Are treble damages punitive in nature? The Court of Appeals recently held that they are under RPAPL 861, which authorizes the imposition of treble damages for the illegal destruction of trees. And so, if it is a municipality that destroys the trees on your property, you’re stuck with recovering only the trees’ stumpage value because …
NYSBA CasePrepPlus Newsletter 3.14.25: Trial Court Declares Unconstitutional DTF’s Methodology for Determining the Assessed Value of Solar and Wind Farms
A New York trial court has declared unconstitutional the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance’s chosen methodology for determining under Real Property Tax Law § 575-b the assessed value of solar and wind installations throughout New York, because the Legislature failed to provide adequate guideposts to cabin DTF’s discretion in using the Legislature’s delegated …
NYSBA CasePrepPlus Newsletter 3.7.25: May Police Departments Still Withhold Personnel Records from Disclosure Under FOIL, Even After the Repeal of Civil Rights Law § 50-a?
The Court of Appeals recently addressed two FOIL cases involving the 2020 amendments to Civil Rights Law § 50-a, which repealed the prior statutory exclusion from disclosure for police personnel records, including disciplinary records. In one case, the Court held that police disciplinary records created before the protections were repealed were not exempt from disclosure under …
NYSBA CasePrepPlus Newsletter 2.28.25: Does a Plaintiff Need to Plead a Special Duty to Hold a Municipality Liable for Harm Caused to Children Placed in Foster Care?
Resolving a conflict between the Appellate Division departments, the Court of Appeals last week held that municipalities have a common law duty to protect children that they place in foster care, without needing to plead a traditional special duty. The Court cautioned, however, that merely having a duty does not mean that the duty will …
NYSBA CasePrepPlus Newsletter 2.21.25: Contracting Parties Beware! Your Prior Oral Agreements Could Be Extinguished by Later Merger Clauses
Contracting parties beware. The Court of Appeals recently reaffirmed that parties to contracts, especially ones involving millions of dollars of investments, should closely read and understand their agreements, or they may suffer unintended consequences. That was exactly the case here, where the parties entered an oral investment agreement that would have let the investor take …
NYSBA CasePrepPlus Newsletter 2.14.25: Does an Easement Holder Have a Nondelegable Duty to Keep the Property Over Which the Easement is Held in a Reasonably Safe Condition?
The Fourth Department recently tackled whether an easement holder can delegate to another the duty to keep the premises over which the easement is held in a reasonably safe condition. That duty, the Court held, is nondelegable, even in the face of an express contract between the property owner and the easement holder delegating the …
NYSBA CasePrepPlus Newsletter 2.7.25: Are the Vote Dilution Protections of the New York Voting Rights Act Constitutional?
In the face of declining enforcement of the federal Voting Rights Act, New York has adopted its own voting protections designed to provide voters with additional protections beyond those offered at the federal level. The Second Department recently decided two important issues under the New York Voting Rights Act, rejecting a facial challenge to the …
NYSBA CasePrepPlus Newsletter 1.31.25: Do New York Courts Need the Original Immigrant Visa to Grant Full Faith and Credit to a Foreign Adoption Order?
In 2008, New York enacted a law recognizing and giving full faith and credit to foreign adoptions. The Legislature determined that New York adoptive parents shouldn’t go through the formal adoption procedures abroad, receive a foreign order of adoption, and then come back to New York only to have to do the same thing all …
NYSBA CasePrepPlus Newsletter 1.24.25: Are Punitive Damages Available For Consumer Protection Claims under General Business Law § 349(h)?
The Court of Appeals recently clarified that when a plaintiff brings a consumer protection action for deceptive business acts in violation of General Business Law § 349(h), it is limited to recovering its actual damages and treble damages up to a cap of $1,000. Punitive damages over and above the $1,000 treble damages cap cannot be …
NYSBA CasePrepPlus Newsletter 1.17.25: May NYC Apartment Owners be Held Vicarious Liable for the Discriminatory Acts of Their Real Estate Brokers?
The First Department this week explained that New York City apartment owners may be held vicariously liable, under the New York City Human Rights Law, for the discriminatory acts of their real estate brokers. A holding otherwise, the Court explained, would let apartment owners off the hook for anything other than their own infrequent direct …
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