Bray v. Cox

342 N.E.2d 575, 38 N.Y.2d 350, 379 N.Y.S.2d 803, 1976 N.Y. LEXIS 2246
CourtNew York Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 8, 1976
StatusPublished
Cited by375 cases

This text of 342 N.E.2d 575 (Bray v. Cox) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bray v. Cox, 342 N.E.2d 575, 38 N.Y.2d 350, 379 N.Y.S.2d 803, 1976 N.Y. LEXIS 2246 (N.Y. 1976).

Opinions

Per Curiam.

On this appeal we consider only the issue whether the dismissal of an appeal for want of prosecution in a civil action bars a subsequent appeal upon the identical issues in the same cause.

On June 17, 1964 while returning from a trip to Buffalo, New York, plaintiff was injured and defendant’s decedent was killed when the automobile the latter was operating collided with a utility pole. Both plaintiff and the deceased were citizens and residents of the Province of Ontario, Canada, and the vehicle in which they were traveling was registered and insured there.

In 1967, plaintiff commenced this action in the Supreme Court, Erie County, to recover for his personal injuries. Defendant pleaded the Ontario guest statute and Supreme Court, Erie County, holding that the law of Ontario was applicable, dismissed the complaint upon stipulated facts. The Appellate Division taking a contrary view of the choice-of-laws issue, reversed and reinstated the complaint. Thereafter, defendant moved for leave to appeal on a certified question and, on September 14, 1972, the Appellate Division granted the motion.

[353]*353More than one year later, and some time after plaintiff had served defendant with a demand that he file and serve his papers on appeal (see 22 NYCRR 500.6 [b]), the appeal was dismissed for failure to comply with the Rules of Practice of the Court of Appeals which provide that ”[a]n appeal must be argued or submitted within nine months after the appeal is taken. If it is not so argued or submitted a summary order of dismissal shall be entered” (22 NYCRR 500.6 [a]). A subsequent motion to vacate the dismissal and reinstate the appeal was denied (33 NY2d 789).

A trial of the action followed, the jury rendering a verdict in favor of plaintiff and judgment being entered thereon. Defendant now appeals directly to this court pursuant to CPLR 5601 (subd [d]) and, for a second time, seeks review of the same order of the Appellate Division and, of course, on concededly identical issues.

The appeal should be dismissed. We conclude that the rule to be followed is that a prior dismissal for want of prosecution acts as a bar to a subsequent appeal as to all questions that were presented on the earlier appeal. There is sound logic and reason for such a holding. Certain it is that a party should have his day in court, and that day should conclude the matter. Were the rule otherwise, the party who obtained judgment below could be deprived of the benefit of that judgment until a later time by the act of the losing party in appealing and disregarding the appeal (see, e.g., Anderson v Richards, 173 Ohio St 50); and conversely, the securing of leave to appeal might become a strategem for appellants, to be utilized for the purpose of delaying enforcement of judgments and the inevitable payment of just debts and obligations. Furthermore, since the dismissal of an appeal from a final judgment under 22 NYCRR 500.6 (a) is with prejudice such as occurred in Crane v State of New York (35 NY2d 945), it would be anomalous to vary the result simply because the order appealed from is nonfinal, particularly where the issues presented on both appeals were exactly the same. When leave to appeal was granted by the Appellate Division, appellant was then in the same stance as an appellant here as a matter of right, and he ought not in these circumstances have two opportunities to appeal to this court on identical issues.

The conclusion finds strong support in cases from other jurisdictions which posited their determinations, as we do here, on common-law principles and precedent. In Carlberg v [354]*354Fields (33 SD 410, 413) the court said that it was settled "that a second appeal will not be allowed from an order or judgment where the first appeal has been dismissed for want of prosecution”. It was likewise held in Schmeer v Schmeer (16 Ore 243) that "[w]hen a party perfects an appeal and then abandons it his right of appeal is exhausted”, and so it should be. Brill v Meeks (20 Mo 358, 359) reaches the same result and states that "[w]hen an appeal has once been granted, the power over the subject is functus offtcio and cannot be exercised a second time”. Similarly, after carefully and exhaustively analyzing the treatment of writs of error in the common-law courts of England, the New Jersey Supreme Court held in Welsh v Brown (42 NJL 323) that where a writ of error directed to a lower court was dismissed for want of prosecution, the plaintiff in error could not sue out such a writ. Anderson v Richards (173 Ohio St 50, supra) reaches precisely the same conclusion, also on the basis of common-law precepts (cf. United States v Fremont, 18 How [59 US] 30). In fact, the courts of at least two other States have apparently thought the conclusion we reach to be so clear and sound as to enact court-made rules of practice to govern such cases (Chamberlain v Reid, 16 Cal 208; Karth v Light, 15 Cal 324; Merrill v Hunt, 52 Miss 774).

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Bluebook (online)
342 N.E.2d 575, 38 N.Y.2d 350, 379 N.Y.S.2d 803, 1976 N.Y. LEXIS 2246, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bray-v-cox-ny-1976.