ADMINISTRATIVE LAW, ATTORNEY’S FEES, CIVIL RIGHTS, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, FAMILY LAW, GOVERNMENT BENEFITS, HEALTH LAW
In the Matter of Giaquinto v. Comm’r of New York Dep’t of Health, No. 102
In an appeal presenting the issue of whether a party in a health care related matter was entitled to recover attorney’s fee from the commissioner of the New York State Department of Health under 42 U.S.C. section 1988(b) or whether such claims were barred under the Eleventh Amendment, the matter is remitted for a determination of (1) petitioner’s claim that respondent’s calculation of his wife’s “community spouse resource allowance” (CSRA) violated a provision of the federal Medicaid Act and (2) petitioner’s request for section 1988 attorney’s fees. Based on the record, the Court of Appeals could not determine whether the lower court in fact awarded fees on federal grounds.
CIVIL PROCEDURE, CONSTRUCTION, INJURY AND TORT LAW, LABOR & EMPLOYMENT LAW, PROPERTY LAW & REAL ESTATE, REMEDIES, WORKERS’ COMPENSATION
Berg v. Albany Ladder Co., Inc., No. 104
The protections of Labor Law section 240(1) do not apply to every worker who falls and is injured at a construction site. In a case involving a “fall-related accident” wherein a plaintiff was injured after climbing into a bundle of steel trusses to avoid being crushed by another bundle rolling atop of him, dismissal of plaintiff’s Labor Law section 240(1) cause of action is affirmed where, although plaintiff asserted that the height at which he worked created an elevation-related risk, he failed to adduce proof sufficient to create a question of fact regarding whether his fall resulted from the lack of a safety device.
CONTRACTS, LANDLORD TENANT LAW, PROPERTY LAW & REAL ESTATE
936 Second Avenue L.P. v. Second Corporate Dev. Co., Inc., No. 94
In a lease dispute involving the issue of whether the net lease itself must be considered by appraisers in valuing the demised premises for purposes of establishing the net rent for a renewal term of the lease, the Court of Appeals rules that, because the net lease does not exclude its consideration, it must be taken into account in valuing the property.
CRIMINAL LAW & PROCEDURE, EVIDENCE
People v. Malaussena, No. 135 SSM 13
A trial court did not err in declining to suppress defendant’s confessions where: 1) defendant voluntarily appeared at the police station to speak to detectives, did not incriminate himself prior to receiving Miranda warnings, and there was only a brief exchange between the detectives and defendant once the interview arguably became a custodial interrogation; and 2) although the initial post-Miranda interview was conducted by the same detectives in the same room as pre-Miranda discussions, defendant’s decision to disclose the incriminatory information did not constitute a single continuous chain of events when questioning ceased for approximately four hours before he received Miranda warnings and confessed for the first time.
CRIMINAL LAW & PROCEDURE, EVIDENCE
People v. Hunter, No. 92
Conviction for sodomy in the first degree is reversed based on the government’s Brady violation where: 1) the government learned, but did not disclose to defendant, that the same woman had recently accused another man of raping her in that man’s home; and 2) post-trial events do not serve to nullify a defendant’s rights under Brady at the time of trial and before it.
ETHICS & DISCIPLINARY CODE, ETHICS & PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY, PROPERTY LAW & REAL ESTATE
In the Matter of Richard A. Zalk, No. 98
The Dead Man’s Statute does not apply in attorney disciplinary proceedings involving how an attorney handled a down payment in a real estate transaction while representing a seller who subsequently died.
EVIDENCE, INJURY AND TORT LAW, REMEDIES
Tutrani v. County of Suffolk, No. 100
In a negligence case involving a police vehicle which abruptly came to a near-stop in front of plaintiff’s vehicle on a busy highway, which plaintiff did not collide with, but was instead rear ended by defendant’s vehicle, a judgment finding that police officer’s conduct was not a proximate cause of the accident, as a matter of law, because plaintiff was able to avoid collision with the police vehicle is reversed where, on this record, the jury could have rationally found that the officer’s conduct was a substantial cause of the collision between plaintiff and defendant even though there was no contact between plaintiff’s and the police vehicle.
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