as to prejudgment interest on the verdict.

After the damages trial was held, Supreme Court computed interest from the date of the jury verdict on damages, not from the date of the stipulation, and the Second Department affirmed.

CPLR 5002, which applies to personal-injury actions, states:

Interest shall be recovered upon the total sum awarded, including interest to verdict, report or decision, in any action, from the date the verdict was rendered or the report or decision was made to the date of entry of final judgment. The amount of interest shall be computed by the clerk of the court and included in the judgment.

Emph. supplied.

When the determinations of liability and damages are made together, the computation of prejudgment interest under CPLR 5002 is straightforward. But when the determinations of liability and damages are bifurcated, prejudgment interest under CPLR 5002 runs from the date of the “verdict, report or decision” on liability, rather than from the date of the “verdict, report or decision” on damages.   But a stipulation between the parties does not constitute a “verdict, report or decision” because stipulations are not adjudications made by a third party.  They are voluntary agreements or contracts by which the parties themselves chart their own course.  Here the stipulation addressed not only the issue of liability but also the cause of action for punitive damages, and it imposed a cap on plaintiff’s recovery.

What does constitute a “verdict, report or decision”?  The determination of liability by an adjudicative body, such as a jury, a court, or an arbitrator such as decisions on motions for summary judgment; motions for leave to enter a default judgment and motions to strike a defendant’s answer; decisions on unopposed applications for a directed verdict on the issue of liability; and binding arbitrators’ awards .  When a court has ordered a referee to “hear and report with recommendations,” pre-judgment interest is computed not from the date of the referee’s report, but from the date on which a court has confirmed it and thus made it binding.  An appellate court’s order reversing the denial of a plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment on the issue of liability starts interest running from the date of the appellate court’s decision.

Plaintiff’s argument that the law favors stipulations was unavailing.  Had the Legislature intended CPLR 5002 to include stipulations, it could have included them, as it has in other statutes [citations omitted].

Here the two-and-one-half-year difference between the determinations of liability and damages amounted to prejudgment interest of $90,000, which difference would have been compounded because prejudgment interest is added to the total amount of the judgment, and post-judgment is computed on the total amount of the judgment including prejudgment interest.

Mahoney v. Brocklebank, 2016 NY Slip Op 05630 (2d Dep’t July 27, 2016) http://www.courts.state.ny.us/reporter/3dseries/2016/2016_05630.htm

For plaintiff’s willful spoliation of electronic evidence, the First Department awarded defendant an adverse inference charge at trial plus a $10,000 discovery sanction but did not dismiss plaintiff’s complaint.

Plaintiff/former client sued defendant/former attorney for legal malpractice regarding defendant’s representation of plaintiff in negotiating a construction loan to Developer/Borrower.  The loan closed on May 8, 2007 and Developer/Borrower defaulted in July of 2008.  In June of 2008, plaintiff retained counsel to sue defendant for legal malpractice.  Plaintiff commenced suit in 2011 alleging alleged that in 2007 defendant misadvised plaintiff about zoning issues that led to the revocation of building permits after a crane collapsed at the site, causing Developer to default.  Defendant countered the suit with defenses that plaintiff would have issued the loan regardless of any zoning issues and that plaintiff later assigned the loans and/or failed to mitigate its damages.

The decision states that plaintiff’s obligation to preserve evidence arose at least as early as June 2008 when it retained counsel to pursue defendant for legal malpractice.  But plaintiff waited until May of 2010 to issue a formal litigation hold, so that until May of 2010, plaintiff’s internal electronic record destruction policies continued the recycling of backup tapes, the deletion of employees’ emails stored in their inboxes and sent items folder, and the erasure of departing employees’ hard drives and emails accounts after the employees left the firm.  In addition, plaintiff’s CEO deleted his emails on regular basis during the pertinent time period so that only one of his emails from the relevant period was produced, and plaintiff produced no emails from its executive vice president of structured finance, who was involved in the transaction.

In June of 2014, on defendant’s original motion for sanctions for spoliation, defendant moved to dismiss plaintiff’s complaint.  Supreme Court ruled that plaintiff’s failure to preserve that evidence was ordinary negligence and granted defendant an adverse inference charge at trial under PJI 1:77.  Plaintiff did not appeal that order.

Six weeks later, plaintiff belatedly produced meeting minutes that identified eight more employees who were involved in the transaction and which further revealed the extent to which plaintiff failed to identify all of the key players in the transaction and failed to preserve their electronic records. Plaintiff claimed that its tardy disclosure of those meeting minutes was inadvertent.  Defendant renewed its spoliation motion via the motion at issue on this appeal as to the eight additional witnesses whose electronic evidence had likewise been destroyed either due to plaintiff’s failure to institute a timely litigation hold, or because of plaintiff’s deliberate destruction of the evidence.  Supreme Court held that plaintiff’s destruction of this additional evidence was at a minimum gross negligence, so the evidence was properly presumed to have been intentionally lost or destroyed, and Supreme Court dismissed plaintiff’s complaint as a sanction.

The First Department held that dismissal of the complaint was too drastic, stating that the sanction must reflect “an appropriate balancing under the circumstances” and that dismissal of the complaint is warranted only where the spoliated evidence constitutes “the sole means” by which the defendant can establish its defense, or where the defense was otherwise “fatally compromised”, or where defendant is rendered “prejudicially bereft” of its ability to defend as a result of the spoliation.

Here, defendant’s motion to renew did not support such a finding because of the massive amount of documents that had been produced and the availability of the fourteen key witnesses, including the additional eight upon whom defendant had yet to serve interrogatories and deposition notices.  Therefore the adverse-inference charge in favor of defendant on its defenses plus the monetary discovery sanction of $10,000 against plaintiff was sufficient.  But the First Department noted that this decision was without prejudice to defendant’s seeking dismissal or other sanctions should there be further revelations of plaintiff’s spoliation.

Arbor Realty Funding, LLC v. Herrick, Feinstein LLP, 2016 NY Slip Op 05065 (1st Dep’t June 28, 2016) http://www.courts.state.ny.us/reporter/3dseries/2016/2016_05065.htm.

Plaintiff is entitled to an adverse-inference charge to the jury for defendant’s failure to preserve security video, which defendant had consented to a court order to preserve, but defendant’s answer and affirmative defenses would not be stricken.

Plaintiff slipped and fell on ice in defendant bank’s parking lot.  Before commencement of his action, plaintiff sought an order for pre-action disclosure and preservation of evidence. Defendant opposed the motion but represented to the motion judge that defendant had voluntarily preserved evidence including accident reports, photographs, and surveillance videotapes.  Defendant also consented to an order of preservation of those items.  During discovery after the action was commenced, plaintiff requested surveillance films related to the subject accident, and defendant responded that those materials had not been preserved.  (The dissenting opinion reveals that defendant’s business practice was to automatically overwrite the video footage after 90 days, and plaintiff’s motion and the resulting consent order were made more than a year after the accident).

The motion court granted plaintiff’s motion to strike defendant’s answer on the prong of CPLR 3126 that defendant had violated the court’s order of preservation.  The Fourth Department modified the sanction, holding under the alternate prong of CPLR 3126 that defendant’s failure to disclose was willful, but held that the motion court abused its discretion in striking defendant’s answer and affirmative defenses.  The Fourth Department instead gave plaintiff an adverse inference charge at trial with respect to the unavailable security surveillance footage.

The Hon. John M. Curran in dissent argued that willful failure to disclose was not raised below and further that the Fourth Department has excused alleged spoliation of evidence in other circumstances when the evidence was destroyed in good faith before litigation was pending, pursuant to normal business practices, and therefore could not have preserved it.  Justice Curran felt that defendant, however, had negligently destroyed the video because defendant was on notice of plaintiff’s claim before the tape was overwritten.  Justice Curran would have precluded defendant from introducing at trial evidence of the video’s content as part of its direct case.

Sarach v. M&T Bank Corp. 2016 NY Slip Op. 04820 (4th Dep’t June 17, 2016)

http://www.courts.state.ny.us/reporter/3dseries/2016/2016_04820.htm