Kehagias v. Waldo Avenue Building

132 A.D.3d 615, 18 N.Y.S.3d 341

• Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
• Decided: October 29, 2015
• Docket: 16003 306869/10
• Status: Published

Opinion

Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Lucindo Suarez, J.), entered on or about March 19, 2014, which denied defendants’ motion to dismiss as time-barred plaintiffs’ claims arising prior to August 18, 2007, unanimously reversed, on the law, without costs, and the motion granted.

Although plaintiffs’ causes of action — alleging that a defective catch basin located on defendants’ property caused flooding on their property — first accrued in 2006 when the damage became visible and apparent to plaintiff (see Public Serv. Mut. Ins. Co. v 341-347 Broadway, LLC, 96 AD3d 473, 473-474 [1st Dept 2012]), the flooding nevertheless constituted a “continu ous wrong” that gave rise to successive causes of action that accrued each time the wrong was committed (Town of Oyster Bay v Lizza Indus., Inc., 22 NY3d 1024, 1031 [2013]; see also Congregation B’nai Jehuda v Hiyee Realty Corp., 35 AD3d 311, 313 [1st Dept 2006]). Accordingly, to the extent plaintiffs claim damages for flooding that occurred before August 18, 2007 (three years prior to the filing of the complaint), those claims are time-barred (see Lucchesi v Perfetto, 72 AD3d 909, 912 [2d Dept 2010]; see also CPLR 214 [4]).

Concur — Mazzarelli, J.P., Acosta, Saxe and Richter, JJ.