Sullivan v. Lindenhurst Union Free School District No. 4

178 A.D.2d 603, 578 N.Y.S.2d 843, 1991 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 16788
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedDecember 23, 1991
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 178 A.D.2d 603 (Sullivan v. Lindenhurst Union Free School District No. 4) 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
Sullivan v. Lindenhurst Union Free School District No. 4, 178 A.D.2d 603, 578 N.Y.S.2d 843, 1991 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 16788 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

In a proceeding pursuant to General Municipal Law § 50-e for leave to serve a late notice of claim, the Town of Babylon appeals from (1) so much of an order of the Supreme Court, Suffolk County (Tannenbaum, J.), dated March 7, 1990, as converted the application into a special proceeding, granted the petition as to John Sullivan, and denied the appellant’s motion to dismiss, and (2) an order of the same court, entered March 26, 1990, which denied the appellant’s motion to strike a physician’s letter.

Ordered that the order dated March 7, 1990, is affirmed insofar as appealed from, without costs or disbursements; and it is further,

Ordered that the order entered March 26, 1990, is affirmed, without costs or disbursements.

In the absence of a pending action, an application for leave to serve a late notice of claim must be brought as a special proceeding (see, Rogers v New York City Hous. Auth., 169 AD2d 763; Matter of Eso v County of Westchester, 141 AD2d 542; see also, Farber v County of Hamilton, 158 AD2d 902). However, contrary to the appellant’s contention, dismissal of the proceeding was not required on that ground. Where, as here, the court has obtained jurisdiction over the parties, it shall not dismiss an action for lack of proper form but must "make whatever order is required for its proper prosecution” (CPLR 103 [c]; see, Matter of Kovarsky v Housing & Dev. Admin., 31 NY2d 184). We find that the court properly treated the petitioners’ application as a special proceeding.

Furthermore, under the circumstances of this case, the court did not improvidently exercise its discretion in granting the application as to John Sullivan (see, Matter of Kareca Lashawn J. v County of Westchester, 142 AD2d 729; Braver-man v City of White Plains, 115 AD2d 689). Nor did the court err in denying the appellant’s motion to dismiss for failure to state a cause of action. Inasmuch as no underlying action had yet been commenced, there was no cause of action to be dismissed (see, CPLR 3211).

We have examined the appellant’s remaining contentions and find them to be without merit. Mangano, P. J., Kunzeman, Fiber and Balletta, JJ., concur.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Matter of Ramos v. New York City Hous. Auth.
2018 NY Slip Op 4547 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2018)
Kelly v. City of New York
2017 NY Slip Op 6640 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2017)
Yan Ping Xu v. New York City Department of Health
77 A.D.3d 40 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2010)
Jordan v. City of New York
38 A.D.3d 336 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2007)
Tara V. v. County of Otsego
12 A.D.3d 984 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2004)
Kellogg v. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner
6 Misc. 3d 666 (New York Supreme Court, 2004)
Lennon v. Roosevelt Union Free School District
6 A.D.3d 713 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2004)
Cavanagh v. Monticello Central School District
241 A.D.2d 654 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1997)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
178 A.D.2d 603, 578 N.Y.S.2d 843, 1991 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 16788, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sullivan-v-lindenhurst-union-free-school-district-no-4-nyappdiv-1991.