The First Department vacated a $301.25 million Manhattan land valuation because the neutral umpire’s outside-employment discussions and later procedural rulings created prejudicial partiality.
The First Department reinstated a hedge-fund jury verdict, holding that overlapping facts and a theoretical risk of inconsistent findings did not justify retrying five rejected counterclaims.
The First Department exercised interest-of-justice discretion to send a 17-year-old’s weapon case to Family Court because prosecutors had not shown extraordinary circumstances overcoming Raise the Age’s removal presumption.
The First Department remitted a rent-overcharge case so the trial court can apply the revised common-law and statutory fraudulent-deregulation standards together.
The First Department held that calculating incarceration tolling for predicate-felony status is ministerial and does not require a jury under Erlinger.
The First Department ordered a second resentencing because the judge denying youthful-offender treatment appeared unfamiliar with the defendant’s actual offense and personal circumstances.
The First Department reinstated an indictment after recalculating the CPL 30.30 clock at 97 days, excluding codefendant motion practice, reasonable preparation time, and defense-caused delay.
The First Department applies the law of the case doctrine to bar a pro se defamation defendant from asserting privilege on a second summary judgment motion, where he had deliberately withheld the defense in the first motion and the prior appellate decision found his statements went to a ‘nonprivileged party.’