Brian Murphy was cited by the Town of Oyster Bay for shellfishing without a permit. Murphy was fishing in waters around the maritime boundary between Oyster Bay and Long Island Sound, ownership of which was claimed by both the Town and the State. Murphy filed suit against the Town, the State, and others. He sought a judgment declaring that the Town-issued citation was invalid because he was shellfishing in Long Island Sound, for which he had an appropriate permit from the State. The State of New York sued the Town of Oyster Bay for a judgment declaring that the State was… Read more

David Finn and his wife sued Ashlynn Anderson in Jamestown City Court for ownership/custody of a cat.   The Finns moved to Wescott Street in September of 2018. Around that time, they noticed a white cat frequently wandering onto their property looking for food. The cat was quite thin, and had no identification tags. They assumed that the four year old cat was a stray, named him “Sylvester”, and began feeding the cat in the entry-way of their home. The Finns fed Sylvester frequently for several months before bringing him into their house.   The Finns took the cat to a… Read more

Party walls shared by adjoining townhouse are ubiquitous in  Manhattan and, as recent case illustrates, are an invitation to litigation– especially where a sale at an astronomical price is followed by a massive top-to-bottom renovation. Kai and Doris Chang own a townhouse  on East 92nd Street.  A limited liability company (LLC) owns the townhouse next door. The party wall is 40 feet high and was originally one foot thick. The LLC hired Trident Restoration to do extensive renovations on its property, including relocating the bathrooms and kitchen and altering the building’s plumbing. The Changs discovered a hole in the third-floor… Read more

I cannot recall why and when I first started collecting the articles about motorcycle accidents; however, over time, I realized that lawsuits arising from such claims are very common (in retrospect, for obvious reasons, the inherent danger and risk of riding a motorcycle).  The causes raise a broad panoply of issues including proximate cause, helmet design and manufacture; and road and intersection signage and speed limits.  A few recent examples follow: Caro v. Chesnick, 2017 NY Slip Op 07940 (1st Dept., November 14, 2017) Supreme Court granted defendants’ motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint. The First Department briefly described… Read more

Some residential buildings are “pet friendly”—and some are not.  But even where a lease in New York City prohibits household pets, the Administrative Code creates a “safe harbor” for animals when the landlord  fails to start a summary (eviction) proceeding for breach of the lease within three months of learning of the violation. A recent case, with unusual facts, demonstrates that the three month rule may be a bar to an eviction proceeding even where the tenant lies about the material  facts. Westchester Gardens filed a summary proceeding against Pricilla Vargas. The eviction claim was based on Vargas harboring a… Read more

Golf, like any other recreational activity, runs the risk of accidents on the course – and the resulting injuries often lead to “finger pointing” as to which golfer was at fault.  And the game also often raises predictable and unpredictable collateral disputes such as whether a golf club membership is property that can be seized by a judgment creditor; and claims for trespass and nuisance damages when golf balls land on an adjacent property.  Several recent examples follow: MacIsaac v. Nassau County, 2017 NY Slip Op 05814, 2d Dept. July 26, 2017 In an action to recover damages for wrongful… Read more

The mid-2019/2020 term of the New York Court of Appeals did not result in any “blockbuster” civil law decisions. The Court, however, did release two opinions that demonstrate how the panel addresses the application of precedents, on the one hand, and substantive conflicts in the Appellate Divisions, on the other. In the first case, over a stinging dissent, the Court adhered to a 1999 decision holding that a “stairway” may constitute a “sidewalk”  for tort liability purposes.  And in the second, the Court resolved a split in the Departments over whether the filing of suit by a New York attorney who did not… Read more

Law school real property textbooks abound with cases addressing adverse possession, right-of-way disputes and various types of easements (prescriptive, of necessity, and otherwise).  Contemporary decisions still address those usual generic, threshold issues, but also the more granule issues of the location, size and permitted uses of easements, rights of way.  Several recent examples follow. DiDonato v. Dyckman, 2018 NY Slip Op 08113, App. Div. 2nd Dept. (November 28, 2018) The Supreme Court denied the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment on the amended complaint and granted defendants’ cross-motion for summary judgment declaring that the plaintiff was not entitled to an expansion… Read more

Copyright by, and republished with permission of, Habitat Magazine. In these contentious times, politics at all levels – even at the level of co-op and condo board elections – tend to get ugly. Charges and counter-charges circulate with lightning speed. One recent condo board election led to a lawsuit over the truth of charges emailed by one of the candidates. The case turned on the definition of the D-word: defamation. Sandra Peterson, a unit-owner at Edgemont at Tarrytown Condominium and a former president of the board of managers, was running for election against fellow unit-owner Mary Ellen Maun. During the… Read more

New Yorkers own hundreds of thousands of cats, dogs, farm animals and other pets.  Thus, it is not surprising that accidents and injuries caused by animals are a fertile source of litigation. Several recent examples follow. Thompson v. Brown, 2018 NY Slip Op 08736, App. Div. 3rd Dept. (December 20, 2018) In an action for negligence arising out of the escape of a bull owned by defendants, Supreme Court granted plaintiff’s motion to the extent of finding that plaintiff sustained a serious injury within the meaning of the insurance law. As to liability, the Appellate Division held that: Turning first… Read more