The First Department affirms partial summary judgment under the Scaffold Law, holding that terra cotta coping used as a suspended scaffold anchor point is subject to Labor Law § 240(1)’s absolute liability standard when it dislodges and strikes a worker below.
The First Department affirms dismissal of a Child Victims Act claim brought by a New Jersey resident abused in New Jersey, holding that CPLR 214-g’s revival window is limited to New York and aligning with the Second Department’s territorial-scope ruling.
The First Department affirms mortgage lien priority over a condominium common charge lien, holding that Real Property Law § 339-z’s exception for ‘non-residential’ condominiums does not apply to mixed-use buildings with any residential component—regardless of how ‘commercial’ the building appears.
The First Department reverses summary judgment and reinstates a director’s claims, holding that his duty of candor in a transaction with D. Karnofsky, Inc. ran to the corporation alone—not to all other shareholders—where the corporate counterparty was an unconflicted officer.
The First Department affirms summary judgment under Labor Law § 240(1) where workers manually lowered a heavy metal switchgear without a hoist—even though hoisting equipment had been used on prior days—and the top of the switchgear fell on the plaintiff with enough force to crack his hard hat.
The First Department affirms Labor Law § 240(1) liability against the Bronx construction site owner and contractor while granting summary judgment on common-law negligence against the materials supplier whose forklift operator dropped sheetrock on the plaintiff—and conditionally grants contractual indemnification cross-claims through the construction chain.
The First Department upholds civil contempt liability for City National Bank’s violation of a CPLR 5222(b) restraining notice, holding that a debtor’s payments to the bank on a separate debt are still ‘property in which the judgment debtor has an interest’—and that full satisfaction of the judgment does not moot the contempt claim.
The First Department dismisses RPAPL 1921 and Real Property Law § 275 mortgage discharge penalty claims as time-barred under CPLR 214(2)’s three-year limitations period, and holds that American Pipe tolling does not carry over to a successive class action after the first was voluntarily dismissed.
The First Department affirms trade secret liability against a competing IT recruiter whose principal received a current, updated candidate resume from a CTC employee—holding that the currency of the profile, not just the candidate’s identity, was the protectable trade secret.
The First Department dismisses age discrimination and hostile work environment claims against Elliott Management but reinstates a NYCHRL retaliation claim where the employee was terminated three months after relaying a colleague’s HR complaint.
The First Department affirms dismissal of fiduciary duty claims arising from Iberdrola’s buyout of Avangrid minority shareholders, holding that the MFW-compliant deal structure under New York’s Kenneth Cole framework triggers deferential business judgment review.
The First Department upholds the AG’s broad discovery demands against TikTok and ByteDance—including board materials and financial data—while clarifying that production-methodology testimony belongs in depositions, not compelled affidavits.
The Appellate Division, First Department affirmed denial of dismissal of claims against a real estate LLC’s managing member personally for unpaid legal fees of approximately $650,000, finding the allegations of personal assurances, direct billing instructions, and a phantom entity sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss.
The Appellate Division, First Department modified a multi-party construction accident ruling, addressing Labor Law § 240(1), § 241(6), and § 200 claims alongside complex third-party indemnification issues including the anti-subrogation doctrine and the Workers’ Compensation Law § 11 grave-injury bar.
The Appellate Division, First Department (with dissent) upheld suspension of a father’s pendente lite child support obligation based on the mother’s continuing interference with the father’s parenting time, rejecting her motion to modify the 2021 order absent proof of meaningful resumption of visitation.
The Appellate Division, First Department vacated defendant’s sentence and remanded for a Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act (DVSJA) eligibility hearing after the People conceded that conditioning her guilty plea on waiver of a Penal Law § 60.12 hearing was improper under People v. N.H.
The Appellate Division, First Department affirmed denial of a construction worker’s partial summary judgment on Labor Law §§ 240(1) and 241(6) Scaffold Law claims, finding the foreman’s testimony that plaintiff was instructed to use a scissor lift — not a ladder — created a triable recalcitrant-worker defense.
The Appellate Division, First Department reversed a dismissal and reinstated a class action challenging the NYPD’s practice of routinely handcuffing all arrestees during arraignment without judicial approval, finding the policy states a viable due process claim under the New York State Constitution.
The First Department affirmed denial of summary judgment where conflicting expert opinions about whether a building’s heavy granite staircase caused a sidewalk crack created a triable issue of fact, and expressly declined to follow Second Department precedent requiring non-municipal defendants to establish affirmative misfeasance before being liable for a cause-and-create theory of sidewalk liability.
The First Department affirmed summary judgment for a New York City condominium board on its claim for unpaid common charges, holding that an abatement defense raised only a dispute about the amount — not liability — which is properly resolved by a referee, and that defendants’ need for additional discovery was speculative.
The First Department reversed denial of summary judgment in a medical malpractice action, holding it was time-barred under CPLR § 214-a because plaintiff sought no further treatment after a post-operative evaluation more than two and a half years before filing suit — and a note in the chart scheduling a follow-up visit that plaintiff never attended did not extend the limitations period under the continuous treatment doctrine.
The First Department reversed summary judgment for a commercial building owner in a slip-and-fall case, holding that the plaintiff’s testimony about smelling detergent and seeing mop streaks after the fall raised a credibility contest that precluded summary judgment, even though the building’s porter testified he had not mopped the stairwell that day.
The First Department modified a probation sentence, striking four conditions as not reasonably necessary under Penal Law § 65.10(1): a financial surcharge on an indigent defendant relying on public assistance, a dependent-support condition where the defendant had no dependents, an order-of-protection compliance condition with no supporting history, and a gang-paraphernalia ban with no evidence of any gang connection.
The First Department affirmed a permanent stay of a claimant’s demand for uninsured motorist arbitration after he failed to comply with the SUM endorsement’s notice requirements — specifically, he never filed the required sworn statement identifying the accident as a hit-and-run and establishing the requisite physical contact, until his arbitration demand nearly eleven months after the accident.