Colonial Surety Co. v. Lakeview Advisors, LLC

125 A.D.3d 1292, 3 N.Y.S.3d 800
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedFebruary 6, 2015
DocketAppeal No. 1
StatusPublished

This text of 125 A.D.3d 1292 (Colonial Surety Co. v. Lakeview Advisors, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Colonial Surety Co. v. Lakeview Advisors, LLC, 125 A.D.3d 1292, 3 N.Y.S.3d 800 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

Appeal from an order and judgment (one paper) of the Supreme Court, Erie County (John A. Michalek, J.), entered September 26, 2013. The order and judgment dismissed the proceedings, released certain escrow funds and terminated an undertaking.

It is hereby ordered that said appeal from that part of the order and judgment granting relief with respect to respondents Anita M. Hansen and Gary Albanese is unanimously dismissed, the order and judgment is reversed on the law without costs, the amended petition in proceeding No. 1 and the petition in proceeding No. 2 are granted, and the matter is remitted to Supreme Court, Erie County, for further proceedings in accordance with the following memorandum: These proceedings pursuant to CPLR article 52 have previously been before us, and the facts of this litigation appear in two of our prior orders in this case (Matter of Colonial Sur. Co. v Neaverth Enters., LLC, 101 AD3d 1712 [2012]; Colonial Sur. Co. v Lakeview Advisors, LLC, 93 AD3d 1253 [2012]). We add here only that these consolidated appeals concern the most recent decision of Supreme Court following a hearing that it held to make the determinations directed by our prior orders. In appeal No. 1, petitioner, Colonial Surety Company (Colonial), contends that the court erred in denying its amended petition in proceeding No. 1 and petition in proceeding No. 2, releasing certain escrow funds, and terminating Colonial’s undertaking. In appeal No. 2, Colonial contends that the court erred in granting the motion of respondents Resolution Management, LLC (Resolution), Anita M. Hansen, and Gary Albanese for an order striking Colonial’s demand for a jury trial.

We note at the outset that the parties entered into a stipula[1293]*1293tion in proceeding No. 2 discontinuing that proceeding against Hansen and Albanese with prejudice. We therefore dismiss as moot those parts of the appeals from the order and judgment in appeal No. 1 and the order in appeal No. 2 insofar as they granted relief with respect to those respondents in proceeding No. 2.

On the merits, we address first Colonial’s contentions in appeal No. 2 because, to the extent Colonial may have been entitled to a jury trial, we would reverse the orders in both appeals and remit the matter to Supreme Court for a trial. Ultimately, however, we conclude that the court properly struck Colonial’s demands for a jury trial. “[T]he right to trial by jury is zealously protected in our jurisprudence and yields only to the most compelling circumstances” (John W. Cowper Co. v Buffalo Hotel Dev. Venture, 99 AD2d 19, 21 [1984]). “Trial by jury in all cases in which it has heretofore been guaranteed by constitutional provision shall remain inviolate forever” (NY Const, art 1, § 2). “That guarantee extends to all causes of action to which the right attached at the time of adoption of the 1894 Constitution . . . Historically, however, actions at law were tried by a jury, [and] matters cognizable in equity were tried by the Chancellor. Even though the two systems have merged, vestiges of the law-equity dichotomy remain in the area relating to trial by jury” (Cowper, 99 AD2d at 21).

Thus, the right to a jury trial “depends upon the nature of the relief sought” (Arrow Communication Labs. v Pico Prods., 219 AD2d 859, 860 [1995]). Under the CPLR, a jury trial is available in an action “in which a party demands and sets forth facts which would permit a judgment for a sum of money only” (CPLR 4101 [1] [emphasis added]). Where a plaintiff joins legal and equitable causes of action in a complaint, it waives its right to a jury trial (see Sullivan v Troser Mgt., Inc., 75 AD3d 1059, 1060 [2010]; Anesthesia Assoc. of Mount Kisco, LLP v Northern Westchester Hosp. Ctr., 59 AD3d 481, 482-483 [2009]; Cowper, 99 AD2d at 21). However, “if ‘a sum of money alone can provide full relief to the plaintiff under the facts alleged, then there is a right to a jury trial’ ” (Arrow Communication Labs., 219 AD2d at 860; see Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft v Spinale, 177 AD2d 315, 316 [1991]).

In V P Supply Corp. v Normand (27 AD2d 797 [1967]), a case involving a proceeding pursuant to CPLR 5227 to “obtain the payment of a debt owed to [a] judgment debtor” (id. at 797 [emphasis added]), we concluded that there “may [be] a right of jury trial (CPLR 410)” (id. at 798). The jury trial demands in the appeals before us, however, were made by Colonial, i.e., a [1294]*1294judgment creditor, in the context of proceedings it had commenced to enforce its own money judgment. Under such circumstances, “whether trial by jury is required ... [is a] nicer question” (David D. Siegel, Practice Commentaries, McKinney’s Cons Laws of NY, Book 7B, CPLR C5225:6 at 391). Professor Siegel posited that “it would appear that [the judgment creditor] cannot insist on one. The context of [the judgment creditor’s] standing in the proceeding makes it the equivalent of the old creditor’s bill in equity, or in any event analogizes to where a plaintiff seeks both equitable and legal relief in respect of the same claim in the same action, which results in a waiver by the plaintiff but not by the defendant. . . [The judgment creditor] in that situation is seeking legal relief insofar as he wants an adjudication of whether [respondent] owes a money debt [to the judgment debtor], and equitable relief in that he wants the debt, if found due, to be paid not to the [judgment debtor], but to the [judgment] creditor” (id.).

That position was based in part on Leedpak, Inc. v Julian (78 Misc 2d 519 [1974]). As in the instant case, the petitioner therein, a judgment creditor, “move[d] under CPLR 5227 for an order requiring [the] respondent to pay the amount of the judgment on the basis that [the] respondent [was] indebted to the judgment debtor in an amount exceeding the judgment” (id. at 519-520). While the court in Leedpak held that there was a right to a jury trial “at least as to [the] respondent” (id. at 520, citing V P Supply Corp., 27 AD2d at 798), the situation was “somewhat different . . . [w]ith respect to [the] petitioner” (id. at 521). Specifically, the court in Leedpak wrote that “[t]he common-law obligation of [the] respondent, if any, [was] to the judgment debtor, not to [the] petitioner. [The] [petitioner [asked] the court to direct [the] respondent to pay to [the] petitioner a debt owed to a third person, the judgment debtor. This would seem to be analogous to, and an outgrowth of, the ancient creditor’s bill in equity. [The] [p]etitioner is in a sense asking both legal and equitable relief — legal relief in requiring [the] respondent to pay a debt allegedly owed by [the] respondent to the judgment debtor, and equitable relief in requiring the proceeds to be paid to [the] petitioner for application on the judgment debtor’s debt to [the] petitioner. The situation thus[ ] ‘may in some respects be analogized to the difference between a plaintiff who chooses to join legal and equitable causes in a suit in equity and a defendant who is brought into equity and required, among other things, to defend there a law cause of action. It is held that the plaintiff waives the right by joinder . . . but that [the] defendant does not’ ” (id., quoting Matter of Garfield, 14 NY2d 251, 258 [1964]; cf. Klein v Loeb Holding Corp., 24 Misc 3d 899, 901-905 [2009]).

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Bluebook (online)
125 A.D.3d 1292, 3 N.Y.S.3d 800, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/colonial-surety-co-v-lakeview-advisors-llc-nyappdiv-2015.