The Third Department reversed one of Rainey’s two terroristic-threat convictions — holding that a private Snapchat message he did not intend to circulate lacked the required intent to intimidate a civilian population — while affirming convictions for Whisper bomb-threat posts and emails threatening a TV news station.
The Third Department held that a waste facility owner who loaded trailers before a subcontractor’s driver arrived owed that driver a duty of care, confirmed the subcontractor breached its insurance obligation by naming the wrong entity as additional insured, and awarded conditional contractual indemnification.
The Appellate Division held that an electrical contractor who signed a final payment release using ‘any and all claims and demands’ language was barred from pursuing a $140,000 retainer-fee claim — even though the project lacked a formal written contract.
The Appellate Division confirmed over $14.5 million in NY corporate franchise tax deficiencies against an offshore Isle of Man hotel company that failed to file returns for seven years and then provided belated, unverifiable substantiation.
The Third Department confirms OMIG’s recoupment of 51,000 in Medicaid payments from a wheelchair provider that failed to obtain original wet-signed practitioner orders, holding the documentation guidelines were interpretive statements not requiring SAPA rulemaking.
The Third Department reverses and holds that a police officer who suffered psychological trauma from a station-house shooting is a “crime victim” under New York’s Son of Sam Law without needing to show physical injury, broadly construing Executive Law § 632-a.
The Third Department sustains New York’s convenience of the employer income tax rule for COVID-era remote work, rejecting a Connecticut law professor’s claim that Governor Cuomo’s work-from-home mandate constituted employer necessity under 20 NYCRR 132.18(a).
The Appellate Division, Third Department reversed a grandparent visitation order entered after the mother was forced to proceed pro se, holding Family Court violated her statutory right to counsel under Family Court Act § 262 by relieving her second assigned attorney without finding forfeiture based on egregious conduct.
The Appellate Division, Third Department affirmed denial of dismissal in a PFOA/PFAS water contamination suit by a small upstate town, finding its damages claims were not barred by double recovery despite prior Taconic settlements, and that the primary jurisdiction doctrine did not require deference to DEC.
The Appellate Division, Third Department affirmed that the Department of Labor’s blanket policy of closing home health aide wage complaints whenever a mandatory arbitration clause exists was an unlawful ‘rule’ promulgated without SAPA compliance, upholding annulment of the closures and class certification.
The Appellate Division, Third Department held that the State Police must individually review and justify each redaction in its officer misconduct spreadsheet rather than applying a blanket personal-privacy exemption, while upholding FOIL counsel fee awards for the agency’s unreasonable denial.
The Appellate Division, Third Department, affirms denial of EDTPA COVID-19 immunity to a surgeon who clipped a patient’s bile duct during a laparoscopic cholecystectomy in April 2020, holding that the surgeon’s own testimony that his technique was unchanged by the pandemic forecloses the immunity defense—general hospital disruptions do not trigger EDTPA protection for standard surgical errors.
The Appellate Division, Third Department, affirms dismissal of an Executive Law § 296(16) discrimination claim by a nurse practitioner with a sealed felony conviction, holding that the statute’s enumerated list of protected criminal dispositions does not include a general felony conviction — leaving a gap that only legislative action can close.
The Appellate Division, Third Department, affirms a deficiency judgment against guarantors of a defaulted $5 million commercial loan on a historic Albany campus, holding that RPAPL § 1371(2) fair market value is anchored to comparable sales and present conditions—not aspirational development projections of $71.5 million—where development was not imminent as of the foreclosure sale date.
The Appellate Division, Third Department, affirms that YAFFED has organizational standing under Education Law § 310 to pursue administrative appeals challenging whether New York City yeshivas provide substantially equivalent secular education, sending the appeals back to the Commissioner for merits adjudication.
Third Department affirms civil confinement under Mental Hygiene Law Article 10, joining the First and Fourth Departments in holding that due process does not require the ‘sexual motivation’ element of a pre-SOMTA offense to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt — clear and convincing evidence is constitutionally sufficient.
Third Department reverses a preliminary injunction that had blocked warrantless inspections of cannabis and hemp retailers, holding that New York’s Cannabis Law inspection regime satisfies the Fourth Amendment’s administrative search exception under the Burger three-part test.