Are executives who make more than $1,300 per week precluded from seeking civil liability against their former employers under Labor Law §§ 193 and 198 for failure to pay out severance? The First Department tackled that question recently, holding that the Legislature in the No Wage Theft Loophole Act meant to protect all employees, including …
Setting Aside a Verdict: Legal Insufficiency vs. Weight of the Evidence Explained (NYSBA CasePrepPlus)
The Second Department recently used one of its cases to remind the bench and bar of the two different and legally distinct standards that apply when moving to set aside a verdict under CPLR 4404(a)—legal insufficiency and weight of the evidence. “Insufficiency looks at whether the jury could legally, logically, and objectively reach its verdict …
An Amendment to Domestic Relations Law § 111 Applies Retroactively to Protect Nonmarital Parents From Having Their Parental Rights Terminated (NYSBA CasePrepPlus)
In 2022, the Legislature amended Domestic Relations Law § 111 to require consent for adoption by any nonmarital parent who has executed an unrevoked acknowledgement of parentage or filed an unrevoked notice of intent to claim parentage of a child. It did so to fix an unjust situation where parents were having their parental rights terminated …
A Sex Offender’s Out-of-State Conviction Cannot Automatically Require Him to Register as a Sexually Violent Offender in New York, If the Offense Would Not Qualify as a Violent Offense in New York (NYSBA CasePrepPlus)
Rounding out the summer opinions before the courts head back into new argument sessions in September, the Appellate Division, Second Department recently examined whether the provision of the Sex Offender Registration Act that requires an offender who committed an offense outside the state to register in New York as a sexually violent offender, even if …
The First Department Vacates the $464 Million Disgorgement Award Against the Trump Organization (NYSBA CasePrepPlus)
Five Justices of the Appellate Division, First Department could not agree on whether Supreme Court properly found the Trump Organization liable for inflating its assets in deals with banks and insurance companies. Rather than sticking the parties without a final decision that they could try to bring to the Court of Appeals, however, four of …
A Party May Be Awarded Fees Under the Equal Access to Justice Act If Their Litigation Induces An Agency to Voluntarily Change Its Position (NYSBA CasePrepPlus)
May a private party be awarded fees against a state agency under the Equal Access to Justice Act when their litigation is the catalyst for the agency changing its position and voluntarily granting the party all the relief they sought in the lawsuit? The Appellate Division, Third Department recently overruled its own prior precedent on …
New York Courts Can Recognize a Sister State Judgment Even If It Does Not Have Personal Jurisdiction Over a Defendant (NYSBA CasePrepPlus)
Must New York courts have personal jurisdiction over a defendant before they can recognize a judgment of a sister state under the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the Constitution? The Appellate Division, Second Department addressed that novel question recently, and held that they do not. Let’s take a look at that opinion and what …
Judges Cannot Be Personally Penalized For Erroneously Declining to Issue a Writ of Habeas Corpus, the Second Department Holds (NYSBA CasePrepPlus)
May a judge face a $1,000 penalty to be personally paid if the judge erroneously declines to issue a writ of habeas corpus? CPLR 7003(c) provides explicitly for that relief. The Appellate Division, Second Department, however, in a case of first impression, has held that penalty unconstitutional, as running afoul of the Compensation Clause of …
The First Amendment and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act Protect Social Media Companies From Liability for Their Algorithms Feeding Users Racist Content That Influences Them to Commit Crimes (NYSBA CasePrepPlus)
Following the racist mass murder of 10 black individuals at a grocery store in Buffalo by a teenager motivated by the Great Replacement Theory, which has circulated on social media and the Internet and “posits that white populations in Western countries are being deliberately replaced by non-white immigrants and people of color,” survivors of the …
Third Department Holds that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Requires IEP Services to be Provided Until an Individual’s 22nd Birthday (NYSBA CasePrepPlus)
Must New York’s public schools provide a free and appropriate public education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to individuals with disabilities until the day before they turn 22 years old, or just until the end of the school year in which they turn 21, as the Education Law provides? The Third Department tackled …
New York Appeals 