OPINION OF THE COURT RIVERA , J. The common issue presented in these joint appeals is whether, pursuant to the New York State Department of Labor's (DOL) Miscellaneous Industries and Occupations Minimum Wage Order (Wage Order), an employer must pay its home health care aide employees for each hour of a 24-hour shift. DOL has interpreted its Wage Order to require payment for at least 13 hours of a 24-hour shift if the employee is allowed a sleep break of at least eight hours—and actually...
OPINION OF THE COURT RIVERA , J. U.S. Bank National Association in its capacity as trustee of the ABSHE 2006 residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) trust seeks to sue DLJ Mortgage Capital, Inc. (DLJ), the sponsor and seller of the trust securitization, for alleged violations of representations and warranties regarding the quality of the loans contained in the trust. The initial action against DLJ was dismissed for failure to comply with a contractual condition precedent, without...
OPINION OF THE COURT RIVERA , J. U.S. Bank National Association in its capacity as trustee of three residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) trusts seeks to sue DLJ Mortgage Capital, Inc. (DLJ) for alleged violations of representations and warranties regarding the quality of the loans contained in the respective securitization trust instruments. We hold that the trustee's untimely-filed complaint cannot relate back under CPLR 203 (f) to a certificate holder's previously filed action....
OPINION OF THE COURT MEMORANDUM. The order of the Appellate Division should be affirmed. The trial court committed reversible error by empaneling an anonymous jury. Assuming that trial courts may, under certain circumstances, anonymize jurors, here County Court acted without any factual predicate for the extraordinary procedure. Indeed, the trial court expressly based its decision to empanel an anonymous jury on anecdotal accounts from jurors in unrelated cases and, then, exacerbated the...
OPINION OF THE COURT FAHEY , J. Here, the Court, once again, finds itself in the thicket of interpreting New York's constitutional prevailing wage requirement. We uphold the statute-based policy of the New York State Department of Labor limiting the payment of apprentice wages on public work projects to apprentices who are performing tasks that are within the respective trade classifications of the approved apprenticeship programs in which they are enrolled. The text of the statute is...
OPINION OF THE COURT FEINMAN , J. The Office of the Medicaid Inspector General (OMIG) notified petitioner, the operator of a methadone clinic and provider of Medicaid-covered services, that it had been overpaid an estimated $1,857,401 in claims from 2003 through 2007. This number was extrapolated after auditing a random sample of claims paid to petitioner. OMIG informed petitioner that it had 20 days to agree to settle these claims for a lower amount — $1,460,914 — or OMIG would begin to...
OPINION OF THE COURT MEMORANDUM. The order of the Appellate Division should be reversed, without costs, and the petition dismissed. Contrary to petitioner's contention, this Court has jurisdiction over this appeal inasmuch as the dual dissent at the Appellate Division is on a question of law ( see CPLR 5601 [a]; see also Matter of Kelly v Safir, 96 N.Y.2d 32 , 38 [2001]). On the merits, "[i]n reviewing an administrative agency determination, [courts] must ascertain whether there is a...
OPINION OF THE COURT FAHEY , J. A partnership is a voluntary, contractual association in which persons carry on a business for profit as co-owners. In the agreement establishing a partnership, the partners can chart their own course. New York's Partnership Law creates default provisions that fill gaps in partnership agreements, but where the agreement clearly states the means by which a partnership will dissolve, or other aspects of partnership dissolution, it is the agreement that...
OPINION OF THE COURT GARCIA , J. Nearly 10 years ago, following an unsuccessful investment venture, the parties began litigating their dispute in federal court. The district court entered judgment in favor of Paramount Pictures Corporation — the defendant in that action — and that judgment was affirmed on appeal. Paramount — now the plaintiff — subsequently initiated this state court action. In this appeal, defendants assert that Paramount's claim is barred by res judicata because it...
OPINION OF THE COURT WILSON , J. Jonas Aponte brought this CPLR article 78 proceeding challenging the New York City Housing Authority's (NYCHA) determination denying him "remaining family member" (RFM) status with regard to his late mother's apartment. We now reverse the Appellate Division and reinstate Supreme Court's denial of Mr. Aponte's article 78 petition. In 2009, Mr. Aponte moved into his mother's one-bedroom apartment in a NYCHA-owned public housing development, and dutifully...
OPINION OF THE COURT RIVERA , J. The People appeal an order by the Appellate Division that reversed a judgment by Supreme Court, vacated defendant's pleas, and dismissed the defendant's indictment without prejudice, allowing the People to re-present any appropriate charges to another grand jury ( People v Smith, 143 A.D.3d 31 [1st Dept 2016]). Contrary to the People's claim, the Appellate Division correctly determined that the trial court denied defendant's right to counsel on the...
OPINION OF THE COURT FAHEY , J. In light of the near consensus among cognitive and social psychologists that people have significantly greater difficulty in accurately identifying members of a different race than in accurately identifying members of their own race, the risk of wrongful convictions involving cross-racial identifications demands a new approach. We hold that when identification is an issue in a criminal case and the identifying witness and defendant appear to be of...
OPINION OF THE COURT Chief Judge DiFIORE . In Becker v Schwartz, this Court recognized a new cause of action permitting parents to recover the extraordinary expenses incurred to care for a disabled infant who, but for a physician's negligent failure to detect or advise on the risks of impairment, would not have been born ( 46 N.Y.2d 401 , 410 [1978]). The issue in these related appeals is whether the statute of limitations for such an extraordinary expenses claim runs from the date of...
OPINION OF THE COURT On review of submissions pursuant to section 500.11 of the Rules of the Court of Appeals (22 NYCRR 500.11), order affirmed, with costs, and certified question answered in the affirmative. Defendants Irene G. Cergnul, M.D., and Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center did not preserve for our review their argument concerning the admissibility of the expert affidavit submitted by plaintiff in opposition to their motion for summary judgment. Moreover, defendant Bronx-Lebanon Hospital...
OPINION OF THE COURT FAHEY , J. CPLR 908 provides that "[a] class action shall not be dismissed, discontinued, or compromised without the approval of the court," and that "[n]otice of the proposed dismissal, discontinuance, or compromise shall be given to all members of the class in such manner as the court directs." On this appeal, we must determine whether CPLR 908 applies only to certified class actions, or also to class actions that are settled or dismissed before the class has been...
OPINION OF THE COURT WILSON , J. Plaintiff Michael Carlson, individually and in his capacity as administrator of his deceased wife's estate and as assignee of William Porter, commenced this action pursuant to Insurance Law 3420 (a) (2) to collect on certain insurance policies issued to DHL Worldwide Express, Inc. by National Union Fire Insurance Co. and American Alternative Insurance Co. (AAIC). Mr. Carlson previously had obtained a judgment against MVP Delivery and Logistics, Inc. and...
OPINION OF THE COURT Chief Judge DiFIORE . Criminal Procedure Law 460.10 requires an appellant to file an affidavit of errors with the criminal court in order to take an appeal from a judgment of a local criminal court if the underlying proceedings were not recorded by a court stenographer. We have already held that the filing of the affidavit of errors in this circumstance is a jurisdictional prerequisite ( see People v Smith, 27 N.Y.3d 643 , 647 [2016]). Consistent with our analysis...
OPINION OF THE COURT FAHEY , J. This appeal presents the question whether the mere commencement of an action seeking "rescission and/or reformation" of a contract constitutes an anticipatory breach of such agreement. Under the circumstances of this case, we conclude that it does not. We reverse the Appellate Division order and answer the certified question in the negative. Facts By way of background, plaintiff agreed to purchase the property in question (a developable waterfront parcel...
OPINION OF THE COURT On review of submissions pursuant to section 500.11 of the Rules of the Court of Appeals (22 NYCRR 500.11), order affirmed, with costs, and certified question answered in the affirmative. Supreme Court did not abuse its discretion in precluding defendant Julian Maurice Herman from participating in the inquest to assess damages against him. Moreover, the denial of that defendant's cross motion was proper.
OPINION OF THE COURT Per Curiam . Plaintiffs ask us to declare a constitutional right to "aid-in-dying," which they define (and we refer to herein) as the right of a mentally competent and terminally ill person to obtain a prescription for a lethal dosage of drugs from a physician, to be taken at some point to cause death. Although New York has long recognized a competent adult's right to forgo life-saving medical care, we reject plaintiffs' argument that an individual has a fundamental...
